On The Resolution Of Indeterminacy Of Word Meaning In Linguistic Evidence: An OT Perspective

Indeterminacy of word meaning(IWM) in linguistic evidence has been a hard nut for the legal community to crack.Though IWM in linguistic evidence has attracted quite a lot of attention from linguists and scholars in the law circle,no analytical framework for the systematic and consistent study thereof has yet been proposed.The present study attempts to present a detailed discussion on IWM in linguistic evidence from the perspective of Optimality Theory(OT).The specific research questions addressed herein are:What kind of words with indeterminate meaning(WIMs) may judges come across in linguistic evidence? How is OT used to interpret WIMs so as to resolve IWM in linguistic evidence?The resolution of IWM may be defined as the interpretation of a WIM by seeking the super-optimal meaning for the said word(the form) in the context in which the word is employed.Pursuant to the processes suggested by previous studies for resolving IWM,WIMs may be classified into two categories:those in need of pragmatic narrowing and those in need of pragmatic broadening.Furthermore, according to the characteristics of such words,words with indeterminate meaning in need of pragmatic narrowing can be sub-classified into four categories,generic terms, scalar terms,polysemous terms and deictics,while words with indeterminate meaning in need of pragmatic broadening are sub-classified into category extension terms and approximation terms.Based on the optimal model of OT and the Bi-OT suggested by Blutner,together with pragmatic processes suggested by linguists from the field of lexical pragmatics,a theoretical framework for the purpose of the present research is presented.Two characteristics of the suggested analytical framework make it more functional or applicable:firstly,it combines the two pragmatic processes,narrowing and broadening,into one process,the optimization process;secondly,with a view to taking into consideration both the perspective of the Speaker/Author and that of the Hearer/Reader,a Bi-directional Optimization is carried out on WIMs and the possible meanings thereof;accordingly,IWM in linguistic evidence can be resolved by interpreting WIMs with the suggested integrated framework.Cases of IWM collected from the Internet are used as examples in the demonstration of different categories of words with indeterminate meaning and two case studies are performed to testify the feasibility of using the present theoretical framework as a tool to interpret words with indeterminate meanings for resolving IWM in linguistic evidence.The present study,optimistically,has made some contributions to the study of IWM in linguistic evidence,and has proved that OT can be applied to improve the analytical framework of lexical pragmatics.It is hoped that a theoretical framework for interpreting WIMs so as to resolve IWM in linguistic evidence may be established on the basis of the present study.