語用功能看英語語言中的歧義現(xiàn)象

1、LULIANG UNIVERSITY分類號(hào)： 密 級(jí)： 畢 業(yè) 論 文題 目: 從語用功能看英語 語言中的歧義現(xiàn)象 系 別: 外語系 專業(yè)年級(jí): 英語2012級(jí) 姓 名: 梁 慧 學(xué) 號(hào): 20120302105 指導(dǎo)教師: 郭煥平 碩 士 2016年03月21日  A Study on English Ambiguity from Pragmatic Perspective     A Graduation Thesis Submitted byLiang HuiIn Partial Fulfillment of the Requi

2、rementsForThe Degree of Bachelor of ArtsIn the Subject of English LinguisticsToDepartment of Foreign LanguagesOfLuliang UniversitySupervisor: Guo HuanpingMarch, 21, 2016原 創(chuàng) 性 聲 明本人鄭重聲明：本人所呈交的畢業(yè)論文，是在指導(dǎo)老師的指導(dǎo)下獨(dú)立進(jìn)行研究所取得的成果。畢業(yè)論文中凡引用他人已經(jīng)發(fā)表或未發(fā)表的成果、數(shù)據(jù)、觀點(diǎn)等，均已明確注明出處。除文中已經(jīng)注明引用的內(nèi)容外，不包含任何其他個(gè)人或集體已經(jīng)發(fā)表或撰寫過的科研成果。對(duì)本文

3、的研究成果做出重要貢獻(xiàn)的個(gè)人和集體，均已在文中以明確方式標(biāo)明。本聲明的法律責(zé)任由本人承擔(dān)。論文作者簽名： 日 期： 關(guān)于畢業(yè)論文使用授權(quán)的聲明本人在指導(dǎo)老師指導(dǎo)下所完成的論文及相關(guān)的資料（包括圖紙、試驗(yàn)記錄、原始數(shù)據(jù)、實(shí)物照片、圖片、錄音帶、設(shè)計(jì)手稿等），知識(shí)產(chǎn)權(quán)歸屬呂梁學(xué)院。本人完全了解呂梁學(xué)院有關(guān)保存、使用畢業(yè)論文的規(guī)定，同意學(xué)校保存或向國家有關(guān)部門或機(jī)構(gòu)送交論文的紙質(zhì)版和電子版，允許論文被查閱和借閱；本人授權(quán)呂梁學(xué)院可以將本畢業(yè)論文的全部或部分內(nèi)容編入有關(guān)數(shù)據(jù)庫進(jìn)行檢索，可以采用任何復(fù)制手段保存和匯編本畢業(yè)論文。如果發(fā)表相關(guān)成果，一定征得指導(dǎo)教師同意，且第一署名單位為呂梁學(xué)院。本人離校后

4、使用畢業(yè)論文或與該論文直接相關(guān)的學(xué)術(shù)論文或成果時(shí)，第一署名單位仍然為呂梁學(xué)院。論文作者簽名： 日 期： 指導(dǎo)老師簽名： 日 期： 摘 要 我們處在一個(gè)信息大爆炸的時(shí)代，電子閱讀和傳統(tǒng)閱讀充斥著我們的生活。而英語是國際交流最廣泛的一種語言手段，這就要求我們必須成為一個(gè)高素養(yǎng)的英語學(xué)習(xí)者，能夠理解英語文章，從而與國際接軌。歧義是語言中普遍存在的一種現(xiàn)象，英語語言中也存在歧義現(xiàn)象。而且，英語歧義會(huì)阻礙我們接收以英語為載體的大量國際信息，因此了解英語歧義現(xiàn)象是勢在必行的。本文運(yùn)用文獻(xiàn)研究法、經(jīng)驗(yàn)總結(jié)法、比較分析法，首先總結(jié)了語言層面的歧義。其次著重研究了語用歧義的分類及涵義。即在前人的研究基礎(chǔ)上將歧義

5、與語用功能結(jié)合起來，將歧義放在實(shí)際層面。通過研究學(xué)習(xí)，得知語用歧義也可以發(fā)揮積極作用。因此，全面掌握歧義的優(yōu)缺點(diǎn)，可以提高我們的語言理解和語言運(yùn)用能力，從而使我們具備快速瀏覽英文信息的能力。關(guān)鍵詞:英語；語用歧義；積極作用AbstractWe are living in an information era when electronic reading and traditional reading are filled with our life.And English is the most popular language means used in international com

6、munication,which requires that we should become high-quality English learners to be able to understand English articles and act on international convention.Ambiguity is a phenomenon generally existing in language and English also has ambiguity phenomenon.What's more,English ambiguity can make it

7、 difficult for us to receive a great deal of international information.Therefore,learning English ambiguity is imperative.This paper first summarizes linguistic ambiguity in English and then mainly studies the types and connotation of pragmatic ambiguity by using literature research method,experient

8、ial summary method and comparative analysis method.That is to say,on the basis of previous study,this paper combines ambiguity and pragmatics,which puts ambiguity on the actual application level.Through research learning,we know pragmatic ambiguity can also play a positive role.So mastering advantag

9、es and disadvantages of ambiguity roundly helps to improve our verbal comprehension and verbal skill so that we can have the ability to quickly browse information.Key Words:English; pragmatic ambiguity; positive role Contents1 Introduction11.1Basic information11.2 Methods and significance of the stu

10、dy12. Linguistic ambiguity in English22.1 Phonetic ambiguity22.2Lexical ambiguity32.3Grammatical ambiguity32.4Semantic structure ambiguity33.Pragmatic ambiguity and its significance33.1Owerview of pragmatic ambiguity43.2Types of pragmatic ambiguity53.2.1Speech act ambiguity53.2.2Discourse ambiguity5

11、3.2.3Deixis ambiguity63.2.4Implicature ambiguity73.3Positive functions of pragmatic ambiguity83.3.1Aesthetic effect83.3.2Propaganda function83.3.3Humor function83.3.4Changing the subject to adjust the mood83.3.5Inspiration imagination84. Conclusion8Bibliography10Acknowledgements1171 Introduction Pra

12、gmatics emphasizes the proper expression and accurate understanding of discourse meaning in different contexts and seeks and establishes the fundamental principles and criteria which make the utterance meaning be expressed properly and understood accurately.By contrast,ambiguity means that a certain

13、 kind of language structure maintains more than one meanings.However,the previous study just involves phonetic ambiguity,lexical ambiguity, grammatical ambiguity and semantic structure ambiguity,which is static.Pragmatic ambiguity puts the ambiguity study on the dynamic level,which improves our comp

14、rehension abilities of language using in actual life.1.1Basic information Ambiguity, as a phenomenon generally existing in language, illustrates the special relationship between the structure of language form and its inherent meaning.If one structure of language form has more than one meaning,this s

15、tructure is ambiguous.English also has ambiguity phenomenon. Ambiguity study of western countries originated from speculative thought of ancient Greek philosophy .Then ambiguity is studied from its internal factors,such as phonetic ambiguity,lexical ambiguity,grammatical ambiguity and semantic struc

16、ture ambiguity,which just lingers on the theoretical level and puts the emphasis on its negative influence.With the development of linguistics, the further study on ambiguity and the emergence and flourishing of pragmatics in the1960s,the ambiguity in the process of using language began to be studie

17、d.That is to say,pragmatic ambiguity study came into being,while pragmatic ambiguity study in our country appeared in the early 1980s and further developed in the late 1980s.And now it flourishes.Pragmatic ambiguity study underlines the ambiguity on the practical level,which is dynamic and stresses

18、its functions from a positive perspective.1.2 Methods and significance of the studyThere are three main study methods in my thesis：literature research method, experiential summary method and comparative analysis method.On the basis of previous study,this paper not only summarizes the phonetic ambigu

19、ity,lexical ambiguity,grammatical ambiguity and semantic structure ambiguity,but also further studies, the theories of pragmatics,ambiguity, even pragmatic ambiguity and its functions.This paper combines ambiguityand pragmatics,which puts ambiguity on the actual application level to have a good know

20、ledge of ambiguity phenomenon. It also emphasizes the positive influences of ambiguity in the process of use.Further study of pragmatic Ambiguity helps us to improve our verbal comprehension and verbal skill so that we can be high-quality English learners in future, because in this way,we can remove

21、 some language obstacles for English learners and improve theirabilities of language learning and using.2. Linguistic ambiguity in English The types of linguistic ambiguity include phonetic ambiguity, lexical ambiguity, grammatical ambiguity and semantic structure ambiguity.Linguistic ambiguity is o

22、n the language description level,which is ambiguity's internal factors. Linguistic ambiguity is the foundation of ambiguity study to a certain extent.2.1 Phonetic ambiguityPhonetic ambiguity means that listeners have multiple understanding of speakers' words as a result of homophone,homonym

23、or liaison,schwa and stress in our spoken language.The examples are as follows:Eg1:A:When does the baker follow his trade? B:Whenever he kneads the dough.Knead means揉面 need means需要dough means 生面，錢So sentence B has two meanings:面包師需要錢時(shí)就開始了生意;面包師揉面時(shí)就開始了生意.There are also such pairs as sow and sew,right

24、 and wright,meat and meet, dear and deer,flour and flower.Eg2:It's hard for listeners to distinguish "a nice man" And "an ice man"or"I scream" and "ice cream"or "a name"and "an aim" because of liaison.Eg3:That's all I know. a.That&#

25、39;s all I know.那是我知道的一切，說明我就知道那些。 b.That's all I know.也許還有其它什么事，但這是我知道的一切。 c.That's all I know.那是我所知道的一切。 d.That's all I know.那是我知道的一切，其他人也許知道得更多。2.2Lexical ambiguityLexical ambiguity refers to that people hold different understanding toward one sentence due to their different understan

26、ding of a certain word in the sentence.There are some example:Eg1.Where is the button? a.扣子在哪里？B.開關(guān)在哪里？Eg2.I saw her duck. a.我看見了她的鴨子。B.我看見她潛入水中。2.3Grammatical ambiguityIf one sentence can be explained through two or more kinds of grammatical structure analyses,which lead to different understanding

27、of the sentence,it is called grammatical ambiguity.Eg1.The dog is ready to eat. a.The dog is ready to eat something. b.The dog is ready for people to eat.Eg2.Tell me if you come. a.Tell me whether you1 will come. b.If you come,please tell me earlier.2.4Semantic structure ambiguityAccording to Chomsk

28、y's theory of transformational grammar,Chomsky put forward the idea of two levels of syntactic structure:deep structure and surface structure.If the surface structure of a sentence has more than one deep structure in the same time,the sentence is ambiguous.The following are some cases.Eg1.He is

29、the best man to choose. a.He is the best man to do the choosing. b.He is the best man that we can choose.Eg2.No work will kill him. a.Any work will not kill him. b.Doing no work will kill him.3.Pragmatic ambiguity and its significanceIn order to further research the ambiguity,we can't omit pragm

30、atic ambiguity.There is no doubt that pragmatic ambiguity must be closely related to pragmatics and must be studied in the scope of pragmatics.Pragmatics refers to that speakers express utterance which owns two or more illocutionary act implications in specific environment or context.It studies ambi

31、guity in use.Compared with linguistic ambiguity in chapter2, pragmatic ambiguity is rarely researched by language learners.And ambiguity is used to being regarded as morbidity.In this chapter,we mainly study pragmatic ambiguity and its positive impacts. 3.1Owerview of pragmatic ambiguity Besides the

32、 linguistic ambiguity,there is also another kind of ambiguity called pragmatic ambiguity. Pragmatic ambiguity occurs in a given context in communicative activities,It has nothing to do with the linguistic features.Therefore,it is also called context ambiguity.And context ambiguity can be divided int

33、o situational context,cultural context and cognitive context,which is defined as non-linguistic context.Situational context example is the knowledge related with reading material.The knowledge exists outside the text but is still crucially important for the understanding of text and language study.I

34、n the current practice of reading instruction,emphasizing the implication influence of situational context on the discourse is very useful.By the control of situational context,listeners and speakers can understand the words correctly.Take the word"power"for example.In different scopes of

35、the research,power has different meanings.The following are examples.I will give you all the help within my power.life terms:我會(huì)盡力幫助你的。Which political party is in power now?Political language:目前哪一個(gè)政黨是執(zhí)政黨？What is the power of this engine?Physical language:這臺(tái)發(fā)動(dòng)機(jī)的功率有多大？Cultural context refers to the soc

36、ial culture background which is related with the verbal communication.It has two sides:cultural custom that people inherit and develop life modes from age to age in social life,is a kind of collective habit of social mass in language,behavior and mentality,which can restrain and standardise people w

37、ho belong to this collective.The other is social regulation which means various criteria and regulation of society to language communicative activities.Some examples of cultural context:In American English,the first floor means 一樓，while in British English,the ground floor means 一樓.Once upon a time,a

38、n English boy went to America and he asked a waiter in a restaurant where the toilet was when he wanted to go to stool.The waiter told him the first floor.Then the English boy went to the second floor.Cognitive context is different from the contexts above.The source of context is objective reality.H

39、owever,context is not directly,mechanically determined by objective reality.Through cognitive activities,human's various needs are related to the outer world.Cognitive context is a building in the process of communication which is a kind of context effect produced by the stimulation of speech or

40、 context.People having different cognition will understand speech differently.For example,the sentence"He specialized in selling old and valuable books" can be understood as"old but valuable books"or "old books and valuable books"If the listener is a person who speciall

41、y goes to secondhand book market to select some valuable books,with the influence of psychological expectation,he will understand the sentence in the first way.3.2Types of pragmatic ambiguity Next we will discuss pragmatic ambiguity more carefully.Pragmatic ambiguity maintains speech act ambiguity,d

42、iscourse ambiguity, deixis ambiguity and implicature ambiguity.Knowing the types of pragmatic ambiguity,we can distinguish ambiguity right so that we can master and use it as a positive tool.3.2.1Speech act ambiguityIndirect speech act theory was firstly put forward by semantic philosopher,Searle in

43、1969.It means that a type of illocutionary act is indirectly realized through the expression of another illocutionary act.Understand literal force firstly,then infer its indirect implication according to literal force.Look at the corresponding examples.Eg1.Can you reach the salt? Its literal force i

44、s "inquiry",but in fact it doesn't want to inquire the listener whether he has the ability to do so.The listener must infer the indirect pragmatic meaning-"request"through its literal force.Eg2.There is a wolf in the mountain. My recorder has been broken by someone.The two se

45、ntences are statements in the discourse.Both of their literal force are"statements",but their indirect implication may differ with the change of context.The firstsentence may be "warning"or "frightening",while the second sentence may be "complaining"or"ap

46、ology".3.2.2Discourse ambiguityThe continuous discourse made up of some words,no matter a dialogue or an article,is an integral whole which is usually consistent and smooth representing some intention.Lexical connector,referential ties,ellipsis,consistency of perspective and wording belonging o

47、f the speaker and listener,and information structure are all the means that make the discourse smooth and consistent.One structure form may have different discourse analyses so that ambiguity appears.There are some common types of discourse ambiguity. a. Referential ties (1)Bill told his cousin that

48、 he should visit him before he left for Boston. In this sentence,we don't identify who would go to Boston. （2）Jane watched Julia walk into the library with her brother. In this sentence,we don't know the brother referred to whose brother,Jane 's or Julia's.b.Consistency of perspectiv

49、e and word belonging of speaker and listenerA discourse usually consists of two people：speaker and listener.Difference between the two persons may trigger ambiguity. Example:A:Did you have any luck hunting tigers in India？ B：Marvellous luck.Didn't come across a single tiger.In sentence A,luck me

50、ans finding tiger and hunting it,while luck means that no encounter with a tiger is safe because tiger is fierce.Now that the two persons hold different views,they endow the same word,luck,with distinct meanings.c.Information structureIf a discourse doesn't have a fixed issue or applies to two o

51、r more issues,the ambiguity will arise.Example:Teacher:Give me a sentence containing an object. Student:Yes,ma ma:"You are very beautiful." Teacher:That's a sentence,but what's the object? Student:A good mark.For the teacher,object means 賓語，while the student translates object as 目標(biāo)

52、，目的.The teacher let student find out the object while student tells teacher that his aim is to please teacher to get a good score.d.EllipsisSometimes,difference between ellipsis structure and its meaning may lead to ambiguity. Example:He loves his dog more than his children.This sentence can be tran

53、slated into:He loves his dog more than he loves his children；or He loves his dog more than his children love his dog.3.2.3Deixis ambiguity When we speak,we must contain time,place,person,identity,utterance and so on,and the language structure used to express them is called deixis.In English,these wo

54、rds and grammatical category include personal pronoun,demonstrative pronoun,definite article,adverb of time and adverb of place.Indicating information of discourse is the key to understanding and expression.Misunderstanding of indicating information may cause ambiguity.Then I will cite several examp

55、les of deixis ambiguity.(1) As a freshman at a university,I failed to catch the details of a particular assignment in interpersonal class.So I asked the student next to me,"When is it due?""July"she answered,patting her pregnant belly. In "When is it due?""it"

56、means the assignmentarranged by the teacher,while the answerer understands "it"as fetus in her belly.(2) When the woman next door gave birth ,her husband phoned his mother-in-law with the good news,"We have twins!"he told her. The phone connection was bad and she didn't hear

57、him clearly."Could you repeat that?"she shouted. "I doubt it,"answered the new father,sounding startled."In fact I'm surprised it happened the first time." For the wife's mother,she used "that"to replace the words said by the son-in-law,while the son-i

58、n-law,while the son-in-law understood "that"as the fact that his wife gave birth to twins.3.2.4Implicature ambiguityIn speech communications,the meaning of the sentence in itself is distinct from the pragmatic meaning that the speaker use this sentence to express.This pragmatic meaning is what we usually call conversational implicature.It is an important research part of pragmatics a