Relevance Theory and Lexical Pragmatics: a Study of tou in Chinese

概要

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From a relevance-theoretic perspective, this paper attempts to present evidence from Chinesein support of the claim that the ad hoc concept construction is essentially a creative process, based on acollection of Chinese examples which involves tou ‘head’. On the relevance-theoretic approach outlinedin this paper, the conceptual adjustment of encoded concept of Chinese tou ‘head’ may require somepragmatic adjustments of broadening or narrowing. This process of pragmatically fine-tuning encodedconcept takes place as a natural by-product of the search for an optimally relevant interpretation andsatisfying the expectations of relevance generated from a particular utterance is its motivating factor. Asa result of this fine-tuning, the hearer may construct slightly different interpretations. Consequently, theutterance is understood literally, approximately, hyperbolically or metaphorically.
2012-03-31