A Study Of Lexical Pragmatic Enrichment From The Perspective Of Relevance Theory

Lexical pragmatics is a branch of pragmatics which has received a widespread attention of many scholars in recent years.It aims to explain how the literal word meanings are modified in different contexts.However,lexical pragmatic enrichment processes such as lexical narrowing and lexical broadening are generally studied respectively.To fill in the gap,relevance theorists have been trying to find a unified approach to explain those pragmatic processes.They thought that as a type of pragmatic enrichment,lexical pragmatic enrichment is also an optimal relevance seeking process with the cost of least effort to achieve the maxim cognitive effects.So the current study aimed to explain the mechanism of lexical pragmatic enrichment from the perspective of relevance theory with the examples taken from Song Ci.The aim of this study is to deal with the questions as follow:(1)What lexical pragmatic enrichment processes are involved in Song Ci?What is the mechanism of lexical pragmatic enrichment processes when people try to read Song Ci?(2)Is there any ad hoc concept construction process when people try to read Song Ci?(3)What factors influence people's lexical pragmatic enrichment processes when they are reading Song Ci?To answer the questions above,the author first selected 30 Song Ci in Three Hundred Song Ci to explore the lexical pragmatic enrichment phenomena(narrowing.broadening)which are involved in different poem sentences and analyzed them from the perspective of relevance theory.Then,to verify if there is any ad hoc concept construction process when people try to read Song Ci,the author designed a questionnaire including the 30 sentences selected from the 30 Song Ci selected for analysis with multiple choice items.Each poem sentence includes one lexical pragmatic enrichment processes.A total of 124 participants participated in the questionnaire survey.To investigate the third question "the factors influences people's lexical pragmatic enrichment processes" the author interviewed several participants based on the result of questionnaire.The results firstly show that pragmatic narrowing and broadening are involved in Song Ci and the understanding of certain lexical items in Song Ci is an optimal relevance seeking process under mutual adjustment of explicit content,contextual assumptions and cognitive effects.Secondly,the results of the questionnaire analysis show that the ad hoc concept construction process exists when people try to read Song Ci.Thirdly,from the perspective of relevance theory,the mental,contextual and encyclopedic factors are found to influence people's lexical pragmatic enrichment processes when they are reading Song Ci.This study analyzes the lexical pragmatic phenomena in the Song Ci from the perspective of relevance theory and helps to enrich the study of lexical pragmatic enrichment and Song Ci from a new perspective of relevance theory.Practically,Song Ci is worth being studied.For one thing,by studying Song Ci based on linguistic theories,Chinese people's cultural identity can be improved and the traditional culture can be spread by explaining the mechanism lexical pragmatic enrichment processes behind Song Ci.The traditional culture involved this study may also attract foreigners to study Song Ci and the culture carried by Song Ci.For another,teachers may know how to help students understand Chinese classical poems better after knowing the mechanism of lexical pragmatic enrichment in Song Ci.