Language use as principle: The adaptation theory account Shaozhong Liu, Ph.D. (Pragmatics) / Ph.D. (Higher Education) School of Foreign Studies, Guilin

Language use as principle: The adaptation theory account

Shaozhong Liu, Ph.D. (Pragmatics) /

Ph.D. (Higher Education)

School of Foreign Studies, Guilin University of Electronic Technology

Homepage: www.gxnu.edu.cn/Personal/szliu

Blog: cyrusliu.blog.163.com

Email: [email protected]

11/12/2011 essentials in pragmatics, fall 2011 1

Synopsis

1. Acquainting with Jef Verschueren

2. Adaptation theory: 1987; 1999

3. AT: What and why?

4. The explanatory adequacy of the AT

5. References


1. Acquainting with Jef Verschueren

• Secretary General, IPrA (International Pragmatics Association), IPrA Research Center/Antwerp Center for PragmaticsUniversity of Antwerp - StadscampusPrinsstraat 13B-2000 AntwerpBelgium

• Current webpage at universiteit antwerpen: http://www.ua.ac.be/main.aspx?c=jef.verschueren


Jef Verschueren


2. Adaptation theory: 1987; 1999

2.1 IPrA's scientific goals• The INTERNATIONAL PRAGMATICS

ASSOCIATION (IPrA) was established in 1986 to represent the field of pragmatics in its widest interdisciplinary sense as a functional (i.e. cognitive, social, and cultural) perspective on language and communication. In particular, it pursues the following goals:


1). the search for a coherent general framework for the discussion and comparison of results of the fundamental research, in various disciplines, carried out by those dealing with aspects of language use or the functionality of language;

2). the stimulation of various fields of application (such as language teaching, the study of problems of intercultural and international communication, the treatment of patients with language disorders, the development of computer communication systems, etc.);


3). the dissemination of knowledge about pragmatic aspects of language, not only among pragmaticians of various 'denominations' and students of language in general, but in principle among everyone who, personally or professionally, could benefit from more insight into problems of language use.


2.2 Pragmatics as a theory of linguistic adaptation

This is the name of a booklet, which is often mentioned as the IPrA Working Document 1), published by International Pragmatics Association at Antwerp. Later “documents” of the IPrA were issued and mentioned as “handbooks” which came out in, often, annual series. Please refer to either the IPrA homepage at http://www.uia.ac.be/ipra/hop/ or John Benjamins Publishing House at http://www.benjamins.com.


• The Handbook of Pragmatics Online places the field of research known as pragmatics at its center of interest. But our broad definition of pragmatics as the cognitive, social, and cultural study of language and communication indicates the breadth of the issues we see as relevant to the study of language use and language in use. Details of what such a broad definition of pragmatics exactly means, and what it entails for the scientific status of linguistic pragmatics, is explained in Jef Verschueren´s overview article The pragmatic perspective (which already appeared in the 1995 Manual; a more complete account is to be found in J. Verschueren, 1999, Understanding Pragmatics, London, Edward Arnold).


• The overall purpose of the Handbook of Pragmatics Online is that it should function as a tool in a search for coherence in the sense of cross-disciplinary intelligibility, in this necessarily interdisciplinary field of scholarship.

• To the extent that theories — in the sense of coherent and systematically organized sets of assumptions, principles and procedures — can be said to have a central position at all in pragmatics, none of the current ones are adequate to capture the full richness of simple but fundamental intuitions about what it means to use language. Moreover, it would be pretentious to believe, at our present state of knowledge about the use of language, that anything exceeding the barest outline of a program leading to a


sufficiently sophisticated theory could be formulated right now. Nor is it clear that it would be desirable to have one theory, since theoretical depth is more likely to result from the availability of competing models, or even competing paradigms – as we have witnessed in recent decades as proponents of monologism vs. dialogism have explored very different facets of language use. The Handbook of Pragmatics Online is primarily intended to organize our present limited knowledge in such a way as to stimulate future research and interdisciplinary debate, and to reduce the risks inherent in disconnected fragmentary studies.


• Even this limited aim for the Handbook may seem overly ambitious. Yet there are good reasons to strive for greater coherence, even if it is not the intention to produce one overarching theory. The jumble of scientific enterprises with the label `pragmatic' is marked by such a high degree of fragmentation that two linguists with slightly different methodological and terminological backgrounds might be unable to understand each other when talking about the same subject, even if the basic points they are trying to make are very similar. A reasonably coherent way of organizing knowledge about pragmatic aspects of language is indispensable if we want to achieve a minimal degree of comparability across topics of inquiry, across terminologies, and across methodologies.


• Such comparability is a conditio sine qua non for any form of fruitful cooperation (which has been recognized for ages in the sciences as a basic requirement for the accelerated growth of insights). Without comparability across methodologies and terminologies, and without inter(sub)disciplinary cooperation, we cannot expect to have the means to undertake any serious applicability of our insights in areas such as language teaching, the treatment of speech disorders, international and intercultural communication, or natural language processing systems, to name just a few of the more important ones.


• There is no doubt that the International Pragmatics Association has exerted a beneficial influence on the international development of the multidisciplinary field of pragmatics, by means of its regular International Pragmatics Conferences, its participation in the organization of smaller-scale events, its publications, and the like. The Handbook of Pragmatics can clearly be situated in the same kind of context, and now, the Handbook of Pragmatics Online seeks to become yet another outlet and means in this continuous search for (inter)disciplinary coherence. It follows that the major task of the Handbook of Pragmatics Online is not so much the search for unity as the struggle against counterproductive fragmentation.


• It should, therefore, represent a continuous exercise in flexibility, rather than an attempt to impose a monolithic and unchangeable framework. In other words, it is not intended to consolidate a new, artificial, field of research, but to enhance understanding by promoting communication across the various (sub)disciplines which are, in part or in their totality, relevant to pragmatics.


• Some basic options follow from this brief description of the purpose and scope of the Handbook of Pragmatics Online.

- Firstly, the primary aim of the Handbook of Pragmatics Online is to provide easy access, for scholars with widely divergent backgrounds but with converging interests in the use and functioning of language, to the different topics, traditions and methods which, together, make up the field of pragmatics, in its broadest sense.


• - Secondly, it is not intended as a textbook per se, nor is it intended to be a forum for new research; rather, it pertains first and foremost to be a state-of-the-art report. The governing principle is that it will not be a once-and-for-all ready presentation of what goes on in the field of pragmatics, but that it is a reference work to be continuously updated. In principle this will be a process taking place over an indefinite time span. The main caveat in relation to an attempt to keep up with new developments, is to make sure that whatever is of value in ‘outdated’ trends and ideas should remain accessible. If the right balance is found between historical accuracy and the timely recording of innovative work, the Handbook of Pragmatics Online can develop into a major instrument of real scientific growth.


• - Thirdly, the intended target audience is a wide, international and interdisciplinary academic community covering the entire range of the humanities, and the social, cultural, and cognitive sciences. In addition, it wants to address any individual with a personal or professional interest in the problems of language use.


• - Fourthly, given the general purpose and scope, and given the practical options they entail, a special problem is posed by the strong need for a transcultural approach which pays due attention to the treatment of non-western traditions. A predominantly ‘western’ slant can easily be detected in this first version of the Handbook of Pragmatics Online. Rather than reflecting a choice, this is merely the result of circumstances, in particular the restrictedness of knowledge readily available to the editors during the preparation of the project. In terms of active choices, a different picture is anticipated for the future development of the Handbook. That is, non-western concepts and traditions, whenever relevant, will become an integral part of the presentation: such


• linguistic traditions, as well as related disciplines, will be systematically screened for the ways in which they provide insight into the functioning of language. This search was seriously undertaken in our work on the paper-published version of the Handbook of Pragmatics, but we feel we have so far not been successful enough. This first online version will therefore retain this inadequacy, but we foresee a change for the better with the help of the international Editorial Board, which coincides with the IPrA Consultation Board, and with the help of the international network of scholars in the International Pragmatics Association.


2.3 Understanding Pragmatics

• SynopsisThis textbook focuses on pragmatics in its broadest sense, covering the social, cultural and cognitive aspects. The first section of the book sketches a theoretical starting point for the exposition, making use of a limited prior knowledge of some general linguistic concepts. The second section provides the building blocks for an understanding of pragmatics as a potentially coherent field of inquiry, while the third explores methodological issues with reference to specific practical research questions.


• ContentsIntroduction (0.1 linguistics of language resources: component of a

linguistic theory 0.2 linguistics of language use: the pragmatic perspective 0.3 pragmatics and interdisciplinarity 0.4 meaningful functioning of language 0.5 an infinite task? 0.6 summary and further reading 0.7 preview)

Part I The pragmatic perspective (Introduction 1. Language and language use 2. Key notions)

Part II Aspects of the meaningful functioning of language (Introduction 3. Context 4. Structure 5. Dynamics 6. Salience)

Part III Topics and trends (Introduction 7. Micropragmatic issues 8. Macropragmatic issues 9. The pragmatic landscape)


3. AT: What and why?

• Originally a working definition or working framework for IPrA and its scientific activities

• Under the heading 9.3, Verschueren considers the philosophical bases or precursors or parallels of AT

--My use of the notion of adaptability does not appear in a vacuum, but could be seen as in instance of ‘an emerging paradigm” (Van Parijs, 1981.. Evolutionary explanation in the social sciences: an emerging paradigm. Totowa, NJ: Rowman & Littlefield) in the social sciences. (Verschueren, 1999:263)


--In particular, evolutionary epistemology extends biological theory, and especially its natural selection paradigm, to all aspects of behavior and socio-culture, including language, learning and science. (Verschueren, 1999:263)

• Charles Darwin and his evolutionary epistemology:--Evolutionary epistemology views organisms as

engaged in continuous problem-solving, positing behavioral and socio-cultural adaptations as the product of ‘epistemic’ processes, and interpreting human evolution in general as a growth of knowledge. (Ibid, 1999:264)11/12/2011 essentials in pragmatics, fall 2011 24

--There is a constant interplay of the organism to the environment, so that although natural selection may be adapting the organism to a particular set of environmental circumstances, the evolution of the organism itself changes those circumstances. (Darwin, (1859) 1978. The origin of species by means of natural selection or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. New York: Mentor Books, p.159)


--Applied to language, the variability of such functional explanations may depend (as argued by Van Parijs) on a distinction between natural selection mechanisms in evolution (selecting or eliminating features through the selection or elimination of the entities which they characterize) and reinforcement mechanisms (selecting features directly), the latter being closer to what seems to happen in the shaping of languages and, by extension, in the functioning of language. (Ibid, 1999:264)


• Jean Piaget and his evolutionary psychological theories about learning (Piaget, 1971. Functions and structures of adaptation. In J. Piaget (1971). Biology and knowledge. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, pp.171-77 ). Piaget believes that human beings need to cope with multidirectionality of adaptation, which can be seen as an equilibrium between assimilation (the integration of a new element into an organism’s cycle) and accommodation (the organism’s being modified as a result of the assimilation). (Ibid, 1999:264)11/12/2011 essentials in pragmatics, fall 2011 27

• Vygotsky (1978. Mind in society: the development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press) and his mental development theory

--Vygotsky views mental development as ‘those means of adaptation we call signs’. He further develops his views in Thought and Language (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1986)


• Edward Sapir (1921. Language: an introduction to the study of speech. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich) and his adjustment theory

--It (speech) is an extremely complex and ever-shifting network of adjustments—in the brain, in the nervous system, and in the articulating and auditory organs—tending towards the desired end of communication. (Sapir, 1921:9)


• P. Lieberman (1975. On the origins of language: an introduction to the evolution of human speech. New York: Macmillan) on adaptation:

--Human language could have evolved only in relation to the total human condition. There would have been no selective advantage for retention of the mutations that gradually resulted in the evolution of human language if language had not been of used in what Darwin in 1859 termed the ‘struggle for existence’ (Liebermen, 1975:1)


• Adaptability as universality (Verschueren, 1999:58-63)

• Levels of adaptability (Ibid, 1999: 75-201)

--adaptability to context (1999: 75-114)

--adaptability to structure (1999:11-146)

--adaptability to dynamics (temporal, contextual, structural) (1999: 147-172)

--adaptability to salience (1999:173-201)


4. The explanatory adequacy of the AT

• Verschueren defending himself:

--AT in context (1999: 75-114)

--At in structure (1999:11-146)

--At in dynamics (temporal, contextual, structural) (1999: 147-172)

--At in salience (1999:173-201)


• At in application

--[PDF] Linguistic Adaptations in Spoken Human–Computer DialoguesFile Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat... 173 References .....175 ... Suchdeliberate linguistic adaptations can be ... www.lib.kth.se/Fulltext/bell031003.pdf


--AT in China (at http://www.cnki.com.net) Adaptation Theory in China 1994-2004-5-17: Titles

1.顺应理论对口译的解释力曾文雄贵阳师范高等专科学校学报 ( 社会科学版 ) 2002/03

2.顺应理论与外语教学谢少万外语与外语教学 2003/04 3.顺应理论与英语口语教学谢少万山东外语教学 2003/04

4. “也评顺应理论” 谢少万西安外国语学院学报 2003/03 5. 从顺应理论角度探析语用失误的原因李桂芝、张国中

国海洋大学学报 ( 社会科学版 ) 2003/01


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• 顺应论对翻译研究的启示—— 兼论语用翻译标准

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• 从语用顺应论的角度看翻译策略与方法• 王建国 - 外语研究 , 2005 - cqvip.com

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5. References

• Verschueren, J..1999. Understanding pragmatics. London: Edward Arnold, & Beijing: FLTR Press, 2000.

• IPrA homepage at http://www.uia.ac.be/ipra/hop/• John Benjamins Publishing House at

http://www.benjamins.com. • Verschueren, J. 1987. Pragmatics as a theory of

linguistic adaptation. IPrA Working Document 1. Antwerp: IPrA.


Documents

Language use as principle: The adaptation theory account Shaozhong Liu, Ph.D. (Pragmatics) / Ph.D. (Higher Education) School of Foreign Studies, Guilin