An Experimental Study On The Difference Between Literal Meaning And What Is Said

Literal meaning and what is said are both important notions in the study of meaning and have attracted considerable attention in the field of linguistics.Whether they exhibit difference or what kind of difference they have is still in debate and has not yet reached any final agreement.Previous studies related to literal meaning and what is said are mostly performed from the theoretical aspect,but very few empirical studies have been conducted.The present study attempts to advance the discussion on the difference between literal meaning and what is said experimentally,by taking 180 M.A.and Ph.D.candidates majoring in English as Participants,and endeavors to answer the following questions: 1)Can advanced Chinese English learners differentiate between literal meaning and what is said? 2)Do they react differently to literal meaning and what is said? 3)What are the main factors that influence their judgments on literal meaning and what is said? Experiments 1 and 2 are conducted on 90 participants,and experiments 3 and 4 are conducted on the other 90 participants.In experiment 1,the Participants are invited to judge the literal meaning of independent expressions without context;in experiment 2,they are asked to choose the literal meaning of each utterance based on the contextual information;in experiment 3,the Participants are instructed to judge what the expression says;in experiment 4,the Participants are asked to choose what each expression says when enriched contextual information is provided.The test items in the four experiments are consistent.As evidenced by these experimental results,advanced English learners could not identify literal meaning well,but they can recognize what is said clearly.Based on the contextual information,it is more difficult for participants to recognize literal meaning,but easier for them to identify what is said of the utterances.However,overall,advanced English learners could not distinguish literal meaning and what is said very clearly.The results also support the relationship between the two notions: they are different notions,but closely related to each other.This study is thought to be valuable for the further researches on literal meaning and what is said.