语言学研究应当同时着眼于两个方面,一方面是语言符号内部要素,一方面是语言使用者,近年来,后一种角度受到了日益广泛的重视。人们通过研究人的言语活动,逐步深入地认识了语言现象中主客体的相互运动及其规律,由单纯的语言符号结构描述所带来的语言主体意识的失落现象,开始得到了改变。 英国当代杰出的法学家弗雷德·汤普森·丹宁在《法律的训诫》一书中指出:“要想在与法律有关的职业中取得成功,你必须努力培养自己掌握语言的能力。”丹宁所强调的,显然不是一般的语言符号内部要素的静态描述,而是对司法言语活动及其规律的认识。 笔者认为,司法言语活动的中心问题是适境,即适切语境。语境,是由一系列客观因素(时间、地点、场合等)和主观因素(人的身份、思想、性格、职业、修养、处境、心境、心情等)所构成的使用语言的环境。司法言语的优劣高下,归根到底是由对语境的适切程度所决定的。 Linguistic research should focus on two aspects at the same time. On the one hand, it is an internal element of linguistic signs and on the other hand, it is a language user. In recent years, the latter perspective has received more and more attention. By studying human speech activities, people gradually and profoundly understand the mutual movements and laws of the subject and the object in the language phenomenon. The phenomenon of the loss of the subjective consciousness of the language brought by the simple description of the linguistic signs has begun to change. Fred Thompson Denning, a prominent contemporary jurist in the United Kingdom, points out in The Laws Commandment: “To succeed in law-related professions, you must work hard to develop your own mastery of language.” Dan What Ning emphasizes is obviously not a static description of the general internal elements of linguistic signs, but an understanding of judicial speech and its laws. The author believes that the central issue of judicial speech activities is to adapt to the situation, that is, appropriate context. Context is a language-based environment consisting of a series of objective factors (time, place, occasion, etc.) and subjective factors (human identity, ideology, personality, occupation, accomplishment, situation, mood, mood, etc.). Judicial superiority and inferiority of speech, in the final analysis is determined by the appropriateness of context.