文学语言:从虚构事件到社会行动

Literary Language:from Fiction to Social Action

传统文论认为文学借助语言符号虚构社会事件来描述世界,表达情感,因而具有虚指性。以奥斯汀、塞尔为代表的言语行为理论则认为,说话就是做事,文学语言具有述行性,是一种社会行动。文学语言不仅描述事件,而且在与文学程式、规约、惯例、重复、读者等交互中通过虚构事件来参与社会行动,创造新的意义指涉,具有强烈的现实指向性。以言语行为理论为切入点,深入挖掘文学语言的新特质,探究文学语言的述行性特征及其内在的运行机制,恢复语言与主体行为之间的紧密联系,对重新审视语言与世界的关系、重新认识文学语言的内在属性和文学的社会功能都有着一定的启发意义。

Traditional literary theory holds that literature describes the world and expresses the emotion by fictionalizing social events with linguistic symbols,hence it has virtual references.The speech act theory,represented by Austin and Searle,believes that speech is doing things,and that literary language is performatory and a kind of social action.Literary language not only describes events,but also participates in social action through fictional events that interact with literary programs,stipulations,conventions,repetition mechanisms,readers,etc.It has a strong practical orientation due to its creation of new meaning references.The paper takes the theory of speech act as the breakthrough point,digs deeply the new characteristics of literary language,explores the performativity and the internal operating mechanism of literary language,and restore the close relationship between language and subject behavior,which have certain enlightenment significance for re-examining the relationship between language and the world and re-understanding the internal attributes of literary language and the social function of literature.