A Relevance-theoretic Account Of Bu X Bu Double Negative Utterances

Frequently used in communication in linguistic communication,double negation(DN for short)in utterances has received attention from a variety of perspectives,syntactic perspective in particular,yet little research has been conducted from the pragmatic perspective.A handful of existing studies on DN utterances carried out from the pragmatic perspective are restricted to the pragmatic functions of DN utterances,leaving such issues as cognitive-pragmatic attributes and interpretation mechanism of DN utterances rarely touched upon.Hence hardly can we explain the ambiguities in the interpretation of DN or the differences in the effects DN conveys.Neither can we uncover the roles of the two bu's in the process of interpreting bu X bu DN utterances.Methodologically speaking,previous studies have been based on isolated instances without proper consideration of their related contexts.In view of these limitations inherent in previous studies,the present study mainly probes into the following research questions on the basis of an analysis of bu X bu DN utterances in Mandarin Chinese:Research question 1:What cognitive-pragmatic attributes do bu X bu DN utterances possess in use?Research question 2:What cognitive-pragmatic effects can bu X bu DN utterances convey as a result from their possession of the above-mentioned cognitive-pragmatic attributes?Research question 3:What roles do bu X bu play in the process of listeners'achieving the above-mentioned cognitive-pragmatic effects?In order to address the above-mentioned three research questions,the present study adopts Relevance Theory as the theoretical framework.Major research methods involved are speculation and a psychological experiment.The study winds up with the following findings.To begin with,utterances involving the use of bu X bu DN utterances,viewed from the perspective of cognitive pragmatics,in nature belong to the category of interpretive use,representing the echoic relationship between one proposition and another.Specifically,bu X bu DN utterances convey echoes of others' utterances or thoughts,or speakers' utterances or thoughts,or popular wisdom;meanwhile DN utterances also represent speaker's attitudes towards these echoed utterances or thoughts.Only bu X bu DN utterances that contain echoes can express assertive speaker meaning.Secondly,being echoic,utterances involving the use of bu X bu DN utterances are interpretive in nature and thus are capable of conveying various cognitive-pragmatic effects,either intensifying tones or mitigating ones.The cognitive-pragmatic effect Specifically,the hearer of a DN utterance decodes and enriches the utterance,and then achieves its explicature and implicated conclusion.Since the hearer has to make extra efforts in interpreting a DN utterance,in return(s)he can achieve rich weak implicatures which lead to either intensified tones or mitigated tones.The specific type of bu X bu often determines whether the marker intensifies or mitigates the tone of the speaker.Thirdly,bu X bu in bu X bu DN utterances is a pragmatic marker in nature,in that while not constituting the proposition content of a DN utterance,it triggers extra efforts on interpreting utterances and extra cognitive-pragmatic effects on the part of hearers.This makes it possible for the hearer to thoroughly interpret speaker meaning of DN utterances,to acquire attitudes or emotions conveyed by speakers.An analysis of the process of interpreting DN utterances conducted by 40 subjects shows that the majority of the subjects succeed in interpreting echoic use in DN utterances and they are also aware of the existence of bu X bu and its pragmatic functions in the interpretation process.The findings in the empirical study to some extent verify the theoretical arguments in Chapters Four,Five and Six.The present study broadens the scope and explores new perspective of grammar-Pragmatics interface research since it introduces cognitive Pragmatics to the interpretation of DN utterances and analyzes the mechanism involved.Secondly,the present research discards previous perspectives for defining DN utterances and clarifies the cognitive-pragmatic conditions for a typical bu X bu DN utterance,which depends our understanding of DN utterances.Besides,pragmatic markers in previous research are always single words or phrases while the pragmatic marker in the present study,i.e.,bu X bu,is a marker with some feature of a construction,which broadens the inquiry scope of pragmatic markers.As for research methods,the present study differs from previous ones in that the former takes the influence of context on the interpretation of bu X bu DN utterances into consideration while the latter bases its analysis on isolated instances.This research is creative in terms of its use of corpora due to the fact that it retrieves the specific,detailed contexts of DN utterances from their original sources.Finally,the present study helps communicators with their understanding of bu X bu DN utterances and helps learners of Chinese language with their mastery of DN utterances.