Transcript Cultural Semantics: An Introduction 文化语义学导论

Cultural Semantics: An Introduction
文化语义学导论
讲授者：吴建平博士
讲授者单位、职称：
厦门大学英文系教授、
博士生导师
电子邮箱：
[email protected] ;
[email protected] .
个人网站：
http://cflc.xmu.edu.cn/jpwu/
General Requirements
1. Two weeks after this course is over, you are
required to submit a course paper by email.Your
score will be given on the basis of your course
paper, your oral presentation and the frequency of
your attendance.
2. Since this course is presented in both English
and Chinese, you are required to read reference
books published in both English and Chinese.
3. Questions and requests can be presented
to me by email or face-to-face.
Contents
A General Introduction
Chapter 1 What is Meaning?
Chapter 2 Lexical Meaning
Chapter 3 What is Culture?
Chapter 4 The Four Major Schools of Cultural Studies
Chapter 5 Word and Phrase
Chapter 6 Proposition, Sentence and Utterance
Chapter 7 Register and Context
Chapter 8 Semantic Features
Chapter 9 Text Typology
Chapter 10 Twelve Major Methods of Text/ Discourse Analysis
Chapter 11 Major Semantic Theories
Chapter 12 Some Approaches to Cultural Semantics
Chapter 13 Speech Act Theory
Chapter 14 Pragmatics
Chapter 15 Intercultural Communication Theory
Chapter 16 The Ways of Study
Bibliography
A General Introduction
Between man and the physical world there
exists a world of language through which man
knows and tries to master the physical world.
Language reflects what man knows about the
physical world and the world of language is a
mirror of the physical world and a storehouse
of all the spiritual creations by man.
Language is the concentrated reflection of the
knowledge of man about the physical world.
Meaning is the core of language. What makes
the meaning originate, develop, change or die ?
The main factors are the existence of the
physical world, changes and human thinking.
There must have been a philosophical basis for
any one school of linguistics in the course of its
development. There are several
distinguishable, and more or less well-known
philosophical theories of meaning, which seek
to provide an answer to the question: What is
meaning ? Out of them we prefer to combine
some aspects of the following philosophical
theories: 1) The referential theory;
2) The meaning-is-use theory; 3) The theory
of situation; 4) The theory of intention and 5)
The decon- structional theory and adopt the
combination as the philosophical basis of his
tentative theory of cultural semantics.
1)The referential (or reference, or denotational,
or naming) theory : the meaning of an
expression is what it refers to or denotes, or
stands for ; e.g. ‘ dog’ means either the
general class of dogs or the essential property
which they all share.
2) The meaning-is-use theory: the meaning of
an expression is determined by, if not identical
with, its use in the language.
3) The theory of situation: Meaning is the
bridge between linguistic forms and situation.
4) The theory of intention: the meaning of an
expression is the intention of its speaker.
5) The deconstructional theory: Meaning is not
what is fixed forever and is a mark which
varies with the development of text language,
with old meaning disappearing and new
meaning coming out.
The Major Difference between Semantics and Pragmatics
Based on the previously-mentioned, we may put forth a
tentative definition of traditional semantics with some
modification: semantics is the study of meaning in
isolation (independent of context), and a tentative
definition of pragmatics: the study of meaning in
interaction (dependent on context). Now we may see
the major difference between semantics and pragmatics:
static vs dynamic.
The use theory and the functionalist semantics play a
key role in turning the traditional semantics from a
static study into a dynamic one, i.e. to place the study
of meaning in social-communicative context.
Both semantics and pragmatics are concerned with
meaning, but difference between them can be traced to
two different uses of the verb to mean:
(1)What does X mean?
(2)What did you mean by X ?
Semantics traditionally deals with meaning as a dyadic
relation as in (1), while pragmatics deals with meaning as
a triadic relation as in (2). Thus meaning in pragmatics is
defined relative to a speaker or user of the language
whereas meaning in semantics is defined purely as a
property of expressions in a given language, in abstraction
from particular situations, speakers, or hearers (Leech
1983: 6). In other words, semantics involves the
relationship between symbol and referent whereas
pragmatics is concerned with the relationship between
symbol and its user. This is a rough-and-ready distinction from the philosophical point of view.
From linguistic point of view, semantics is the study of
meaning regardless of speech situations or contexts
while pragmatics is the study of meaning in relation to
speech situations or contexts. Semantics is concerned
with sentence meaning and pragmatics with speaker
meaning (or utterance meaning). There are some
overlapping parts between semantics and pragmatics at
the stage of their latest developments and a clear
demarcation is not possible at present.
Chapter 1 What is Meaning?
Meaning has more than 20 definitions(see
Ogden pp186-187; Leech p1; Xu pp3-16;
dictionaries).Meaning is a reference or a
situation a sign or a form represents. In
different systems of reference or situation
what the sign or the form represents (the
meaning)will not be the same. Generally it can
be divided into two major types: Referential
Meaning and Cognitive Meaning.
E.g. referential meaning:
Who did you mean? John or Mary?
When Jane talks about “her best friend”,
she means me.
If you look out of the window now, you’ll
see who I mean.
When Helen mentioned “the fruit cake”,
she meant that rock-hard object on the table.
cognitive meaning:
What does the word “software” mean?
Chapter 2 Lexical Meaning
Lexical meaning in terms of linguistics instead of lexicology is
almost equal to referential (conceptual) meaning. To be exact,
lexical meaning comprises the following (Leech. G. N.):
l. Conceptual meaning;
2. Connotative meaning ;
3. Stylistic meaning;
4. Affective meaning ;
5. Reflected (or associated) meaning ;
6. Collocative meaning ;
7. Thematic meaning .
l. Conceptual meaning
E .g.woman [human]+[female]+[adult].
Conceptual meaning varies with objective changes. The two
key points for analyzing the conceptual meaning of a word: 1)
the context in which a word exists; 2) the historical changes
with which a word varies.
2. Connotative meaning
E.g.woman(frail) (prone to tears) (emotional) (inconstant)
(gentle) (compassionate) (hard-working). Tom is a pig. (dirty;
eats a lot). He is a tiger. (very cruel).
Connotative meaning does not exist alone. It is usually
attached to the conceptual meaning and varies with different
persons, ages, societies, countries, times, etc.. The connotative
meaning of some words could be the same even in different
languages E g 狡猾(fox and 狐狸); 温顺(lamb and 羔羊); 无私
的爱(mother and母亲).
3. Stylistic meaning
formal/informal/literary/poetic/colloquial/slang.
4. Affective meaning
Affective meaning does not stand alone. It is realized through
conceptual or connotative or stylistic meaning. Sometimes
through intonation or exclamation, etc.. E.g. famous--notorious;
statesman--politician; resolute--obstinate.
5. Reflected(or associated)meaning
Reflected meaning will result in the association of the
listener/reader with some idea or thing. E.g. some taboo words
related with sex: cock, intercourse, ejaculation, erection, etc..
6. Collocative meaning
Collocative meaning, in fact, mainly refers to the contextual
meaning of a word. E.g. pretty girl----handsome boy;
He mounted his steed. (literary)
He got on his gee-gee.(colloquial)
7. Thematic meaning
Thematic meaning refers to the meaning embodied by different
word orders, sentence structures, stresses and emphases. E.g.
Tom owns the most handsome car in New York.
The most handsome car in New York is owned by Tom.
The most handsome car in New York belongs to Tom.
My classification of lexical meaning:
1. Conceptual meaning(the same as Leech’s);
2. *Connotative meaning = stylistic meaning + affective
meaning + figurative meaning;
3.Structural meaning= grammatical meaning(=the distributing
meaning of a word or phrase in a sentence , which naturally
includes what Leech calls “thematic meaning”), the meaning
of cohesion and coherence, the meaning of inflexions, the
same as Leech’s collocative meaning and any meaning
resulted from the change of parts of speech and sentence
structures.
4. *Cultural meaning=culture-specific meaning(e.g. jiaozi)
+culture-associative meaning (e.g. rose).
5. Pragmatic meaning= the meaning of those words and
phrases which display or make the pragmatic senses even
when isolated from a specific context. E.g. Behave oneself
(used to speak to children only).
Chapter 3 What is Culture?
The notion of culture was first put forward by the
German scholars in the 19th century (Xiu-yi Wu, 1988:
8). So far there have existed in this world over 260
definitions of culture. Listed below are some key
definitions of culture:
Culture is a complex which includes objects, knowledge,
beliefs, arts, ethics, laws, conventions and other acquired
social abilities and customs. (Jia-zu Gu et al, 1990: 3)
Culture is a behavioural pattern shared and kept by a
human community and acquired after birth. (Jia-zu
Gu et al, 1990: 20-1)
Culture is the total of all human products, including all
the objects and tools invented by human beings and the
conventions of the human life which have been passed on
from generation to generation. (Jin-fu Guo, 1993:1-2)
Culture should be classified into two categories: 1)in a
narrow sense it lines with politics, economics, military
affairs, etc. and becomes a part of human social activities,
i.e. the parts related to the human social life such as
literature, arts, science, philosophy, ethics, fashions, etc.;
2)in a broad sense it is equal to civilization, including
material and spiritual aspects in the human society, i.e.
material civilization and spiritual civilization. (Xiu-yi Wu,
1988: 8-9)
Based on the above-mentioned, my tentative
definition is "Culture is anything created
by human beings, material or spiritual,
that is the result or product of human
thought and work, universally accepted
by human communities and passed on
from generation to generation." This
definition can be both applicable to the
common culture of human beings in this
world and the specific culture of a nation.
Chapter 4 The Four Major Schools of
Cultural Studies
1) Peter L. Berger and phenomenology
2) Mary Douglas and cultural anthropology
3) Michel Foucault and structuralism
4) Jurgen Habermas and critical theory
Chapter 5 Word and Phrase
Generally, word is considered as the smallest of the
linguistic units which can in normal case occur on its own
in speech or writing.
Traditional semantic theories in most cases take into
consideration only the meaning of words. In this
dissertation, the meaning of phrases is taken into
consideration as well. Phrases here refer to all those
linguistic items which are made up of two or more words
(including idioms), nominal or adjectival or prepositional or
adverbial, and function as well as words.
Word Meaning and Phrase Meaning
Word meaning (or phrase meaning) refers to what a word
(or a phrase) expresses about an entity, real or imaginary.
Since a phrase can function as well as a word, a phrase
also has the same types of meaning as a word does.
Ogden & Richards’ Meaning Theory
In their book entitled “the Meaning of Meaning” , Ogden
& Richards designed a diagram known as Ogden &
Richards’ Semantic Triangle as follows:
Thought or Reference
Symbol
Referent
A New Semantic Triangle
Since a word and a phrase have the same function, Ogden &
Richards’ Semantic Triangle can be used to describe the phrase
meaning as well as the word meaning.
Thought or Reference
Description
Generalization
Word/Phrase
Referent
The Five Types of Meaning
My five types of meaning are now stated in more details
as follows:
1) The conceptual meaning, which is based on the
linguistic concept and is something highly abstracted and
universal, forms the core part of the overall meaning of a
linguistic semiotic sign. In my view, the common culture of
all the nations in this world is usually reflected through the
conceptual meaning whereas the specific culture of a
particular nation decides upon the connotative meaning of
the language of the nation.
2) The connotative meaning here comprises 1) affective
meaning; 2) figurative meaning; and 3) stylistic meaning.
The affective meaning refers to both commendatory and
derogatory aspects of a linguistic semiotic sign; the
figurative meaning refers to the euphemistic, hyperbole,
ironical, etc. aspects of a linguistic semiotic sign; the
stylistic meaning refers to the temporal (e.g. archaic
senses or words), regional (e.g. dialectal words), social
(e.g. slang, vulgar words or senses), occasional (e.g.
colloquial, formal words or senses), professional (e.g.
jargon, mathematical, physical, chemical terms or senses)
aspects of a linguistic semiotic sign.
3) The cultural meaning refers to the meaning of a
particular nation's culture contained or implied in a
linguistic semiotic sign. It includes culture-specific
meaning and culture-associative meaning. The culturespecific meaning of a word or phrase usually cannot find
its equivalent in another language. E.g. the English
words such as salutatorian, punk, hippie, etc. are not
able to find their equivalents in Chinese; the Chinese
words such as"饺子(jiaozi)"、"馄饨(huntun)"、"景泰蓝
(jingtailan)" can not find their counterparts in English.
The culture-associated meaning refers to what a native
speaker of a particular language usually associates with
when using the related word or phrase. For example, the
English word "rose" will associate a native speaker of
English with love while the Chinese word “ 满 月
(manyue)”will associate a native speaker of Chinese
with happiness and family reunion. Besides, colour
words in both Chinese and English will also associate
the native speakers of both languages with different
images and feelings.
4) The structural meaning includes grammatical
meaning(=the distributing meaning of a word or phrase
in a sentence), the meaning of cohesion and coherence,
the meaning of inflexions, the meaning of parts of speech,
etc., and the collocative meaning of words or phrases of a
language. E.g. white coffee, black coffee, white Christmas,
insist on, persist in, drop a hint, fond of, keen on, etc..
5) The pragmatic meaning refers to the meaning of those
words and phrases which display or make the pragmatic
senses even when isolated from a specific context. E.g.
Behave oneself (used to speak to children only).
Obviously, out of the 5 types of meaning above,
connotative meaning (including affective meaning,
figurative meaning and stylistic meaning), cultural
meaning (including culture-specific meaning and cultureassociative meaning), and pragmatic meaning should be
our focus of attention for cultural semantic study.
There are, in my personal view, five common patterns of
equating interlinguistic symbols:
(1)S=T (“S”stands for the source linguistic semiotic symbol
with a mono-sense or one of the senses of a source linguistic
semiotic symbol:“=”means “is equal to”:“T” stands for the
target linguistic semiotic symbol: the same hereinafter). This
equation means that a source linguistic semiotic symbol or one
of the senses of a source linguistic semiotic symbol has a
complete equivalent in the target language. This case can only
be found in some single-sense technical terms, proper nouns,
linguistic semiotic symbols transliterated from source
linguistic semiotic symbol, etc. For example, electronics = 电
子 学 (dianzixue); Washington = 华 盛 顿 (huashengdun);
hysteria = 歇斯底里 (xiesidili); logic = 逻辑 (luoji); jeep = 吉
普车 (jipuche); AIDS = 艾滋病 (aizibing); 荔枝 (lizhi) =
lychee; 磕头 (ketou) = kowtow; 武术 (wushu) = wushu; 饺子
(jiaozi) = jiaozi; 风水 (fengshui) = feng shui; 太极拳 (taijiquan)
= tai chi.
(2)S=T1+T2+...+Tn (“n”stands for the number of target
linguistic semiotic symbols: “+”means “plus”: the same
hereinafter). This equation means that a source linguistic
semiotic symbol or one of its senses is equal to all the
information of two or more target linguistic semiotic symbols
added up together. For example, 沙发(shafa) = sofa + easy
chair; 胡子(huzi)＝moustache+ beard +whiskers.
(3)S≈(t)T(t) [“(t)”stands for the bracketed restricted
explanation(s); the same hereinafter]. This equation means that
one of the senses of a source linguistic semiotic symbol is
approximately equal to a target linguistic semiotic symbol with
the bracketed restricted explanation(s). For example, rose玫瑰
(meigui) (used as a token of love); 龙 (long) Chinese dragon
(symbolizing nobleness and dignity);
凤凰(fenghuang)≈Chinese phoenix (symbolizing nobleness and
good luck); 阴阳 (yinyang) yin and yang (in Chinese philosophy
and medicine, two opposing elements in nature, the former
feminine and negative, the latter masculine and positive).
(4)S≈[t]T (“[t]”stands for a label; the same hereinafter). This
equation means that one of the senses of a source linguistic
semiotic symbol is approximately equal to a target linguistic
semiotic symbol with a label. For example, decease [律]死亡
(shiwang); 虹膜(hongmo) [生理] iris.
(5) S≈E/(e)A(e)/(e)C(e) [“E” stands for the explanation in the
target language:“/”means “or”;“(e)”stands for the bracketed
encyclopaedic explanation in the target language; “A” stands for
the transliterated target linguistic semiotic symbol;“C”stands for
the newly coined target linguistic semiotic symbol].
This equation means that a source linguistic semiotic symbol
has no equivalent in the target language, but is approximately
equal to an explanation in the target language, a transliterated
target linguistic semiotic symbol with the bracketed
explanation in the target language or a newly coined target
linguistic semiotic symbol with the bracketed explanation in
the target language. For example, benedict曾长期独身的新婚
男子 (A newly married man who was previously considered a
confirmed bachelor); blind date由第三方安排的男女双方的
初次会面 (a date arranged by a third party in which the
couple meet for the first time); and drugstore 兼售软饮料、
化装品、杂志等杂货的药店 (a pharmacy where you can
also buy drinks, cosmetics, and magazines amongst other
things).
Out of the five patterns above, patterns 2), 3), 4) and 5) are
also our focus of attention for cultural semantic study.
Chapter 6 Proposition, Sentence and Utterance
To see the major differences between proposition, sentence and
utterance, let’s first look at the following example:
John gets up late.
Does John get up late?
John does not get up late.
The above three sentences, though different in forms (one is a
statement, one an interrogation, and one a negation) , have the
same proposition: “John gets up late.” A proposition is nonmaterialistic and an abstract entity which does not belong to any
particular language. Therefore, it has nothing to do with linguistic
elements and factors such as intonation, vocal quality, vocal
volume, context, etc..
A sentence is a string of words organized by grammatical rules
to represent an intact meaning. (Hartmann, 1972) Several
sentences can mean the one and the same proposition. E.g.
John gets up late.
Does John get up late?
John does not get up late.
All these three sentences above mean the same proposition:
“John gets up late.” though they are in different syntactical
forms.
An utterance is a sequence of speech between two (possible)
pauses and is delivered by a speaker in a given context.
Utterances are real pieces of speech.
A proposition, non-materialistic and an abstract entity which
does not belong to any particular language, is a description of
state of affairs, can be seen as a basic element of sentence
meaning and can be represented by several sentences.
To sum up: Utterances are real pieces of speech. By filtering
out certain types of (especially phonetic) information we can
get to abstract grammatical elements, sentences. By going on to
filter out certain types grammatical information, we can get to
propositions, which are descriptions of states of affairs and
which some writers see as a basic element of sentence meaning.
So the relationship between utterance, sentence and proposition
can be illustrated as utterance > sentence > proposition .
Sentence Meaning here refers to abstract sentence meaning
which is the proposition of a sentence, similar to the conceptual
meaning of a lexical item.
A New Semantic Triangle
My tentative adjustment of C. K. Ogden and I. A. Richards’
Semantic Triangle to describe the meaning of sentences can be
shown as below:
proposition
description/view
sentence
generalization/representation
event/fact
From the figure above the following can be drawn: A sentence
is a statement of a proposition and a representation of event
through the proposition whereas a proposition is what a
sentence (statement) describes and a view of event. Therefore,
we have a sequence as follows: event  generalization 
proposition  description  sentence.
The Five Types of Sentence Meaning
This writer has generalized his five types of sentence meaning
as follows: 1) proposition meaning; 2)connotative meaning; 3)
cultural meaning; 4) structural meaning (including grammatical
meaning and collocative meaning); 5)pragmatic meaning.
Obviously, 2), 3) 5) are the focus of our attention in our
cultural semantic study.
1) proposition meaning: e.g.
John gets up late.
Does John get up late?
John does not get up late.
The above three sentences, though different in forms (one is a
statement, one an interrogation, and one a negation) , have the
same proposition: “John gets up late.”
2)connotative meaning which includes affective meaning,
stylistic meaning and figurative meaning. E.g. The violator of
the regulations was ordered to do a 10-day community service.
这些退休老人都十分热心社区服务。The English sentence
above has a connotation of derogatory sense while the
Chinese one has a connotation of commendatory sense.
3) cultural meaning which includes culture-specific meaning
and culture-associative meaning. E.g. Trespassers will be
prosecuted. 私闯者将被起诉。/ Speak of the devil and he is
sure to appear. “说曹操，曹操到。” / “跳进黄河也洗不
清。” It would never wash yourself clean even if you
jumped into the Yellow River. (Nothing can prove your
innocence) / “她心里就像15只水桶，七上八下。”Her
heart is like a well with 15 buckets of which 7 come up and 8
go down.(She felt extremely uneasy and restless.)
4) structural meaning which includes grammatical meaning
and textual meaning.
5)pragmatic meaning which relates the overall situation with
the speaker and the hearer. E.g. Behave yourself. (Parents
speaking to their children or the older people speaking to the
younger ones.Here, the social status and the age status are
taken into consideration.)
A New Semantic Triangle
My tentative adjustment of C. K. Ogden and I. A. Richards’
Semantic Triangle to describe the meaning of utterances can
be shown as below:
topic
description
utterance
generalization
event
Chapter 7 Register and Context
Register( or Diatypic Variety ) here refers to
social context which includes (1)field of
discourse(what is happening and what is being
talked about, etc.) (2) tenor of discourse(the status
of the participants of the talk and the relationship
between the participants of the talk, etc.) (3) mode
of discourse(with what role, by what style and in
what way a speech in a specific context functions).
Cf. M. A. K. Halliday.
Register may also refer to (l)the different styles of an
individual’s speech which vary with situations,
listeners or readers, regions and subject matters;
(2)one particular community’s language variants. E.g.
the same profession: medical workers, lawyers, etc.;
the same interests: stamp collectors, etc..
Context includes linguistic context, context of
situation and context of culture.
Context in most cases decides upon the meaning of a
word/phrase/sentence /utterance/text/discourse in the
context. Therefore, context is the focus of our study in
the course of cultural semantics.
Chapter 8 Semantic Features
Semantic features(also called sense components
/semantic components /semantic markers/sememe/
higher predicates) refer to the smallest units of meaning
whose combination can be used to describe the
meaning of a word. Semantic features can be classified
into five types:
A) Grammatical features which refer to clear
grammatical markers of words and include the
following 10 features: 1)person; 2)number; 3)gender;
4)tense; 5)voice; 6)reference; 7)negation and
affirmation; 8)size; 9)location; 10)time;
B) Inherent features which reflect the essential
features of objects and things but depend mostly on
the approaches and the angles of analysis;
C) Predicate features which include the following
features: l)cause; 2)instigator; 3)performer; 4)intent;
5)effect; 6)source; 7)goal; 8)active; 9)control;
10)affected; 11)inchoative; etc. all of which have
something to do with a certain action;
D) Adverbial features which include the following
features: l)time; 2)place; 3)manner; 4)extent; 5)reason;
E) Pear option features refer to those subjective,
individual and connotative features. (C.f. Nilsen, Don
L.F. & Nilsen, Alleen Pace: Semantic Theory: A
Linguistic Perspective, pp. 55-89).
Chapter 9 Text Typology
Text typology has become one of the
focuses of linguistic studies. It has turned
out to be a difficult task to classify texts
because of the complexity of text, lack of
a unified criterion and various approaches.
The writer of this dissertation tries, from
the communicative approach, to classify
texts into the following seven major types:
1) expressive text (e.g. diary, biography, autobiography, lyric
poems, etc.);
2) contacting text (e.g. a text of congratulations, a text of
condolences, etc.);
3) informative text (e.g. news, weather forecast, scientific and
technical texts, etc.) ;
4) persuasive text (e.g. ads, instructions, news commentary,
applications, editorials, etc.);
5) standardizing text (e.g. laws, certificates, diplomas,
credentials, contracts, etc.);
6) literary text (e.g. poems, essays, novels, plays, etc.);
7) marginal text (in which two or more functions are in coexistence. E.g. a news commentary with both persuasive and
informative functions).
The Five Types of Text Meaning
Based on what has been talked about before in the previous
parts, this writer has ventured to classify text meaning into
the following five types:
1) ideational meaning(construing the logic through which we
represent the world we live in);
2) interpersonal meaning(allowing us to enact our social
exchanges with others);
3) cultural meaning(relating language to its user and speech
community);
4) textual meaning(relating language to its ever changing
context);
5) pragmatic meaning (relating the overall situation with the
speaker and the hearer).
According to Halliday（1973，1994）, language is used to
express three major functions (meanings), i.e. ideational
function, interpersonal function, textual function. These
three functions have something to do with context and
lexico-grammar. The relationship between the three major
functions (meanings) ( i.e. ideational function, interpersonal
function and textual function) and the three variables of
register (or context) (i.e. field of discourse, tenor of
discourse and mode of discourse) can be stated as: field of
discourse is expressed through the experiential meaning of
ideational function; tenor of discourse is expressed through
interpersonal function; mode of discourse is expressed
through textual function. But I think that cultural meaning
and pragmatic meaning should be taken into consideration
as well as the above-mentioned ideational meaning,
interpersonal meaning and textual meaning.
A New Semantic Triangle
I generally agree with Ogden and Richards’ Semantic Triangle
which is not perfect though and I attempt to transplant the
Semantic Triangle to the text analysis and explanation.
topic
description
text
generalization
event
Chapter 10 Twelve Major Methods of Text/
Discourse Analysis
Since discourse analysis came into being, there
have occurred various methods of text/discourse
analysis. In this dissertation, 12 major methods of
text/discourse analysis are presented as follows for
the purpose of surveying and choice:
1 Content Analysis
2 Grounded Theory
3 Ethnographic Text Analysis, and Ethnography of
Speaking
4 Ethnomethodological MCD Analysis
5 Ethnomethodological Conversation Analysis
6 Narrative Semiotics
7 SYMLOG as a method of Text Analysis
8 Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) according to Norman
Fairclough
9 Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA): the discoursehistorical method of Ruth Wodak
10 Functional Pragmatics
11 Differential Text Analysis
12 Objective Hermeneutics
The linguistic methods (particularly 5,8,9,10) above deserve
special attention because they are very different in their
respective theoretical backgrounds and their understanding of
context.
Chapter 11 Major Semantic Theories
1. Conceptual Role Semantics(Gilbert Harman) Xu,pp29-31
2. Conceptual Semantics(Jerry A. Fodor, Ray Jackendoff) Xu,pp27-28
3. Behaviorist Semantics(Bloomfield. John B. Watson) Xu
4. Empiricist Semantics(M. Schlick, Rudolf Carnap) Xu
5. Semantic Differentiation (Charles Osgood et al: The Measurement
of Meaning) Wu
6. Functionalist Semantics M.A.K.Halliday
7. Logical and Mathematical Semantics(Rudolf Carnap: Introduction to
Symbolic Logic and Its Application) (Alfred Tarski, D. Davidson’)Wu + Xu
8. General Semantics(Korzybski + Stuart Chase) Wu
9. Montague Grammar (Emmon Bach, Barbara Hall Partee, David Dowty,
Stanley Peters Robert) Xu
10. Whorfian Semantics (Benjamin Lee Whorl) Wu
11. Case Grammar(Charles J. Fillmore) Wu
12. Chafe Grammar (Wallace Chafe: Meaning and the Structure of
Language(1970)) Wu
13. Interpretive Semantics(as part of GG; Katz, Fodor, Postal, etc.) Wu
14. Generative Semantics(George Lakoff, James McCawley, Jeffrey
Gruber, Leonhard Lipka) Wu
15. Formal Semantics Jiang
16. Structural Semantics Wu,Xu
17. Use Theory (Wittgenstein, J. Austin) Xu
18. Situation Semantics (John Barwise, John Perry) Xu
19. Collocational Theory Wu
20. Componential Analysis Wu
21. Field Theory (The Theory of Semantic Fields) Wu
22. Fuzzy Semantics
23. Cognitive Semantics
24. Frame Semantics
25. Prototype Semantics
Chapter 12 Some Approaches to
Cultural Semantics
1) Social approach;
2) Anthropological approach;
3) Philosophical approach;
4) Cultural approach;
5) Cognitive approach;
6) Communicative approach.
Chapter 13 Speech Act Theory
The study of speech act started in 1950s.Its two
major reasons of interest are:
(1) P.F. Strawson distinguishes in his article “On
Referring”(1950) the concepts of “expression”,
“use of expression” and “utterance of expression”;
(2)The traditional study of the meaning of a sentence
concentrates mainly upon the statements because
they have “truth value” and can do nothing about
those non-statements.
John L. Austin(Oxford University)is the first one
who started the actual study of speech act and is
the founder of the Oxford school of speech act
study. His speech act theory has much in
common with L. Wittgenstein’s theory {Cf. his
book” Philosophical Investigation” (1953)}. In
1958, Austin classified speech acts into two
kinds: (1) constative; and (2) performative.
Constative speech acts have truth value while
performative ones don’t but distinguish
themselves only by felicity. The performative
speech acts are further divided into
(l) explicit performative and (2) primary
performative. Later, Austin found out some
problems about his above-mentioned
classification. So, in 1962, he put forward
another three concepts: (1) locutionary act; (2)
illocutionary act {which could be further
classified into five kinds: (a)verdictives;
(b)exercitives (c)commissives; (d)behabitives;
(e) expositives. Besides, Austin put forth the
idea of felicity conditions which were later
classified by J.R. Searle into three kinds:
(a)preparatory conditions;(b)sincerity conditions;
(c)essential conditions }; (3)perlocutlonary act
(Cf.” How to Do Things with Words”).The
locutionary act has the meaning(=sense+
reference); the illocutionary act produces
illocutionary force; the perlocutionary act results
in perlocutionary effect. Austin’s ideas led to a
large number of works in 1960s talking about
speech acts. Some (e.g. L. Jonathan Cohen in his
article, 1964) pointed out the shortcomings of
Austin’s theory while some (e.g. 3. Searle in his
articles, 1965, 1968, 1969; J. Sadock, 1974; F.
Katz, l977)further developed his ideas.
A speech act is made up of three key parts: a
speaker, an addressee and a message. The
following are some important terms in the
study of speech acts:
The locutionary source(LSX= the speaker); the
locutionary target(LTX= the addressee);
The time of locutionary act(TLA); The place of
locutionary source(PLS);
The place of locutionary target(PLT);
Locutionary verbs(LV).
Austin regards speaking as doing
something and a speech as an act. In
other words, he mainly regards
illocutionary acts as necessary meaning
components in speech. Generally, the
speech act theory observes, describes and
studies the originating and transmitting of
relevant meanings in the process of
speech, thus broadening the scope of
semantics.
Speech Act Theory and Our Study
The following are some tentative considerations in this aspect:
1) In translation: a translator has to be clear about the
Implicature in source language(SL) and expresses what is
implied in SL in target language(TL).
2) In daily communication: you have to be clear about what is
implied in what the speaker talks about to avoid
misunderstanding and to make your communication more
smooth and effective.
3) In teaching: a language teacher should not only teach
language structures, grammatical miss and vocabulary but
also meaning, implicature and cultural factors.
Chapter 14 Pragmatics
The core parts of pragmatics=speech act theory
(J.L.Austin & J.Searle) + conversational
implicature (H.P.Grice & S.C.Levinson) +
Cooperative Principle (H.P.Grice & S.C.Levinson)
+ Tactness principle (G.N.Leech & Suo Zhenyu)
在H.P.Grice的合作原则和G.N.Leech的礼貌原则基
础上，索振羽提出了言语交际遵循的二大原则=合
作 原 则 (Cooperative principle) ＋ 得 体 原 则
(Tactness principle)。
Pragmatics and Our Study
Pragmatics is the study of meaning in use
while traditional semantics is the study of
meaning without context.
See more from photocopies.
Chapter 15 Intercultural Communication Theory
The factors (internal and external) affecting the participants of the communication:
Linguistic
① Context ﹛Situational﹜
(external factors)
Cultural
speech communication
Speaker ------------------------------------------------------------------------Hearer
② personal background (shared knowledge/experience)
E.g. age, ethnic group, social status, education, family background,
speech community, working experience, etc.. (internal factors)
Intercultural Communication Theory and Our Study
See Photocopies .
Do not forget about your course paper.
Looking forward to your course paper.
Stay in touch, please.
My phone number: 0592-2186655
My fax number: 0592-2188070
My email: [email protected]
Chapter 16 The Ways of Study
1) Qualitative study
2) Quantitative study
3) Contrastive study
The End of Lecture.Thank you !