London School语言学伦敦学派.pptVIP

London School London School London School B. Malinowski Malinowski Theories Language as action Meaning derives from situational context The meaning of an utterance does not come from the ideas of the words comprising it but from its relation to the situational context in which the utterance occurs. Phatic communion (as a type of situation) refers to cases of “language used in free, aimless, social intercourse”. The meaning of utterance in this case is just the “atmosphere of sociability and… that fact of the personal communion of these people.” Malinowski called such utterance “phatic communication”. * * * * context of situation the systematic aspect of langauge systemic linguistics functional linguistics different types of linguistics should be used to describe different purposes, which was one of the precious thoughts J.R. Firth M.A.K. Halliday the first important scholar great influence on J.R. Firth Professor of Anthropology Language as action Meaning derives from situational context Phatic communion (as a type of situation) Malinowski meant that the meaning of a word is not given by the physical properties of its referent, but by its function. When a savage learns the meaning of a word, the process is not accompanied by explanation but by learning to handle it. Likewise, a verb, a word for an action, receives its meaning through an active participation in this action. * *