Gricean Maxims托福听力原文翻译及问题答案

Gricean Maxims托福听力原文翻译及问题答案

一、Gricean Maxims托福听力原文：

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托福听力中文翻译：

旁白：在语言学课上听一节课的一部分。女教授：好的，支配谈话的惯例或假设可能因文化而异，但基本上，对于人们的交流来说，呃，他们必须遵循某些规则。比如，如果我和你谈话，我开始说一些不真实的话，如果你不知道我什么时候撒谎，什么时候说实话，那么，我们就不会有一个非常……令人满意的谈话，是吗？为什么？因为它违反了“格里斯格言”这是20世纪70年代一位名叫H.P.Grice的哲学家提出的一套规则。格里斯的格言之一是……嗯，我已经给了你一个提示。

男学生：哦，你就是不能到处撒谎。女教授：对，或者，正如格莱斯所说，“不要说你认为是假的。”这是格里斯的质量准则之一，正如他所说的那样。这很明显&nbsp；但还有其他同样重要的因素。比如，啊，假设你问我现在几点了，我回答说：“我姐姐刚结婚。”你会怎么想？

男学生：呃，你没有真正回答我的问题！女教授：不，我不是，是吗&nbsp；根本没有联系，这感觉不对，因为你通常希望找到一个。因此，一条重要的格言很简单，“相关性强”利用这个所谓的相关性准则，我们也可以推断出一些事情，或者说，说话者可以暗示一些事情，听者可以做出推断。例如，假设你说你现在真的很想喝杯咖啡。我说，“拐角处有一家商店。”现在，你能从我说的话中推断出什么？

男学生：首先，这家商店卖咖啡。

女教授：对！我相信它现在已经开放了。因为如果我没有暗示这些事情，我的回答就没有意义了。这和你之前说的没有关系。但根据格言，我的回答应该与你的陈述相关，这意味着我们应该假设陈述和回应之间存在某种联系。这条关联准则使用起来非常有效；

即使我没有详细说明所有细节，你仍然可以做出一些有用的逻辑推断，即“商店开门”和“它卖咖啡”如果我们真的要解释所有这些细节，对话就会进展得很慢，不是吗？好的，还有礼貌准则，包括“清楚”和“避免歧义”

另一个更有趣的格言是所谓的信息量格言，即。它说在这种情况下提供所需的尽可能多的信息。假设你问我昨天做了什么，我说：“我去了艺术博物馆。”你可能会推断我看到了一些艺术品。假设我没有走进博物馆，但我只是走到那里，然后离开了。那么我就违反了数量准则，没有提供足够的信息。所以你可以看到，这对我们进行对话的能力有多么重要。

但有时人们会故意违反这些准则。比如说，一位老板被要求为一位寻求工程工作的前雇员写一封推荐信。他写的信很简短，比如，呃，X先生很有礼貌，总是穿着整洁。那么这到底意味着什么呢？

女生：哦，我明白了。老板没有提到任何与工作相关的重要品质，这就意味着这是对X先生最好的评价——他真的不合格。女教授：没错。这是一封信，不是一次谈话，但原则是一样的。老板在传达对X先生的负面印象，但实际上没有对他说任何负面的话。所以，通过违反格言，我们，啊，这可以是一种微妙或礼貌的方式……或者通过讽刺或讽刺来传达幽默。然而，有时人们会为了另一个目的而违背格言来欺骗他人。现在，你能想象谁会做这样的事吗？男生：一些政客！女学生：或者广告商。女教授：对。任何人都可能认为暗示某些不真实的事情有好处……而不明确地说一些不真实的事情。他们认为，“嘿，如果我们的观众碰巧得出了根本不正确的推论，不要责怪我们。”

所以，下次当你看到一则广告说某个产品“可能会提高20%的效率”时，想想这些数量和相关性的准则，问问自己，你被引导得出了什么样的推论；思考：“确切地说，比什么更有效？”为什么他们会使用那些小短语“可能”和“最多”？这些说法给我们的信息比表面上少得多。

三、Gricean Maxims托福听力问题：

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

B.Quality

C.Quantity

D.Relevance

四、Gricean Maxims托福听力答案：

A1:正确答案：D

A2:正确答案：A

A3:正确答案：BAABA

A4:正确答案：C

A5:正确答案：D

A6:正确答案：D