Ambiguity, accessibility, and a division of labor for communicative success
Ambiguity, accessibility, and a division of labor for communicative success
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DOI：
10.1016/s0079-7421(08)00006-6
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发表时间：
2008-01-01
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影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
Ferreira, Victor S.
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文献类型：
--
作者：
Ferreira, Victor S.
人们说话是为了被理解，所以他们应该说出容易让听众理解的话语。本章首先描述的证据表明，尽管歧义是给听者带来困难的一个众所周知的因素，但说话者很少回避模棱两可的句子。相反，说话者似乎会选择那些对他们来说特别容易说的话，特别是通过更早地产生更容易理解、更容易想到的材料，以及更不容易理解、更难想到的材料。如果说话者说出的话很容易说，但不是容易听懂的话，我们怎么能相互理解呢？第三条证据表明，即使句子在结构上是模棱两可的，它们也可能包含足够的信息，让理解者能够弄清楚它们的意思。这表明，说话者产生模棱两可的话语仅仅是因为他们能够--因为他们的语言的语法只会让他们产生足够明确的话语，无论如何，他们的大部分时间都能被理解。因此，我们相互理解，因为说话者即使不是最佳可理解的，也能高效地发出话语；听话人做他们需要的事情来理解他们的说话者；语法确保一切都正常进行。(C)2008年，爱思唯尔公司。
People talk to be understood, and so they should produce utterances that are easy for their listeners to understand. I begin this chapter by describing evidence showing that speakers rarely avoid sentences that are ambiguous, even though ambiguity is a factor that is well known to cause difficulty for listeners. Instead, speakers seem to choose utterances that are especially easy for them to say, specifically by producing more accessible, easy-to-think-of material sooner, and less accessible, harder-to-think-of material later. If speakers produce utterances that are easy to say but not utterances that are easy to understand, how is it that we understand each other? A third line of evidence shows that even when sentences are structurally ambiguous, they are likely to include enough information for comprehenders to figure out what they mean. This suggests that speakers produce ambiguous utterances simply because they can-because the grammar of their language will only let them produce utterances that are unambiguous enough to be understood most of the time anyway. And so, we understand each other because speakers produce utterances efficiently even if they are not optimally understandable; addressees do what they need to understand their speakers; and the grammar makes sure everything works out properly. (c) 2008, Elsevier Inc.