03语用意义

Chapter 3Pragmatic Meaning

2017.9.20

Semantic meaning and pragmatic meaning

Semantic meaning is a conventionized formof meaning. Words mean certain things by generally accepted convention. e.g.dog- a certain kind of animal.

Pragmatic meaning is distinctlynon-conventional in nature, it is the meaning of a word used in certaincontext. (meaning in use or meaning in context)

Context

Two types of contexts:

1. Linguistic (verbal) context (言语): words, clauses, sentences, paragraphs, or wholebooks in which a word appears.

Linguistic context can be further divided

into：Lexical context and Grammatical context

2. Extra-linguistic context: the actual

speech situation in which a word is used.指语言以外的因素

The

importance of context in eliminating ambiguity

Ambiguity refers to a word, a phrase, asentence with more than one possible meaning.Ambiguity may be caused by

1. Polysemy

(一词多义).

He painted a tree.

to put paint on a surface; to make a

picture

2. Homonymy (同音/同形异义). Two words look alike or sound alike, but differ inmeaning

The ball was attractive.

3. Grammatical structure.

Visiting relatives may be boring.

Characteristics of Pragmatic Meaning

1. Etymological subsidiarity原词附属性

The pragmatic meaning of a word is closelyrelated to its original meaning, pronunciation, and form.

2. Subjective experientiality主观体验性

Pragmatic meaning carries strong personalfeeling because of different individual's personal experience.

3. Meaning uncertainty意义不确定性

Pragmatic meaning is uncertain when factorssuch as age, nationality, time, place, etc. are involved.

Pragmatic narrowing: Narrowing is the casewhere a word is used to convey a more specific sense than the encoded one.

At Christmas, the bird was delicious. (turkey)

Pragmatic broadening: a word is used toconvey a more general sense.

They are thirsty to death.扩展了thirsty的意义，夸大了渴的程度。

4.Conceptual temporality概念临时性

When the meaning of a word is deviated from

its basic meaning, then concept adjustment is needed according to the context

because the specific meaning of this word relies completely on the context.在特定语境中产生的语用意义，临时的，会随着语境的消失而不复存在。

e.g. I will ask her about it this weekend.

I, her, it, this weekend为特定语境中所指信息，只有联系语境，才能理解以上词语的真正语用含义。

5. Contextual interdependency语境共生性

Pragmatic meaning is the meaning incontext, so context plays an important role in determining the pragmaticmeaning of a word. Here context not only refers to the sentence or paragraphwhere the word appears, but also the actual speech situation or even the wholecultural background.

Classification of Pragmatic meaning

1. Imitative meaning仿义型

2. Opposite meaning反义型(irony)

3.Broadened or narrowed meaning增减型

4.Distortional meaning畸变型

Communicative Function of Pragmatic Meaning

1. Constructing rhetorical devices

2. Explaining anomalous phenomenon

3. Expressing individual feelings

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