Abstract

Context plays an important role in expressing and understanding semantic contents. Except the situation context and the linguistic context, it also includes cognitive context, which is generally the presumption of the world and the conceptualized and symbolized knowledge structure of speakers. It is impossible to use language without specific linguistic context. Speakers choose the topic and communicate in an appropriate way according to the context, which is closely linked with the utterance in order to convey information. Besides, the development and the comprehension of lexical meaning are, to a large extent, restricted by context. This paper will analyze how the cognitive context restrict the lexical meaning, which is based on the relevance theory from the perspective of the structure of cognitive context and relevant information and so forth.
   In traditional views, context is the physical environment where the communication happens or the linguistic environment, both of which are fixed beforehand. However, cognitive context is a dynamic procedure. It includes information that can be obtained from the actual environment; information which can be called back from memory, namely the pre-stored knowledge, information that can be inferred based on the two sources mentioned above. In another word, it consists of a set of presumptions. Because of various kinds of factors, the knowledge called from the memories of the speakers differs. As communication develops, the cognitive context changes as well. In accordance with the relevance theory, the listener chooses the optimal context effects with minimal efforts, in order to infer the real attempt of the speaker. That means the process of communication experiences the creation of new presumptions based on the existed ones.
This paper consists of five parts. The first part introduces the background，significance and the structure of the whole paper. The second part is literature review, including overviews of the studies of cognitive context both abroad and at home as well as the summary of existing research situations and problems to be solved. The third part shows the theoretical framework of this paper, such as the detailed analyses of the cognitive context, relevance theory and the relation between them. The fourth part analyzes in details, based on the relevance theory, how the cognitive context influences the lexical meaning with specific examples. In this part, the uncertainty of the lexical meaning and the way in which the lexical meaning is affected by the cognitive context will be presented. It includes the broadening and narrowing of lexical meaning as well as how to understand the illocutionary meaning in specific context. The fifth part is the conclusion.

Keywords: context; cognitive context; lexical meaning; pragmatic constraints; the optimal relevance

摘  要

语境是制约语义理解的重要因素,语境不仅限于现实环境中的情景或话语本身的语境，还包括人们对世界的一系列假设并且已经被概念化了或图示化了的知识结构，即人的认知语境。语言的运用离不开具体语言环境，在言语交际中，说话人跟据语境来选择说话方式和具体的内容，话语是和语境结合在一起来传递信息的；语境对词义的发展变化乃至理解都有重要的制约作用。本课题将以关联理论为依据，从动态认知语境的建构，关联信息的明示等方面探讨认知语境如何制约词汇语义。
传统的语境观认为， 语境就是交际者所处的具体环境或者具体的上下文。这些在交际发生之前就应经是固定的，是一种客观存在。 然而，认知语境将语境看成是一个动态变化的过程。除了外在环境，它还包括交际者的知识因素，即交际者的认知能力，大脑中储存的信息， 或者对话语字面意思的推断，是存在听话者大脑中的一系列假设。总的来说， 认知语境的组成部分包括现实环境，储存在交际者大脑中的信息，以及根据客观环境和大脑中储存的信息推断出来的信息。受各种因素的影响， 交际者大脑中被调动起来构成认知语境的因素也不同。 根据关联理论,听话者以最小的加工努力在自己的认知语境中选择出最具语境效应的假设,以此来推导出说话者隐含的信息意图。
本文共五个部分。第一部分介绍本课题的选题背景、重要性和全文的框架。第二部分为文献综述，分别概述了国内外学者对认知语境制约词汇语义的研究状况，并总结认知语境的研究现状以及存在的问题。第三部分是本文的理论框架，包括对认知语境、关联理论以及二者之间关系的具体分析。第四部分以关联理论为理论基础详细阐释了认知语境如何制约词汇语义，如词汇词义的扩大、缩小及其言外之意。第五部分为全文的结论。

关键词：语境；认知语境；词汇语义；语用制约；最佳关联