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格赖斯(H.P.Grice)的《意义》是20世纪意义理论的一个里程碑式的论文。其中心观点是在语言交往行为中将意图作为关键概念来理解说话人的意义。在大多数情况下,他关注的是说话人的非自然意义。即A通过X非自然地意谓着P,相当于说出X以通过认识其意图的方式对听众产生某些影响。用通俗的话说,即理解意义的途经在于让说话人的意图被听众所理解并产生回应或效果。通过对此种意义观的批评和回应的历史作简单回顾,可以看到格赖斯的意义理论存在着许多自身的困难。但这也同时说明,尽管格赖斯的理论是不完善的,这个理论却激发了许多哲学家试图对其挑战、修改和完善,并发展出像刘易斯(C.I.Lewis)的“约定”、塞尔(J.R.Searle)的“言语行为”和斯特劳森(P.Strawson)的“意图,约定和言语行为”等重要的意义理论。在这些工作的基础上,可以通过引进一个推理概念作为必要条件,把意义理论从仅仅对意图的猜测引到对意图的追问,从而避免格赖斯理论中的错综复杂的子意图和无穷倒退的难题。
H.P. Grice’s “Meaning” is a landmark paper on 20th-century theory of meaning. The central point of view is to understand the speaker’s meaning by using intention as the key concept in the language communication. In most cases, he focuses on the non-natural meaning of the speaker. That is, A unnaturally implies P by X, which is equivalent to saying X to exert some influence on the listener by knowing its intention. In plain words, the way to understand meaning lies in having the speaker’s intention understood by the audience and producing a response or effect. Through a brief review of the criticism of this view of meaning and the history of responses, we can see that there are many difficulties in Grice’s theory of meaning. But this also shows that although the theory of Grice is imperfect, this theory has inspired many philosophers to try to challenge, revise and perfect it and to develop “conventions” like CILewis. JRSearle’s “Speech Act” and P.Strawson’s “Intent, Convention, and Speech Act” and other important theories of meaning. On the basis of these works, we can avoid the intricate sub-intension and endless regression of Grice’s theory by introducing a concept of reason as a necessary condition, leading the theory of meaning from mere speculation of intention to questioning of intention .