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Meaning & ContextMeaning•Philosophically-oriented study of meaning: truth-condition•Linguisitically-oriented study of meaning: proposition•Pragmatic studities of meaningTruth-condition•In semantics, truth conditions are what obtain precisely when a sentence is true.• E.g. "It is snowing in Nebraska" is true precisely when it is snowing in Nebraska. Proposition• A proposition is that part of the meaning of a clause or sentence that is constant, despite changes in such things as the voice or illocutionary force of the clause.•Example: The tall, stately building fell is said to express propositions corresponding to the following:"The building is tall.""The building is stately.""The building fell."Pragmatic studies of meaning• 1. Leech's distinction of the verb "mean":Bivalent: X means Y.Trivalent: Speaker means Y by X.•Donkey: 1) ass2)"Janet! Donkeys!"• 2. Sentence meaning vs. utterance meaning.• A sentence is a grammatical concept. It is grammatical unit of language. Its constitution should be in agreement with the grammatical rules. For example, a sentence is composed of a subject and an object.•An utterance is a unit of communication. It is the smallest unit which has certain communicative functions,such as a sequencee of sentences, or a single phrase, or even a single word.sentence meaning vs. utterance meaning•Sentence meaning is abstract, isolated from the context, while utterance meaning is specific and related to the context under which a communication is carried out.•In many situations, the utterance meaning is based on the sentence meaning, however it contains more than the sentence meaning, because the utterance meaning is the result of the combination of the sentence meaning and the context.•Eg. He had a chicken.Pragmatic studies of meaning•Thomas'analysis of meaning:•1) Abstract meaning (meaning potentials; semantics)•2) Speaker meaning:a. contextual meaning (utterance meaning)b. force (illocutionary force)• E.g. "It's very beautiful."The garden/ fountain is very beautiful.This place is very beautiful.I like this place.Context•Hymes's SPEAKING•Lyons, J: six variables of context•Downes: kinds of contextual information•The dynamic nature of contextHymes's SPEAKING•Setting & scene•Participants•Ends (goals, outcome)•Act sequence•Key (manner)•Instrumentality (channels & forms)•Norms of behaviors•Genre (category)•Setting and Scene•"Setting refers to the time and place of a speech act and, in general, to the physical circumstances".• E.g.The living room in the grandparents' home might be a setting for a family story.•Scene is the "psychological setting" or "cultural definition" of a scene, including characteristics such as range of formality and sense of play or seriousness.• E.g. The family story may be told at a reunion celebrating the grandparents' anniversary.At times, the family would be festive and playful; at other times, serious and commemorative.•Participants•Speaker and audience.•Linguists will make distinctions within these categories; for example, the audience can be distinguished as addressees and other hearers.• E.g. At the family reunion, an aunt might tell a story to the young female relatives, but males, although not addressed, might also hear the narrative•EndsPurposes, goals, and outcomes.E.g. The aunt may tell a story about the grandmother to entertain the audience, teach the young women, and honor the grandmother.•Act SequenceForm and order of the event.E.g. The aunt's story might begin as a response to a toast to the grandmother. The story's plot and development would have a sequence structured by the aunt. Possibly there would be a collaborative interruption during the telling. Finally, the group might applaud the tale and move onto another subject or activity•KeyClues that establish the "tone, manner, or spirit" of the speech act.E.g. The aunt might imitate the grandmother's voice and gestures in a playful way, or she might address the group in a serious voice emphasizing the sincerity and respect of the praise the story expresses.•InstrumentalitiesForms and styles of speech.E.g.The aunt might speak in a casual register with many dialect features or might use a more formal register and careful grammatically "standard" forms.•NormsSocial rules governing the event and the participants' actions and reaction.E.g. In a playful story by the aunt, the norms might allow many audience interruptions and collaboration, or possibly those interruptions might be limited to participation by older females. A serious, formal story by the aunt might call for attention to her and no interruptions as norms.•Genre The kind of speech act or event.E.g.The aunt might tell a character anecdote about the grandmother for entertainment, or an exemplum as moral instruction. Different disciplines develop terms for kinds of speech acts, and speech communities sometimes have their own terms for types.Lyons, J: six variables of context•(1) Each of the participants must know his role and status.•(2) The participants must know where they are in space and time.•(3) The participants must be able to categorize the situation in terms of its degree of formality.•(4) The participants must know what medium is appropriate to the situation.•(5) The participants must know how to make their utterances appropriate to the subject-matter and the importance of subject-matter as a determinant in the selection of one dialect or one language rather than another.•(6) The participants must know how to make their utterance appropriate to the province or domain to which the situation belongs.Downes: kinds of contextual information• 1. background knowledge:1) Knowledge of the language2) Meta-conversational rules, norms, conventions3) Participants' biographies4) Metasocial rules, norms, conventions5) The encyclopedia• 2. Mutual knowledge•Each participant's knowledge that the other knows that P, inferred on some basis.• 3. Context of utterance1) previous utterances in same conversation2) immediate setting of speech3) previous conversation of participants何兆熊--语境知识，1989The dynamic nature of context• 1. Context is a dynamic and changing notion instead of static and prefixed.• 2. Context can be manipulable or negotiable.An illustration of the interactive function of context•Brenda:I'm pregnant... and it's your fault.•Brenda: I told you to be careful...•Arthur: How do you know?•Brenda: I'm twelve days late.•Arthur: How do you know it's mine?•Brenda: I ain't done owt like that with Jack for a couple of months or more.•Arthur: Well, have yer tried owt? Took owt I mean?•Brenda: Yes, took pills but they didn't work.From "Language and Society" (Downes, w. 1984)Functions of Context•Have you eaten? (吃过了吗？)•Context 1: meet on the way--greeting.•Context 2: with cakes at hand -- inviting.•Context 3: S visits L for the shopping arrangement at 10 am -- urging.The same utterance in different contexts can mean differently and have different forces.Functions of Context-- from the speaker's perspective• 1. determine the content according to the communicative goals. (ends)• 2. determine the mode of speaking according to the communicative setting. How detailed? How polite? How formal?How loud?• 3. determine the communicative channel according to the conditions.Oral or written? Prepared or improvised?• 1. determine the reference assignment.Do you like this?Have you finished the book?• 2. disambiguationFlying planes can be dangerous.Can you speak English?• 3. semantic enrichment.•It will take some time to repair your watch.。
