Gricean Maxims托福聽力原文翻譯及問題答案

2023-06-13 16:25:00 來源：中國教育在線

一、Gricean Maxims托福聽力原文：

Narrator:Listen to part of a lecture in a linguistics class.Female Professor:OK,the conventions or assumptions that govern conversation—these may vary from one culture to another,but basically,for people to communicate,there's,uh—they have to follow certain rules.Like,if I'm talking with you,and I start saying things that're not true—if you can't tell when I'm lying and when I'm telling the truth,well,we’re not going to have a very…satisfactory conversation,are we?Why?Because it violates one of the“Gricean maxims.”That's a set of rules or s a philosopher named H.P.Grice came up with in the 1970s.One of these Gricean maxims is…well,I've already given you a hint.

Male Student:Oh,you just can't go around telling lies.Female Professor:Right—or,as Grice put it,“Do not say what you believe to be false.”That's one of Grice’s maxims of quality,as he called it.So that's pretty obvious. But there're others just as important.Like,ah,suppose you were to ask me what time it was,and I replied,“My sister just got married.”What would you think?

Male Student:Uh,you're not really answering my question!Female Professor:No,I m not,am I? There's no connection at all,which feels wrong because you generally expect to find one.So one important maxim is simply,“Be relevant.”And using this so-called maxim of relevance,we can infer things as well—or rather,the speaker can imply things and the listener can make inferences.For instance,suppose you say you’d really love to have a cup of coffee right now.And I say,“There's a shop around the corner.”Now,what can you infer from what I said?

Male Student:Well,that the shop sells coffee,for one thing.

Female Professor:Right!And that I believe it’s open now.Because if I weren't implying those things,my response would not be relevant.It’d have no connection with what you said before.But according to the maxim,my response should be relevant to your statement,meaning we should assume some connection between the statement and the response.And this maxim of relevance is quite efficient to use;

even if I don’t spell out all the details,you can still make some useful logical inferences,namely“the shop is open”and“it sells coffee.”If we actually had to explain all these details,conversations would move along pretty slowly,wouldn't they?OK,then there's the maxims of manner,including things like“Be clear”and“Avoid ambiguity.”

And another,more interesting maxim is one of the so-called maxims of quantity—quantity of information,that is.It says to give as much information as is required in the situation.So suppose you ask me what I did yesterday and I say,“I went to the art museum.”You would likely infer that I saw some works of art.Suppose though that I did not go inside the museum,I just walked up to it,then left.Then I've violated the quantity maxim by not giving enough information.So you can see how important implications are to our ability to carry on a conversation.

But there are times when people will violate these maxims on purpose.Let's say a boss is asked to write a letter of recommendation for a former employee seeking an engineering job.The letter he writes is quite brief—something like,uh,Mr.X is polite and always dresses neatly.So what does this really mean?

Female Student:Oh,I see.By not mentioning any important qualities related to the job,the boss is,like,implying that this is the best that can be said about Mr.X—that he's really not qualified.Female Professor:Exactly.It’s a written letter,not a conversation,but the principle's the same.The boss is conveying a negative impression of Mr.X without actually saying anything negative about him.So,by violating the maxims,we,ah—it-it can be a way to be subtle or polite…or to convey humor,through sarcasm or irony.Sometimes,though,people will violate maxims for another purpose—to deceive.Now,can you imagine who might do such a thing?Male Student:Some politicians!Female Student:Or advertisers.Female Professor:Right.Anyone who may see an advantage in implying certain things that are untrue…without explicitly saying something untrue.They think,“Hey,don't blame us if our audience happens to draw inferences that’re simply not true.”

So next time you see an advertisement saying some product“could be up to 20 percent more effective,”think of these maxims of quantity and relevance and ask yourself what inferences you’re being led to draw. Think:“More effective than what,exactly?”And why did they use those little phrases“could be”and“up to”?These claims give us a lot less information than they seem to.

二、Gricean Maxims托福聽力中文翻譯：

旁白：在語言學(xué)課上聽一節(jié)課的一部分。女教授：好的，支配談話的慣例或假設(shè)可能因文化而異，但基本上，對于人們的交流來說，呃，他們必須遵循某些規(guī)則。比如，如果我和你談話，我開始說一些不真實(shí)的話，如果你不知道我什么時候撒謊，什么時候說實(shí)話，那么，我們就不會有一個非?！钊藵M意的談話，是嗎？為什么？因?yàn)樗`反了“格里斯格言”這是20世紀(jì)70年代一位名叫H.P.Grice的哲學(xué)家提出的一套規(guī)則。格里斯的格言之一是……嗯，我已經(jīng)給了你一個提示。

男學(xué)生：哦，你就是不能到處撒謊。女教授：對，或者，正如格萊斯所說，“不要說你認(rèn)為是假的?！边@是格里斯的質(zhì)量準(zhǔn)則之一，正如他所說的那樣。這很明顯&nbsp；但還有其他同樣重要的因素。比如，啊，假設(shè)你問我現(xiàn)在幾點(diǎn)了，我回答說：“我姐姐剛結(jié)婚。”你會怎么想？

男學(xué)生：呃，你沒有真正回答我的問題！女教授：不，我不是，是嗎&nbsp；根本沒有聯(lián)系，這感覺不對，因?yàn)槟阃ǔＯＭ业揭粋€。因此，一條重要的格言很簡單，“相關(guān)性強(qiáng)”利用這個所謂的相關(guān)性準(zhǔn)則，我們也可以推斷出一些事情，或者說，說話者可以暗示一些事情，聽者可以做出推斷。例如，假設(shè)你說你現(xiàn)在真的很想喝杯咖啡。我說，“拐角處有一家商店?！爆F(xiàn)在，你能從我說的話中推斷出什么？

男學(xué)生：首先，這家商店賣咖啡。

女教授：對！我相信它現(xiàn)在已經(jīng)開放了。因?yàn)槿绻覜]有暗示這些事情，我的回答就沒有意義了。這和你之前說的沒有關(guān)系。但根據(jù)格言，我的回答應(yīng)該與你的陳述相關(guān)，這意味著我們應(yīng)該假設(shè)陳述和回應(yīng)之間存在某種聯(lián)系。這條關(guān)聯(lián)準(zhǔn)則使用起來非常有效；

即使我沒有詳細(xì)說明所有細(xì)節(jié)，你仍然可以做出一些有用的邏輯推斷，即“商店開門”和“它賣咖啡”如果我們真的要解釋所有這些細(xì)節(jié)，對話就會進(jìn)展得很慢，不是嗎？好的，還有禮貌準(zhǔn)則，包括“清楚”和“避免歧義”

另一個更有趣的格言是所謂的信息量格言，即。它說在這種情況下提供所需的盡可能多的信息。假設(shè)你問我昨天做了什么，我說：“我去了藝術(shù)博物館?！蹦憧赡軙茢辔铱吹搅艘恍┧囆g(shù)品。假設(shè)我沒有走進(jìn)博物館，但我只是走到那里，然后離開了。那么我就違反了數(shù)量準(zhǔn)則，沒有提供足夠的信息。所以你可以看到，這對我們進(jìn)行對話的能力有多么重要。

但有時人們會故意違反這些準(zhǔn)則。比如說，一位老板被要求為一位尋求工程工作的前雇員寫一封推薦信。他寫的信很簡短，比如，呃，X先生很有禮貌，總是穿著整潔。那么這到底意味著什么呢？

女生：哦，我明白了。老板沒有提到任何與工作相關(guān)的重要品質(zhì)，這就意味著這是對X先生最好的評價——他真的不合格。女教授：沒錯。這是一封信，不是一次談話，但原則是一樣的。老板在傳達(dá)對X先生的負(fù)面印象，但實(shí)際上沒有對他說任何負(fù)面的話。所以，通過違反格言，我們，啊，這可以是一種微妙或禮貌的方式……或者通過諷刺或諷刺來傳達(dá)幽默。然而，有時人們會為了另一個目的而違背格言來欺騙他人。現(xiàn)在，你能想象誰會做這樣的事嗎？男生：一些政客！女學(xué)生：或者廣告商。女教授：對。任何人都可能認(rèn)為暗示某些不真實(shí)的事情有好處……而不明確地說一些不真實(shí)的事情。他們認(rèn)為，“嘿，如果我們的觀眾碰巧得出了根本不正確的推論，不要責(zé)怪我們。”

所以，下次當(dāng)你看到一則廣告說某個產(chǎn)品“可能會提高20%的效率”時，想想這些數(shù)量和相關(guān)性的準(zhǔn)則，問問自己，你被引導(dǎo)得出了什么樣的推論；思考：“確切地說，比什么更有效？”為什么他們會使用那些小短語“可能”和“最多”？這些說法給我們的信息比表面上少得多。

三、Gricean Maxims托福聽力問題：

Q1:1.What is the main topic of the lecture?

A.The reasons people are not always truthful in conversations

B.The need for greater regulation of language used in advertising

C.The need for maximum precision and detail in everyday conversation

D.The role of certain rules in determining what a speaker means

Q2:2.According to the professor,what helps speakers keep conversations from proceeding too slowly?

A.The ability to make inferences according to the Gricean maxims

B.The ability to effectively distinguish truth from falsehood

C.The willingness to acknowledge that a Gricean maxim has been violated

D.The willingness to ignore the Gricean maxim on occasion

Q3:3.For each of the following,indicate whether or not it reflects one of the Gricean maxims that the professor mentions.[Click in the correct boxes.]

Q4:4.Why does the professor describe a letter of recommendation?

A.To point out differences between written statements and spoken statements

B.To illustrate how people may be deceived in a business environment

C.To show how violating a maxim may contribute to a statement’s meaning

D.To provide that lying is sometimes considered acceptable

Q5:5.What does the professor imply about advertisers?

A.They are less likely than politicians to violate a Gricean maxim.

B.They realize that consumers know whether an advertisement violates a maxim.

C.They often make use of the Gricean maxims to express humor.

D.They realize that consumers make false inferences from advertisements.

Q6:6.What type of maxim does the professor illustrate with this example:

A.Manner