隐喻理解的信息更新

Information Update in Metaphor Comprehension

作为一种典型的非字面义表达,隐喻不直接给出信息传递的目标含义,而需要听话人通过字面信息转化得到,这导致隐喻语句的理解在很多情况下并不唯一,拥有比一般字面表达更大的解读空间。在隐喻理解过程中,主体对隐喻的初步理解可能会随着新信息的增加而发生改变。而与惯常的信念更新不同的是,隐喻信息的更新过程存在着双向制约,一方面,源域(sourcedomain)信息构建认知框架,突显焦点性质,制约主体对目标对象的认知方向;另一方面,目标域作为认知对象,其已知的性质对也限制了源域核心概念的选择。本文将动态信息环境下隐喻理解视为一个复杂信息参与信息更新的过程,在动态信念逻辑的基础上给出相应的形式化模型,更一般地描述隐喻中由于非字面信息传递而导致的信念更新。

A metaphor expresses the meaning of a target message indirectly,requiring the listener to derive it from the literal information.This makes metaphorical understanding non-unique and allows for a greater range of interpretations than literal expressions.During the process of metaphorical understanding,the listener’s initial understanding of the metaphor may change with the addition of new information.Unlike the normal belief revision,the updating of metaphorical information is subject to bidirectional constraints.On the one hand,the source domain information constructs a cognitive framework that highlights the salient properties and restricts the listener’s direction of cognitive processing toward the target domain.On the other hand,the target domain,as the object of cognition,constrains the core concepts of the source domain.This paper regards the understanding of metaphor in a dynamic information environment as a complex process of belief updating with non-literal information.Based on dynamic doxastic logic,we present a corresponding formal model to more generally describe the belief updating caused by non-literal information transmission in metaphors.