Pragmatic Inference In The Interpretation Of Tautological Utterance

Tautology is a particular and interesting language phenomenon. In a tautological utterance, the subject and object are presented by the same linguistic elements, a word or a nominal phrase. Although this kind of expression seems to convey no new information, its truth condition is true and has specific value in verbal communication. On the surface, the subject and object are the same; however, the two elements convey quite different meanings and that is why using a tautological utterance in communication can help to convey some information with which the intentions of the speaker can be inferred. This language phenomenon has been controversial. Lots of scholars have accomplished significant achievements in analyzing tautological utterances. Streams like the radical pragmatics, the radical semantics and the adoption of Relevance Theory etc. cannot explain the working mechanisms completely. This thesis combines two main theories together to form the framework which analyses the comprehension of tautological utterances in verbal communication. The two main theories are Relevance Theory and abduction reasoning. According to Sperber and Wilson, pragmatic inference is the core of Relevance Theory. Inference in verbal communications is a non-demonstrative inference. The hearer infers the explicature of the speaker's utterances with the help of the invisible inferential mechanism, and the high-order explicature and implicature is inferred in a further step. Forming the hypothesis is essential in understanding utterances. In Relevance Theory, deduction occupies an important role in the whole pragmatic inference. However, Sperber and Wilson ignore abduction reasoning. In this thesis, Peirce's theories of logical inference and Relevance Theory are integrated as a completed logical framework to analyze the interpretation of tautological utterances in verbal communications. Inference of conversational implicature is the key point in understanding this language phenomenon, and the process is mainly leaded by abduction reasoning and based on Relevance Theory. Deduction and induction forms the hypothesis and tests the hypothesis respectively in the inferential process. In this thesis, the above mentioned theories are adopted to analyze the interpretation of a typical tautological utterance in verbal communications:War is war.