英语专业学生英语口语省略的认知语用研究

A Research on Ellipsis in English Majors’ Spoken English from a Cognitive and Pragmatic Perspective

省略作为语言经济性的一种表现形式,其"产出-理解"具有较强的认知语用基础。说话人语用目的的实现离不开概念内容的选择和特定形式的语言编码,这种概念选择与编码形式是认知活动的结果。本文以英语本族语者口语产出语料为参照,考察英语专业学习者英语口语中省略的分布特征并从认知语用视角阐释其理据。研究发现,和英语本族语者相比,学习者英语口语产出中,小句省略的比例整体偏低,而并列短语省略的使用频率较高,先行语复现率明显高于本族语。结合访谈结果,我们发现经验观、突显观和注意观是影响学习者产出省略表达式的认知动因,其产出符合省力和经济性原则。但当受到二语资源限制或实现某种语用目的时,学习者会采用复现先行语策略辅助说话人组织调整信息,使听话人理解产出的话语。

As a realization form of language economy,ellipsis seeks the foundation in cognition and pragmatics for its "production and comprehension".The realization of speaker’s pragmatic purpose is closely related to his cognitive operations including the choice of conceptual contents and particular forms of language coding.Based on the spoken English reference corpus of the native English speakers,this study investigates the distribution of ellipsis and cognitive pragmatic motivations of English majors in China.It is found that the proportion of clause ellipsis is lower,while the proportion of paratactic phrase ellipsis and percentage of antecedent recurrence are higher than that of the native speakers.Based on the interviews,the authors found that Experience View Prominence View and Attention View are the cognitive motivations of uttering ellipsis expressions and the ellipsis production is in line with the principle of least effort and economy.When confronted with the restrictions of the second language resources or the realization of certain pragmatic purpose,the speaker uses antecedent recurrence to organize the information for the sake of the hearer’s understanding.