The Semantics and Pragmatics of Taboo Words

禁忌词的语义和语用

• 批准号: 2772131
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Roehampton
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2022 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2772131
• 关键词: Semantics; Pragmatics; Taboo; Words

Taboo words present an interesting contradiction: despite the prohibited status that characterise them, they are intentionally used in everyday communication in probably all languages and cultures. This might indicate that when someone uses a taboo word, they achieve something that cannot be achieved otherwise even with a non-taboo word with the same reference, and this "something" offsets the liability of the prohibition. Many authors have proposed that this "something" that taboo words are capable of conveying is information about emotional states and attitudes. This information, however, cannot be described in the traditional formats used by semantic and pragmatic theories; rather, it belongs to a connotative dimension of meaning that is still insufficiently explored. In view of the undeniable role of emotion in human psyche, this dimension is essential to understand the cognitive nature of communication.Thus, taboo words present themselves as a perfect candidate to explore this fundamental aspect of communication. And yet, they have not received enough attention from Semantics and Pragmatics, being mainly approached from perspectives focused on describing the sociocultural circumstances of their use or origin. Therefore, an adequate theoretical description of the semantic and pragmatic properties of taboo words is still to be provided. This is the goal of this project: to develop an account of the nature of taboo words, their communicative content, especially in a connotative dimension of meaning, and their contribution to cognitive processes of interpretation. The main outcomes of this analysis will be experimentally tested to corroborate their validity using linguistic and psychological methods.If successful, this account will shed some light on the potentially universal role of taboo words in communication and establish solid foundations about their semantic and pragmatic properties, which could contribute to a better understanding of the connotative dimension of meaning and the role of emotions in communication.

禁忌词呈现了一个有趣的矛盾：尽管禁忌词的特征是被禁止的，但它们在日常交流中被故意使用，可能是在所有语言和文化中。这可能表明，当某人使用禁忌词时，他们实现了即使使用具有相同引用的非禁忌词也无法实现的事情，并且这种“某种东西”抵消了禁令的责任。许多作者提出，禁忌语能够传达的信息是关于情绪状态和态度的信息。然而，这种信息不能用语义学和语用学理论所使用的传统格式来描述；相反，它属于意义的内涵维度，仍然没有得到充分的探索。鉴于情感在人类心理中的不可否认的作用，这一维度对于理解交际的认知本质是必不可少的。因此，禁忌词是探索交际这一基本方面的完美人选。然而，语义学和语用学并没有对它们给予足够的重视，主要是从描述它们的使用或起源的社会文化环境的角度来研究它们。因此，对禁忌词的语义和语用特征的理论描述还有待进一步研究。这就是这个项目的目标：阐述禁忌词的性质，它们的交际内容，特别是在意义的内涵方面，以及它们对口译认知过程的贡献。这一分析的主要结果将通过语言学和心理学的方法进行实验验证。如果成功，这一解释将有助于揭示禁忌词在交际中潜在的普遍作用，并为其语义和语用属性奠定坚实的基础，这将有助于更好地理解意义的内涵维度和情感在交际中的作用。