摘要
Lexical pragmatics is a rapidly developing branch of linguistics thatinvestigates the processes by which linguistically-specified ('literal') word meaningsare modified in use. Well-studied examples include narrowing (e.g. drink used tomean 'alcoholic drink'), approximation (e.g. square used to mean 'squarish') andmetaphorical extension (e.g. dragon used to mean 'frightening person'). In the past,narrowing, approximation and metaphorical extension have been seen as distinctpragmatic processes and studied in isolation from each other. Recently, relevancetheorists (e.g. Sperber & Wilson 1998; Carston 2002; Wilson & Sperber 2002) havebeen defending the alternative view that they are outcomes of a single pragmaticprocess which fine-tunes the interpretation of virtually every word. After brieflyoutlining some of the arguments for this unified relevance-theoretic approach, andillustrating its application to some examples from daily communication, I will suggestsome ways in which it might be tested, and explore its implications for futureresearch on pragmatics, language acquisition, language change, developmentalpsychology and neuropsychology. This paper forms part of a broader project onlexical pragmatics which has just started at University College London, with aconference to be held in England in 2005. The project would benefit greatly fromcollaboration with colleagues in China, and I will end by outlining some possibilitiesfor joint research.
Lexical pragmatics is a rapidly developing branch of linguistics that investigates the processes by which linguistically-specified ('literal') word meanings are modified in use. Well-studied examples include narrowing (e.g. drink used to mean 'alcoholic drink'), approximation (e.g. square used to mean 'squarish') and metaphorical extension (e.g. dragon used to mean 'frightening person'). In the past, narrowing, approximation and metaphorical extension have been seen as distinct pragmatic processes and studied in isolation from each other. Recently, relevance theorists (e.g. Sperber & Wilson 1998; Carston 2002; Wilson & Sperber 2002) have been defending the alternative view that they are outcomes of a single pragmatic process which fine-tunes the interpretation of virtually every word. After briefly outlining some of the arguments for this unified relevance-theoretic approach, and illustrating its application to some examples from daily communication, I will suggest some ways in which it might be tested, and explore its implications for future research on pragmatics, language acquisition, language change, developmental psychology and neuropsychology. This paper forms part of a broader project on lexical pragmatics which has just started at University College London, with a conference to be held in England in 2005. The project would benefit greatly from collaboration with colleagues in China, and I will end by outlining some possibilities for joint research.
出处
《现代外语》
CSSCI
北大核心
2004年第1期1-13,共13页
Modern Foreign Languages
基金
the AHRB under grant MRG-AN9291/APN16356"A unified theory of lexical pragmatics".
