英语教育毕业论文浅谈认知语境在语用推理中的作用.doc

漳州师范学院毕业论文 a brief analysis on the cognitive context of pragmatic inference in the verbal communication浅谈认知语境在语用推理中的作用姓 名： 学 号： 070201324 系 别： 外语系 专 业： 英语教育 年 级： 2007级 指导教师： 2010 年 12 月 30日1abstractcommunication is one of the most widespread social phenomena of human beings. the communication conducted through language is called verbal communication. verbal communication is a highly context-dependent dynamic interactive process. the traditional study of context emphasizes the functions of the external world in communication from the static perspective but neglects the mental activity of human beings and the dynamic nature of communication, so it is static and can not explain the dynamic process. therefore, this thesis tries to analyze verbal communication from the angle of cognitive context in the dynamic and ever-developing communication process. especially, it analyzes cognitive context in the ostensive-inferential communicative model within the framework of relevance theory. based on the relevance theory, this thesis makes a comprehensive illustration of the definition of traditional context and cognitive context. then, with a combination of some typical daily utterances and conversations, the thesis makes a trial explanation of the verbal communication. the thesis mainly discusses the roles of the speakers and the hearers cognitive context in successful verbal communication.key words: cognitive context; verbal communication; pragmatic inference 摘 要交际是人类最普遍的社会现象之一，通过语言进行的交际称为语言交际。交际是基于语境的动态过程，而传统语境观将其视为静态，忽视了人在交际时内心世界的作用及交际的动态特征，因而无法对这一动态过程予以诠释。所以本文立足于关联理论框架，尝试从认知语境的角度研究语言交际，并将认知知语境置于明示推理这一动态的,不断发展的交际模式中进行解析。本文阐述了语境和认知语境的概念，结合一些典型的日常交际例子，尝试对语言交际提出自己的见解，从说话者和听话者双方的角度探讨认知语境在语言交际中的作用。关键词:认知语境；语言交际；语用推理13contentsabstracti1.introduction12.context and cognitive context12.1 traditional views on context12.2 cognitive context22.2.1 definition of cognitive context22.2.2 characteristics of cognitive context32.2.3 relevance theory and cognitive context43. cognitive context of language inference in verbal communication43.1 verbal communication43.2 roles of the speakers cognitive context53.2.1 guiding the appropriateness of presentation63.2.2 enhancement of ostension73.2.3 enlargement of contextual effects83.3 roles of the hearers cognitive context83.3.1 strengthening the effectiveness of interpretation93.3.2 enhancement of inference104. conclusions11references12acknowledgement131. introduction communication is one of the most common social phenomena, and it is a function that one learns to do as one travels through life. if we communicate with others by language, that is called verbal communication. so, to investigate the verbal communication is inevitable, urgent and meaningful. actually, much research work has been done on the verbal communication by both domestic and abroad scholars. scholars tried their best to analyze the factors that play key roles in a successful verbal communication, such as relevance theory, culture differences etc.in linguistic study, cognitive context plays an important role and has become a hot topic in recent decades. more scholars, such as the abroad scholars: sperber and wilson, the domestic scholar xiong xueliang, found cognitive context is a crucial factor in the verbal communication, which is further development of traditional context. since verbal communication is a highly context-dependent dynamic interactive process, this thesis aims to analyze communication from the aspect of cognitive context. and the organization of this thesis is developed as follows:chapter one is a brief introduction to this paper. another aim of this chapter is to make a better understanding of this paper and show the significances of this thesis.chapter two focuses on traditional context and cognitive context. the most crucial part of this chapter is the definition and features of the cognitive context. it also explores the cognitive context in terms of relevance theory.chapter three is cardinal in the whole writing. in this chapter, a detailed discussion on the roles of cognitive context in successful verbal communication is presented. for a better understanding of it, many typical examples in daily verbal communication are analyzed.chapter four comes to the conclusion, in which the whole paper is summarized. although this exploration is not very comprehensive or profound because of the authors limited opinions and own experiences, the significance of this study is both theoretical and practical. it gives us a better understanding of cognitive context and helps to achieve successful verbal communication through a new but crucial aspect. 2. context and cognitive context 2.1 traditional views on context the previous researches on context start from malinowski, in 1923. he is known as a famous anthropologist. he believed that utterances and situation are bound up inextricably with each other and the context of situation is indispensable for the understanding of the words ( liu runqing、feng zongxin，2004:300). he classified context into two categories: context of situation and context of culture.then one of his students, j.r firth took over malinowskis context of situation and developed it. firth classified context into situational context and linguistic context(peng jianwu，2005:65)while m.a.k halliday , one of firths students also further developed the theory of context of situation into what is known as register theory, a more generalized interpretation intended as a basis for deriving the features of the text from the features of the situation.the chinese linguists also do a lot of research work on context. he zhaoxiong and mei deming(1999:113-114) stated that notion of context is essential to the pragmatic study of language. it is generally considered as constituted by the knowledge shared by the speaker and the hearer. xiong xueliang(2004:113-114) thinks that: “traditional context is an all-inclusive concept, including the linguistic knowledge, co-text, the time, the place, topic and the manner of speaking on participants, how much participants know each other and the background knowledge, such as custom, politics etc and the knowledge of the world.” since context concerns about various perspectives, including logic, semantics, sociolinguistics, philosophy, psychology and pragmatics, it is quite difficult for scholars to define context, so up to now, there is not a most appropriate and specific definition of context. 2.2 cognitive context 2.2.1 definition of cognitive contexttraditional context is almost an all-including concept, involving both linguistic knowledge and non-linguistic knowledge. its difficult for us to take all these factors into consideration when studying verbal communication. and from the cognitive perspective, traditional context has two unavoidable defects: firstly, it cannot objectively reflect the communicators mental states in the communication. secondly, verbal communication is a dynamic process while traditional context is a static concept. so the study of dynamic context or cognitive context overcomes the weak points of static context and becomes more comprehensive.sperber and wilson both suggest their view of context from the perspective of relevance theory. s&w suggest that human communication is a context-dependently ostensive-inferential process in their book relevance: communication and cognition together. in this book, sperber and wilson state that the context is a psychological construct, a subset of the hearers assumptions about the world (s&w, 2001:15). that is to say, the cognitive context they called includes not merely context in the traditional sense, but also all assumptions about the world. the hearer draws these assumptions from the preceding text, or from observation of the speaker and environment at that time, or from scientific hypotheses, anecdotal memories, common sense assumptions, general cultural assumptions and any other items of shared information which the hearer has access to all that time.domestic scholar xiong xueliang also holds a view of cognitive context. different from sperber and wilson who claim that a context is a psychological construct, xiong xueliang holds that context is something inside, lying in the mind, which he quotes his dutch supervisor van dijks words: context is right in your mind. xu kuihua (2007:18) states that cognitive context includes linguistic context, situational context and cultural context. and she regards cognitive context an abstract form of above three parts. xiong xueliang(2004:115) claims that the inference of the overloaded part of information by language users does not always rely on the concrete context, because language users, through experience, have internalized the relevant context. that is to say, the main part of context is the cognitive context that contains the pragmatic knowledge that has been systemized by language users. when the specific physical environment is not clear, language users can consciously or subconsciously infer with his knowledge of the utterance meaning. it is this cognitive context that this inference mainly depends on. and he proposes that cognitive context involves various kinds of information: the perceptible information from outside, the information from long-term or short-term memory and background information.to sum up, language users concrete context that has already been internalized is cognitive context. such conceptual representation about the world is stored in our mind, and is used in communication when activated by utterance.2.2.2 characteristics of cognitive contextcognitive context refers to the information which is relevant to the participators of a communication. and the participators rely on this information to produce and to interpret each others utterances and the intensions conveyed by the utterances. according to the definition of cognitive context and the analysis of its role in verbal communication, the thesis concludes two distinct features of cognitive context, which are quite different from the traditional views: the dynamic nature and the psychological nature.firstly, context is a dynamic and developmental concept rather than a static and freezing. communication itself is a dynamic concept, and context will change with the process of communication. (he zhaoxiong，2009: 21-22)communication needs some sets of information. with the utterance proceeding, previous information, which is stored in the memory of deductive devices as new contextual assumption for the interpretation of the next utterance, becomes old information. in this process, context is chosen from assumptions to understand the utterance. cognitive context stresses mental activities of human being from dynamic perspective. cognitive context is regarded as dynamic rather than static, chosen rather given. in this study the dynamic nature of cognitive context is adopted and observed because it is believed by the author that only a dynamic cognitive context can explain the process of utterance communication more easily. because communication is an ever-developing interactive process and it is highly context-dependent, the study of the dynamic properties of cognitive context is to analyze cognitive context in the dynamic process of communication. cognitive context is generated in language use and keeps changing with communication, which means it is created by the dynamic interaction between speaker and hearer. it is the speaker and hearer who manipulate and choose proper context to obtain certain communicative goals. therefore, it can be seen clearly the dynamic properties of cognitive context in the verbal communication.another obvious feature of cognitive context is the psychological nature. sperter and wilson both believe that cognitive context is a psychological notion, a psychological construct and a subset of the hearers assumptions about the world. or we can say that cognitive context is a deductive process to select background assumptions. the context included the organization of the individuals long or short memory and physical activity. that is to say, the expectations about the unknown feature, the religious beliefs, the general customs, guess of the mental state of the speaker are all influential factors in that context.in verbal communication, hearer may makes mistakes when he doesnt bear these two features of cognitive context in mind. though he is in front of the object, he will not finish what the speaker wants him to do, especially in a verbal communication. the hearer and speaker may have the total different religious beliefs, general customs, common sense, so mistakes are frequently made, and how to say and to do properly seems very difficult.2.2.3 relevance theory and cognitive contextaccording to sperber and wilsons relevance theory, human beings verbal communication is a process maneuvered by the elements of cognitive context. in relevance theory, as mentioned above, cognitive context refers to a kind of psychological construct, namely, a subset of the hearers assumption about the world. as cognitive context is put forward under the relevance theory, of course they are closely related to each other.relevance theory is the interplay of two factors: contextual effects and processing effort, and both these factors are context-dependent. sperber and wilson reject the idea of a context given to communicator beforehand and opt for a more dynamic view of context as selected and constructed in the course of interaction and they regard the relevance of an utterance as the relation of proposition and the collection of contexts. while the central claim of the relevance theory is that human communication crucially creates an expectation of optimal relevance. therefore we can see context is constructed under the relevance theory and communicators will select the most adequate context which is determined by the search for relevance. this involves a reformulation of the notion of context: context is not given beforehand but chosen and constructed in the course of interaction: relevance conditions the selection of context.3. cognitive context of language inference in verbal communication3.1 verbal communicationcommon forms of human communication include sign language, speaking, writing, gestures and broadcasting. communication can be interactive, transitive, intentional or unintentional; it can also be verbal and nonverbal. plentiful researches have been done to explore the nature of communication and how to achieve successful communication.in this thesis, verbal communication is explored from the speakers ostension and the hearers inference. according to the ostensive-inferential communicative model which is put forward within the relevance theory, verbal communication is a kind of activity with ostension and inference. verbal communication is a kind of two-side activity with purpose and intentions. in the process of communication, the speaker conveys his or her intention to inform the hearer of some state of affairs; the hearer tries to recognize what the speaker intends to inform him or her of. thus it is very important for the hearer to recognize the speakers intention to achieve successful communication. speaking of intention, our discussion of it is mainly based on what s&w point out: informative intention and communicative intention. informative intention is the basis of communicative intention. that is to say, it is very important for the speakers ostension be identified by the hearer, because they have shared common knowledge of cognitive context. any utterance may have a number of possible interpretations. however, only one of them is most accessible to the hearer because the utterance bears relevance. in successful verbal communication, the speakers purpose or intention can be presented on the condition that the speaker uses his or her cognitive context to convey it, which can be easily identified by the hearer. look at the following example:(1) lins american neighbor tom is in lins home. they have a happy conversation during the whole afternoon. time flies, now it is time for dinner, so lin wants to end the talking:lin: tom, it is really happy to have a chat with you. time is late, so how about having dinner with me? tom: really? i like chinese food so much. i am glad to have supper with you. thank you.now lin is very embarrassed, because today he doesnt have enough food to treat a visitor. we know invitation for a dinner in china sometimes is just a polite formula. it not really means inviting you to have dinner with him or her. sometime people use it to shorten the distance between each other, sometime it is just a way of greeting. here lin only wants to use it to end the talking, but in toms cognitive context it means an invitation, so toms language inference result is not fit the lins purpose. cognitive context consists of situational knowledge involved in language use, linguistic contextual knowledge and background knowledge and collective consciousness shared by language communities. for example, when we meet or see goodbye to others, more or less we will see some polite formulas, while how much and how to answer should limited by cognitive context. (xiong xueliang，2008:22) from the given view that successful verbal communication depends greatly on whether the communicators primary communicative intention is realized or not. if the primary communicative intention is realized or nearly realized, communication is considered successful. otherwise, it is thought to be a failure. yet the success or failure of verbal communication is usual