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在南師馬上就研二了，每學期結束寫課程論文都會焦頭爛額，好歹都熬過來了。突然想起我們現在的作業和考研的答題有點像。如果當初俺就能這么答題，那肯定分很高吧~~~~ 呵呵， 不要介意我的小小自戀，只是給考研的童鞋提供個參考。 1. The relationship between referential theory and representational theory The referential theory and the representational theory are both about the question of how it is that we can use language to describe the world, or in other words, how does the meaning of a word is formed? Back to the times of Plato, he had proposed the most primitive Naming Theory, the basic idea of which is that words are just labels of the objects they stand for. The current referential(or denotational) theory of our times seems to bear some resemblance to the Naming Theory, in that its supporters believe we can give the meaning of words and sentences by showing how they relate to types of things and situations in the world. For instance, nouns are meaningful because they denote entities in the world and sentences because they denote situations and events. Therefore, we can say that in referential theory, meaning derives from the direct links between language and reality. However, many scholars brought up their doubts on this theory: for one thing, some words cannot be used to denote the outside world, yet they are not meaningless; secondly, when different words are used to denote the same object, these words are not necessarily of the same meaning. Therefore, it seems that meaning is more than just reference. Representational theory, however, are more concerned with the way we interpret the world with our conceptual structure, thus meaning derives from language being a reflection of our conceptual structures. Therefore, the real world (referent) and words (symbol) are not directly linked, but rather linked through the mediation of concepts in the mind. Representational theory holds that the ways we talk about the world are influenced by each language’s conventional ways of viewing situations. Except reference, a meaning also has sense. Sense places a new level between words and the world, a level of mental representation. Thus a noun can denote something because it is associated with something in the speaker/hearer’s mind. This, however, raises a new question about what mental representation is. Some thinks mental representations are images in our head, but a more explainable view is that they are concepts in our mind. One influential theory of concepts is the prototype theory. By a general comparison, we can see that referential theory and representational theory are two different views about meaning. The difference between them is whether or not they take into consideration the role of men’s cognition in the formation of meaning. Referential theory takes the perspective of the relation between language and the external world, while representational theory emphasizes more on the relation between language and mind. Therefore, they can be complementary to each other when trying to explain how we use language to describe the world. However, it’s also true that both theories have questions yet to answer, such as non-referring expressions in referential theory, and the structure of concept in representational theory. 2. The relationship between language and culture and its pedagogical implications. It is widely accepted that language is an essential part of a specific culture and that the impact of culture upon the language within it is intrinsic and indispensable. In order to have a deeper understanding of the relationship between language and culture, we should first get to know what culture is. Culture, in a broad sense, means the total way of life of a people, including customs, belief, literature, systems, institutions and language and so on. Language not only expresses facts and events, but also reflects people’s attitudes, beliefs, world outlooks etc. On the other hand, when a person acquires a certain culture, the knowledge and beliefs in that culture are habitually encoded and transmitted in his language. For instance, the word dragon is considered evil in western culture, but in China, dragon is a rather sacred and blessing creature of imagination. Therefore, language both expresses and embodies cultural reality. A very influential yet controversial theory in the study of the relationship between language and culture is the SAPIR-WHORF HYPOTHESES. The theory holds that, the structure of the language people habitually use influences their understandings of the world. This means that, language can determine our thinking patterns, and similarity between languages is relative. There has developed a strong version and a weak one of the SAPIR-WHORF HYPOTHESES. The strong one emphasize the decisive role of language as the sharper of our thinking patterns, and the weak version suggests that there is a correlation between language, culture and thought. However, there are still many controversies about this hypothesis. There is reliable evidence which suggests the validity of it, such as the study on a “timeless language” Hopi. Those who support the idea of linguistic universality also find counter-evidence in the investigation of color vocabulary in various languages. No matter which is more convincible, the SAPIR-WHORF HYPOTHESES has shed two important insights: firstly, language reflects cultural preoccupations and constrains the way people think; secondly, it’s rather necessary to take context into consideration when we are trying to thoroughly understand the meaning of words. Therefore, given the close correlation between language and culture, to give full play of cultural knowledge in language learning will be considerably beneficial. Successful mastery of a certain language has much to do with an understanding of that culture. To realize the facilitating role of cultural knowledge, we can: 1) get the students familiar with cultural differences; 2) help the students transcend their own culture and see things as the members of the targeted culture will; 3) to emphasize the inseparability of understanding language and understanding culture through various classroom practices. | 
發表于 2011-9-4 19:40
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