主体间性
影响说话人选用指示词的因素可以分为两大类,一种是社会性因素,另一种是物理性因素。在英语中,由于所指物的数量引起说话人对选用相应的指示词即是一种物理性因素的体现。
本节从Shin et al 2020一文中抽出部分重要的术语,作为一个有关指示词的完备理论所必要的工具(用红字标出)。这些概念主要基于认知语言学的视角,即一个将语言用和人类认知有关的一些概念进行系统地阐释。这个视角的一个基本特征是将语言视为主观性的产物。人类受到认知的影响,对同一种事物产生不同的理解……
This paper adopts a cognitive linguistic framework to explore the influence of spatial and social factors on the use of demonstratives…
CL framework 认知框架
:spatial factors 空间因素
: physical distance ## worth noticing that such distance scale is difficult for human cognition.social factors 社会因素
: also referred to as intersubjective factors, “such as the negotiation of joint attention and the speaker’s assessment of the relationship between the speakers and the referent”.
Analyses show that demonstratives are not used in a categorical manner to mark differences in physical space. Although participants tended to produce proximal esta for referents near the speaker, both esta and esa were used for referents further from the speaker and closer to the addressee. Participants’ demonstrative selection was also influenced by interaction type: intersubjective misalignment between speaker promoted the use of proximal esta , whereas intersubjective alignment promoted the use of distal esa. These results support the view that nominal grounding is an intersubjective activity. Physical and social factors jointly shape speakers’ construal of the developing co-constructed communicative event as a whole, leading to increasingly variable usage of demonstratives as the referent is more distant both spatially and intersubjectively from the speaker.
assessment 评估
nominal grounding 名词入场
interaction type 互动类型
intersubjectivity 交互主观性
互动类型会影响到说话人对指示词的选用结果。这说明名词入场是一个主体间行为。communicative event 交际事件
交际事件由说话人和听话人共同构建并识解。在发生指示行为的交际事件种,说话人对于指示词的使用必然受到社会因素的影响。为了探讨是何种社会因素,及其对指示词选用的影响,我们将交际事件区分为不同的互动类型。Shin et al(2020)重点研究了两种互动类型:一种是“主体间错位”(intersubjective misalignment)。西班牙语使用者在这种情况下会倾向于使用esta,即传统上被认为是近指的语言表达式。另一种互动类型被称为“主体间对位”(intersubjective),说话人在这种互动类型中会倾向于使用远指表达式esa。
Indeed, numerous studies have provided empirical evidence indicating that physical distance is a prominent factor influencing demonstrative selection (e.g., Anderson and Keenan 1985; Coventry et al. 2008; Hottenroth 1982). Demonstratives may also encode other spatial dimensions, such as the visibility of a referent, the elevation of a referent, where a referent is located with respect to a landmark, and whether a referent is moving away from or toward the deictic center (Diessel 1999).
空间因素和社会因素
空间因素,或称为主客间或物理因素,包括距离、可见性、高度等因素。
Demonstrative usage reflects not only the relationship between the speaker and the referent, but also factors related the intersubjectivity, such as the negotiation of joint attention and the speaker’s assessment of the relationship between the speakers and the referent (e.g., Peeters and Özyürek 2016; Piwek et al. 2008)
社会因素,或称主体间因素,包括注意力的协调以及说话人对于诸说话人和所指物距离的评估。
As indexical signs, demonstratives have both a source, called the deictic center or origo, most commonly associated with the speaker’s location, as well as a goal, associated with the referent location. In the negotiation of joint attention, the origo can shift away from the speaker and toward the addressee. As Rybarczyk (2015: 28) points out in a study of demonstratives and possessives in Polish, these deictic elements of grammar “impose a specific construal on the referent and the speech participants … The speaker’s [linguistic choices reflect] a way of looking at his and/or his addressee’s relation to the referent as well as the speaker-hearer mutual relation.”
指示中心转移
“指示中心转移”是指示词受到社会因素影响的一种经典案例。日语中……
The current study examines the influence of spatial distance and social factors on the distribution of Spanish demonstrative … used exophorically to refer to referents in a shared space between speaker and addressee. Findings from a puzzle completion task indicate that the production of demonstrative terms is guided by the interplay of physical and intersubjective factors. While speakers do make use of predictable deictic reference points in space, intersubjective factors, such as whether the interlocutors are aligned in their attention to a referent, impact the speaker’s construal of the developing co-constructed communicative event as a whole and in turn influence the emerging discourse.
emerging discourse 不断浮现的话语
随着交际事件的进行,话语也在不断地浮现。一次话语事件由参与者共同构建,并为指示词使用者所识解。主体间因素会影响到上述的说话人对于交际事件的识解。所指物在什么位置?(物理)说话人的注意力是否全部联合于同一个所指物?(主体间)对于这些问题不同的答案会导致说话人最终选择不同的指示词。
物理空间亦有主观性
为了描述人的认知,认知语言学家会使用空间隐喻,将人思维的内容描述为一种认知空间。认知空间并不具有物理空间的某些性质,正如Talmy指出,人对于所指对象的认知只具有于量值无关的拓扑几何特征而不具有欧几里得几何学的性质,因而指示词并没有区分距离、大小等概念的功能。他举出以下例子:
a. This speck is smaller than that speck.
b. This planet is smaller than that planet.
达到指示行星,小到指称斑点,都在使用相同的远称和近称。这就说明了人对于物理空间的构建是具有主观性的。既然指示词不能反映出所指物在物理空间中相对于指示中心的具体位置,那么“远”和“近”便也是说话人主观构建出来的。但是还有一个问题,说话人区分远近的依据是什么?物理空间中的欧几里得
Although physical distance plays a role in demonstrative selection, research has also shown that speakers construe space subjectively. Kemmerer (1999: 52) argues that so-called proximal and distal demonstratives can be used to refer to the same referent, regardless of actual distance, and, as such “the referential function of demonstratives is highly subjective and context-dependent, as opposed to being demarcated by a bodily-based boundary such as within vs. beyond the extent of arm’s reach.” Enfield (2003) also demonstrates that spatial distance is subjectively construed. In his analysis of interactions between speakers of Lao, he finds that the so-called ‘distal’ demonstrative can sometimes be used for a referent that is physically very close to the speaker. He argues that “we cannot appeal to objectively measurable distinctions of physical distance but must acknowledge that what determined the choice here is a conceived perimeter in space, again not as mere space but as INTERACTIONAL SPACE.” (p. 96)
认知中的空间并非纯粹的空间,或经典物理学意义上的欧氏空间,而是一种互相作用空间。
As Langacker (2008: 283) puts it, the distinction between this/these and that/those “need not be spatial. If someone says I really like this pen, the proximity coded by this might be spatial (the speaker is holding the pen), temporal (the speaker is holding it now), functional (the speaker is using it), attitudinal (the speaker likes it), or any combination of these. The contrast can thus be described more generally as dividing the field of concern into a proximal region (PROX) centered on the speaker and a distal region (DIST) complementary to it, with respect to various dimensions of awareness.”
所谓的“近”(proximity)是一种隐喻性的描述,其原型是物理空间上的距离,然而在认知层面,它也可以是各种维度的“近”。其核心是对于所关注的场域的划分。
In the case of knocking, the increased intensity is due to the lack of response. The analogy in discourse is the failure to coordinate mental reference (Langacker 2008: 282), or put another way, a lack of intersubjective alignment.