lecture-1-Origin-of-Pragmatics

TheOriginofPragmaticsIntheresearchfieldsofphilosophy,C.MorrisandR.CarnapwasthefirsttousethetermPragmatics.Theyusethetermintheirstudyofsemiotics.（符号学）Theydividetheresearchofsemioticsintothreebranches:syntactics关系学,semantics语义学,andpragmatics语用学.Syntacticsstudiestheformalrelationshipbetweenthesigns.Semanticsstudiestherelationshipbetweensignsandthethingstheyrepresent.Pragmatics,whichstudiestherelationshipbetweenthesignsandtheinterpreters解释ofthesigns.TheOriginandDevelopmentofPragmaticsintheLinguisticFieldThehistoryofPragmaticsstudyisfairlyrecent.Ithasbecomearesearchfieldforonlyabout20or30years.However,itsdevelopmentisratherfast.Itsrangeofresearchhasbecomeincreasinglywider.Likeotherbranchesofscience,thestudyofmodernlinguisticshasbeenoneoftheconstantexperiments,investigationanddiscoveries.TheSwisslinguistF.deSaussure(1857---1913),whopublishedattheendofthecentury“ACourseinGeneralLinguistics”,hasbeenthoughtofasthefounderofthemodernlinguistics.Saussureadvancedthedistinctionbetweenlangueandparole.Languereferstothelinguisticsystemitselfwhileparolereferstothemanifestation表示oftheactualuseofthelinguisticsystem.AccordingtoSaussure,linguisticsshouldaimatthestudyoflangue,whichisasystemgovernedbysetrulesinsteadofaimingatthestudyofparole,whichcannotbesubjectto受支配,从属于,可以…的,常遭受…scientificanalysis.Saussuresetthetonefortheresearchorientationoflinguisticsfordecadesofyears.Afterthelate1950s,Chomskymadedistinctionsbetweencompetenceandperformance,whichisnotmuchdifferentfromSaussure’sdivisionoflangueandparole.Formanyyears,influencedbySaussure,linguistsdevotedthemselvestothestudyoflanguageproper本身的恰当的attheexpenseoflanguageuse.TheAmericanstructuralistBloomfield(1887---1949)andothersattachedimportancetotheanalysisofphonologicalsystemandlinguisticforms.Theytookphonemeandmorphemeastheunitsforlinguisticanalysis.Intheireyes,thesyntacticstructuresoflanguagearesoabstractthattheirnaturecanhardlyberevealed.Inthelate1950s,Chomsky’stheorybroughtaboutgreatchangesinlinguisticfield.Chomskyregardedthelanguageasanabstractdevice.Heinterpretedthelanguageasapropertyofhumanphysiologicalheredity.Anyonewithwell-developedbraincanpossessthecompetence.Thecompetenceisindependentofperformance.ThecoreofChomsky’stheoryisthegrammaticalityoflanguage,thatishowtocreatesentencesthatareinconformity一致withgrammaticalrules.Thisstructure-as-coretheoryexcludesmeaningsoutofthelinguisticstudy.Startingfromthebeginningof1970s,somelinguiststriedtoholdthestudyofmeaningtobethebasisforlinguisticstudyortriedtofindamidwaybetweenthemeaning-basedapproachandthestructure-basedapproach.Withtheattentiongiventothestudyofmeaning,moreandmorelinguistscametorealisetheimportanceofcontextsinthestudyofmeanings.Theybelievethatforalanguageinuse,meaningsarenotabstract,theyarecloselyrelatedtocontexts.Meaningscannotbedeterminedwithouttakingintoaccountsuchcontextualfactorsas“Whosayswhattowhom,when,whereandhow.”Whencontextsaretakenintoconsiderationinthestudyofmeanings,pragmaticshencecomesintoexistence.WhathasbeenbrieflymentionedabovehasbeenthemaindevelopmentalstagesinAmericanlinguisticresearch.ThoughBloomfieldandChomskyareinfluentialacrosstheworld,linguistsinEuropehavetheirowncharacteristicwaysofresearch.InEurope,esp.inEngland,quitesomenotedlinguistspublishedtheiroriginallinguistictheories.Thesetheorieshavepromotedthedevelopmentofpragmatics.Asearlyas1930s,theBritishfamouslinguistJ.R.Firth(1890---1960)putforwardthecontextualtheoryofmeanings.Firthbelievesthatmeaningisuse.Meaningistobestudiedthroughahierarchy层次体系ofcontexts.Wordsareanalyzedinthecontextofsentenceswhicharethenanalyzedinsituationalcontextsorsettingswhichareinturnseeninculturalcontext.AContextofSituation:A:therelevantfeaturesofparticipants:(1)theverbalactionoftheparticipants(2)thenon-verbalactionB:therelevanceofobjectsC:theeffectoftheverbalaction他认为如果知道发话人的的言语行为(verbalaction)，人们甚至可以知道这一言语行为的情景语境，如：“Ahnggunnagi’wunferBer’.”(I’mgoingtogetoneforBert.)从以上话语可以推理出交际活动中的最少参话人数（三个？四个？），该交际活动可能发生的地点（酒吧？），Bert所处的地点（外边？或者玩飞镖？），相关的物品以及话语实际产生的效果。HewasverymuchinfluencedbyanthropologistB.Malinowskiinthestudyofmeanings.Malinowski,afterobservingthelanguageusesinsometribes,thoughtitmoreappropriatetolookatlanguageas“wayofaction”thanas“thetoolforcommunication”.Thecharacteristicsloganforthisschoolofthoughtis“Languageisinaction”and“Meaningisinuse”.Withoutuseandcontext,meaningisanemptyconcept.ThecontemporaryBritishlinguistM.A.K.Hallidayputforwardasetoffunctionaltheoriesoflanguage.Hallidaybelievethatlanguageisasocialphenomenon.Whatisuniversalinhumanlanguagesisnottheresultofthecommonhereditaryfactorsofhumanbeings,rather,itisbecauselanguagespossessthecommonfunctionsinsocialactivities.Hallidaybelievesthatalanguageusuallyfullfilsthefollowingfunctions:1.Instrumental:“Iwant”:satisfyingthematerialneeds.2.Regulatory:“DoasItellyou”:controllingothers’behaviour.3.Interactional:“meandyou”:gettingalongwithotherpeople.4.Personal:“HereIcome”:identifyingorexpressingtheself.5.Heuristic:“Tellmewhy”:exploringtheworldaroundorinsideone.6.Imaginative:“Let’spretend”:creatingaworldofone’sown7.In