literary criticism: a cognitive approach(6 )(5)

part 3

Herbert Simon


Potential and Actual Meaning潛在的與實際的意義




It is an important fact that, even when the word is read, not all or even most of these components of meanings are generally evoked. We have seen that which are evoked in any given instance will depend much upon both reader and context. We need to distinguish potential meaning from actual meaning.

這是一項重要的事實，即，即使詞被讀了，然而一般而言，它的意義的諸組項，卻並未全部甚至大半被引發。我們在上文的例子已看到，那些被引發的，端視其讀者和語境而定。我們需要區分潛在的與實際的意義。




The whole store of information indexed by the string D-O-G (as well as other things that can be obtained from it by association--cat, mammal, wolf, pet, and whatnot) constitutes the potential meaning of "dog." The tiny subset of this vast

totality that is evoked in a particular reader on seeing the word in a particular context may be regarded as the actual meaning in that context on that occasion. (Here I am counting, dear reader, on evoking in you, as part of your meaning of "actual," a knowledge of its French and Spanish cognates.)





由D-O-G 串列(以及能夠由它所聯想到的東西—貓、哺乳類、狼、寵物和其他難於描述的[東西等等)所引得(索引、指標)、的全體資訊儲存，構成"dog."的潛在的意義。由某特定讀者在某特定語境中，從此廣大全體(案：潛在的意義)所引發的小部分，可視為在彼時比語境下的實際的意義。 (在此，親愛讀者，我要靠向你引發的它的法與和西班牙語的同源語(cognate)來作為你的” 實際的”意義之一部分。)

cognate [Show phonetics]adjective SPECIALIZED
describes languages and words that have the same origin, or that are related and in some way similar:
The Italian word 'mangiare' (= to eat) is cognate with the French 'manger'.

cognate [Show phonetics]noun [C] SPECIALIZED
a word that has the same origin, or that is related in some way, to a word in another language

work like a Trojan (US work like a dog) APPROVING
to work very hard

It would be dogwork to repeat this exercise for other concrete nouns, abstract nouns, verbs, and other parts of speech. I will limit myself to a few remarks. In each case, the meaning is that which is evoked by reading the word (if reading is our concern) or that which evokes it (if our concern is writing). In the case of concrete nouns and many verbs, the meaning may include the perceptual tests of presence or absence of the thing or event designated. It is in this sense that the intension of a declarative sentence is synonymous with its truth conditions. This is what Tarski intended in asserting that "Der Schnee ist weiss" means that the snow is white. When the meaning of a declarative sentence is abstract, the truth conditions may be complex and indirect. What are the truth conditions for "that is an illegal act" or "selfishness is the only

sound basis for altruism?"

如果將上述的說法，再轉變成具體名詞、抽象名詞、動詞，以及言語其他部分，那我們可能要很辛苦，會累得像隻狗般(原文稱它為dogwork， 呼應上文談狗) 。所以我只想稍加說明。在上述的每一情況，讀該字所引發的意義(如果我們關心的是閱讀)或那一東西引發了它(如果我們關心的是寫作) 。就具體名詞和許多動詞而言，其意義可能包括對於所指的東西要作「在不在位」的知覺測試。在此意義下，宣述句子的內含與其真值條件是同義語。這是Tarski 宣稱"Der Schnee ist weiss" 表示雪是白色的的意圖。宣述句子的意義是抽象的時候，其真值條件可能複雜又非直接。「這是一不合法的法案」或「自私是利他思想的唯一基礎」的真值條件又是什麼呢？





Further Comments on Contexts 進一步評論語境




Since my immediate goal is to replace the term "meaning" (sometimes thought to be rather mysterious, or at least imprecise) with a more or less operational definition, I must be careful in using a term like "context," for "context" may seem as vague as the terms it helps to explicate. But, although the context in which a stimulus is interpreted may be complex, it also is not mysterious. At any given moment, memory has certain contents. Some of these may be more accessible than others, either because they are temporarily in short-term memory or because they are in a high state of arousal or activation by reason of recent use or of association with something recently accessed. Meaning is shaped by the particular parts of the contents of memory that are accessed; these constitute the context.

由於我的極近期目標是要用一多少是可運作的定義，將「意義」取而代之(有時候認為它相當神秘，或至少是不太精確)，所以我必須謹慎運用像「語境」這樣的詞，因為「語境」可能相當含糊，如同它想要解析的東西。不過，雖然一項刺激被解釋的語境可能相當複雜，它還是不神秘的。在任何時刻，記憶有其確切的內容。其中有些比其他更可接達，理由可能是：它暫時在短期記憶之內，或因它最近碰到某事而被聯想後處於高度的激活或喚省的狀態。意義是受到接達的記憶的內容所形塑；這些構成該語境。




The present stimulus may be processed in various ways (may acquire various meanings), depending on some subset of these memory contents and their current accessibility. Thus, if we have been talking about social engagements and the

word "ball" is used, it will probably be interpreted to mean a large formal gathering for social dancing, while if we have been talking about America's national sport, the same word will be interpreted to mean a small hide-covered sphere. Anaphora of pronouns provides another simple example of context-dependent interpretation, where the context may extend over sentence boundaries.

當下的刺激可以用各種方式(可能(分別)取得各種意義)處理，全依這些記憶的內容的某些部分集合和它們目前的接達性而定。如此，如果我們談到社交約會而用”ball”一字，那麼它的意義可能被解釋為大型正式社交舞會，而如果我們在談的是美國全民運動，同一”ball”字可能被解釋為一個小皮製球(案：指棒球) 。代名詞的複指(anaphora 案：指某語言單位從其先行語得出自身釋意的過程或結果)提供「解釋須依語境而定」的另一簡單例子，此處的語境可以延伸過句子邊界。




As my earlier quotations from Stendhal and Camus demonstrated, contexts may be far more complex than in the examples just mentioned, presenting practical difficulties in determining what they actually are but no difficulties in principle. Generally, in interpreting discourse (a story that is being told, or even my words here), as we listen or read we build up a representation of the scene or situation or events being described, sometimes in the form of a mental image, and this representation forms a major part of the context in which the sequence of words is processed. One sees in the mind's eye the struggle at the bridge in Lodi, or the bar in Amsterdam presided over by the "gorilla."

正如我在上文引用Stendhal 和Camus作品所顯示的，那兒的語境可能比上段的更為複雜，所以在實務上要決定它們實際所指為何，是有困難的，不過就原理而言，並無困難。一般而言，我們在解釋話語(如剛說過的故事，或是我這篇論述)的時候，隨我們聽到的或讀到的，在腦中我們建構其所描述的景或情況或事件的再現/表徵，這有時候是心理意象，而這再現成為語境(字詞在其中處理)的主要部分。我們用心靈之眼看Lodi橋的轟轟烈烈爭戰，或是在阿姆斯特丹的某酒吧當家的「大猩猩」。




Roger Schank and his colleagues (1977) have shown one way in which such representations may be constructed in the symbol structures they call SCRIPTS. In a different application known as the ISAAC program, Gordon Novak (1977) has

shown how contexts can be developed incrementally while reading the (English) text of a physics problem and can then be used to help interpret the next piece of text. His contexts would be called "schemas" by cognitive scientists. Similarly, Hayes and Simon (1974) have demonstrated in the UNDERSTAND program the use of contexts in the form of schemas to interpret natural-language instructions for puzzles. So we have some actual concrete examples today, in computable form, of what contexts are like. The concept of context can be made wholly operational.

Roger Schank和其同事發展出他們稱為SCRIPTS的記號結構體系，可以用來建構上述的再現。在另一不同的應用(稱為ISAAC程式)，Gordon Novak (1977)說明如何在讀英文寫的物理學問題的時候，逐漸以增量方式發展出語境，它可用來協助解釋接下來的文本。他的語境，認知科學家稱為圖式(schemas) 。類似的，Hayes 和Simon (1974)展示在UNDERSTAND程式中用圖式方式運用語境，來解釋謎語的自然語言之說明。所以我們現在已有些實際關於語境像什麼的具體例，它們的形式是可運算的。語境的概念可以完全可運作化。



Though its application is to physics rather than to literature, Novak's system makes very clear how contexts work. The mention of "lever" in a physics problem evokes from the system's memory a schema that describes levers: not any particular lever, but the archetypal lever in Plato's heaven. A copy is made of this schema, which can be thought of as a sort of diagram of a lever, and the copy is shaped to the dimensions and other attributes of the particular lever mentioned in the problem. The latter information is, of course, also extracted from the text of the problem statement.

雖然Novak的體系是應用在物理學而非文學，不過它讓我們很清楚知道語境如何運作。物理學問題中一提到「槓桿」，就從該體系的記憶引發一描述槓桿的圖式：它不是任何特定的槓桿，而是古希臘柏拉圖的天國中的槓桿原型(理念) 。為此圖式作一複本，我們可以將它想成是某一槓桿的一種圖，將該複本形塑成該問題所要求的種種特定的槓桿特性和屬性—當然，它們是從該問題的說明文本中找出來的。




Subsequently, a force that acts on the lever is also represented, and by combining the force schema with the lever schema and these with other information in the problem, an integrated problem schema is gradually built up that unites all of these elements in a single diagram of interrelated components. Thus, the archtypical schemas stored in memory provide one part of the context for understanding the problem statement, while the gradual cumulation of this information in the problem schema provides additional context.

接下來，作用在該槓桿的力量也加以再現，並且藉由將力圖式和槓桿圖式的結合以及該問題的其他資訊，逐漸構築出一整合型問題圖式，它將所有這些彼此相互關連的組件都統一成單一的圖。如此，儲在記憶中的該等原型圖式提供了解該問題說明的語境，而在問題圖式中此資訊逐漸累積提供額外的語境。




In application to literary texts, the archetypes would correspond to the reader's (or writer's) prior knowledge, while the problem schema would correspond to the local context that grows out of the information found in the text itself: about the

characters and their motives, the scene in which they are placed, and so on. Together, these schemas constitute the context in which the meaning of the text is interpreted.

將這些應用到文學文本，其原型圖式對應於讀者(或作者)的先前知識，而問題圖式就對於於在該文本本身找到的資訊所增長出的當地語境：關於諸角色和他們的動機，他們所處的景象等等統合起來，這些圖式構成語境，讓我們來解釋文本的意義。


SEHR, volume 4, issue 1: Bridging the Gap Updated 8 April 1995

Editor's note: Professor Simon's article appears here in 5 parts. This is the fourth part.