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 nar...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.展开更多
基金the AHRB under grant MRG-AN9291/APN16356"A unified theory of lexical pragmatics".
文摘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.
