英语歧义的交际功能研究

北京联合大学#毕业# Introduction As a universal linguistic phenomenon, ambiguity exists in every language and on every linguistic level. Of course there is no exception to English. It has received worldwide attention, and has been studied for many years on the level of phonology, lexis, syntax and in the field of pragmatics as well. Different linguistic schools explained ambiguity from their own particular perspectives, which have produced many achievements. The generative grammar about deep structure and surface structure by Chomsky (1965) gave a forceful explanation for ambiguous structure. But it has no way to deal with ambiguity whose deep structure is the same with surface one. Leech defined ambiguity from the perspective of semantics, “Ambiguity is a sentence with two or more propositions.”. for centuries, most linguists considered that ambiguity was negative and should be avoided in communication. Ancient Greek Aristotle thought that ambiguity was a kind of fallacious reasoning in the aspect of philosophy. While English linguist Empson considered it as enemies which we must be on guard of. Modern American linguist H. P Grice concentrated on avoiding ambiguity in his “cooperative principle”. Although there were many experts believed that ambiguity was a positive phenomenon. For example, ancient Rome linguist Quintilian thought ambiguity as a powerful weapon in the argument in the court. Modern linguist Jespersen considered ambiguity was a feature of human natural language, and people could not magnify its obstacle to their communication. In most cases, people could not judge a clear meaning of a word or a sentence even with a certain context. So nowadays, ambiguity should be avoided properly. From the above, researchers find the discussion about ambiguity is only regarded as a means to illustrate a certain linguistic theory. With the development of pragmatics, the study of ambiguity on pragmatic level also becomes very important, because researcher’s purpose of studying is to use it well and to make communication go smoothly. So this thesis focuses on pragmatic ambiguity and attempts to make a more systematic study of ambiguity. Firstly, this paper will deal with the definition and classification of English ambiguity from four linguistic levels: phonologic, lexis, syntactic and pragmatic. Then in the second part of this paper will be the positive function of English - 1 - ambiguity. The researcher will state four aspects of ambiguity’s application in daily communication, they are: ambiguity in advertising, the use of ambiguity in political propaganda and appeal, ambiguity in producing humor and ambiguity in avoiding conflicts. Although there are also some negative effects which can be caused be ambiguity, researchers still believe that ambiguity can be a great source of English. People should take full advantages of it to make their communication more fluently and effectively. Meanwhile, the negative effects of English ambiguity should be avoided properly as well, for it will lead to unnecessary misunderstandings and arguments. Everything existing in this world is rational. So does English ambiguity. 1 Ambiguity and its Classification In order to have an overall understanding of ambiguity, in this section, researcher will definite ambiguity and then explain four types of it on linguistic level, focusing on pragmatic ambiguity 1.1 Definition of Ambiguity Ambiguity is a universal linguistic phenomenon, ambiguity exist in every language and on every linguistic level. Qian Gechuan(1980:55) has pointed out that “English is a kind of ambiguous language.”. What is ambiguity? Ambiguity is defined as expressions, which has more than one meaning. In other words, an expression is ambiguous if it can be interpreted in different ways, and the interpretations are not paraphrase of each other. (David 2003:464). Take Chomsky’s (1977) famous sentence for example: Flying planes can be dangerous. (1)Planes that are flying can be dangerous. (2)The act of flying planes can be dangerous. The sentence is ambiguous, since its explanations (1) and (2) are not paraphrases of each other. The same is true of following word bank. Bank 1 means the bank of a river, while bank 2 means the financial. Bank 1 and bank 2 are homonyms, and they are unrelated semantically. So it is also ambiguous. But this ambiguity can be eliminated by context, e.g. “He is walking along the bank”. We all know here bank refers to the bank of a river. 1.2 Classification of Ambiguity The ambiguity can be divided into four types from the angle of linguistics. They are phonological ambiguity, lexical ambiguity, syntactic ambiguity and pragmatic ambiguity. 1.2.1 Phonological Ambiguity Phonological ambiguity can be caused by intonation, homonymy, and stress. Each of them should be analysized separately. 1.2.1.1 Ambiguity Caused by Intonation Generally speaking, a falling tone implies certainty, definiteness and completion; rising tone implies uncertainty, incompletion and subordination. When a sentence can be read both in falling tone or rising tone, ambiguity may occur. (1)A: His daughter is very clever. B: Isn’t she? ↘ (I agree) (2)A: His daughter is very clever. B: Isn’t she? ↗(I don’t agree) In situation (1), the falling tone is used, which stands for agreement. In situation (2), the rising tone is used, which stands for disagreement. So the main communicative function in the dialogue is to show people’s attitude. 1.2.1.2 Ambiguity Caused by Homonymy For example: What I had to eat was only fruit (1)A: Did you have many foods to eat? B: What I had to eat is only fruit. (2)I was on diet then. What I had to eat is only fruit. In this sentence, the word had, which is the past form of have, has two meanings. In the situation (1), have is a transitive verb and has its own object (what); in situation (2), have to is an auxiliary verb and has similar meaning with must. Therefore the sentence may have two ambiguous meanings. 1.2.1.3 Ambiguity Caused by Stress A sentence stress is very important to semantic and grammar information. For example: Must I stick the stamp on myself? (1)A: Must I stick the stamp on myself? B: No, dear. It’s much better to stick it on the paper. (2)A: Must I stick the stamp on myself? B: Yes, dear. In situation (1), stick is a simple verb. On works as a preposition and has no stress. On me is used as a preposition phrase to be a place adverbial. So this dialogue sounds ridiculous. In situation (2), sticks on works as a verb phrase and on has its stress as an adverb. So stress should be paid attention to in utterance in order to avoid ambiguity. 1.2.2 Lexical Ambiguity General speaking, lexical ambiguity falls into two major types: polysemy ambiguity and homonymy ambiguity. Homonymy is a term used to refer to two or more words which have the same form or sound but different in meaning, while polysemy refer to a lexeme that is interpreted as having multiple senses that are not entirely distinct. Looking at the following examples: (1)At last she arrived. (2)He went to the bank. (3)The boy looked backward. (4)She is cold. Sentence (1) is ambiguous because there is polysemous verb arrive which can mean either reach a place or gain success. Thus, the sentence has the following two meanings: (1a)At last, she got to the destination. (1b) At last, she succeeded. Obviously, the ambiguity in sentence (2) results from the homonym bank which may be river bank or money bank. It can be ambiguated by adding words. So, (2a) He went to the riverbank for fishing, (2b) He went to the bank for money. The two possible meanings of sentence (3) are: (3a)The boy seems to be backward. (3b)The boy glances backward. The ambiguity results from look and backward. When backwards functioning as a subject compliment, as shown by the first interpretation, look is a ling verb. While backward functioning as a direction adjunct, look is a notional verb. Cold as an adjective in sentence (4) may mean either the temperature is low or a kind of personality, which be indifferent or hard-hearted to others. Thus we may decode ambiguity by substituting words as follows: (4a)She feels cold. (4b)She is indifferent. All such lexical factors may cause confusion, uncertainty, and misunderstanding to spoil languages in communications. But for languages constructed for literary and pragmatic effects, it is an effective instrument to express varied of emotions. It is