Cognitive Studies On Indirect Speech

From the perspectives of the relevance theory and the conceptual integration theory, this paper aims to probe into the mental mechanisms involved in the process of indirect speech interpretation. It aims to introduce a new way of understanding indirect speech between a speaker and an addressee. Mainly conceptual blending from conceptual integration theory and inference from relevance theory are used to develop this understanding from cognitive and pragmatic point of view. Relevance theory and conceptual integration theory supplement each other in relation to the correct understanding of indirect speech. Communicating indirectly is a common linguistic phenomenon in the daily communication. But because of its indirectness, there sometimes will be misunderstanding between the speaker and the addressee. Many scholars have carried out researches on this phenomenon. The problem posed by indirect speech is the problem of how it is possible for the hearer to grasp the intended meaning. The conceptual blending and inference help to make powerful interpretation. This thesis will study this from cognitive and pragmatic perspective. In chapter I, the definition of indirect speech and its classification are introduced. Then, it is a review of the previous studies of indirect speech: Grice's conversational implicature, Searle's indirect speech act and relevance theory. But the previous studies have some problem unresolved. Chapter III give some introduction of conceptual integration. The essence of the conceptual integration theory operation is to construct a partial match between input spaces and to project selectively from those inputs into a novel "blended"mental space, which then dynamically develops emergent structure. It has been suggested that the capacity for complex conceptual blending ("double—scope"integration) is the crucial capacity needed for thought and language. The model of conceptual integration theory together with the inference process of relevance theory is used to deduce the process of understanding of indirect speech. Chapter IV is the concrete exhibition of the understanding process by the model in Conceptual Integration.