1
discrepancy between A and B
A: ‘Language is the house of Being’ (Heidegger)
questioning the role that
language plays for Being
language makes Being revealed,
present and opened;
B: ‘Language is the last homestead
of human beings’
，
synthetic proposition, both philosophical and pragmatic,
enquiring into the dependence of
human survival upon language and into the relationship between language and
human beings.
2
The direction: man’s linguistic behaviors and fixed speech events
an account for the reliant state of human survival upon language and the
relationship between language and man;
a philosophical rest-place for linguistic behaviors…
but, by no means to answer the question about the age-old western
philosophical problem…
3
The main thought of the theory of the last homestead:
3.1
The extremely dependent state of man upon language: (the three
sub-propos.)
3.1.1
Man lives within language;
3.1.2
Man has to live within it;
3.1.3
Man has to live within fixed speech events.
the three kinds of basic survival ways of man
→
the general propos, the main claim
by ‘ Basic Survival Ways of Man’
as suggested
by
the subtitle, I mean……not the whole…but
the
basic state of man’s being in the world.
•3.2
By
‘Philosophical
Probe… ’ as suggested in the subtitle, I mean…
•
Man makes himself present or revealed, by means of speaking（人以言说使自己出场或者现身）,
while…
•
It is by the three kinds of basic survival ways that we live as we do, that
we are as we BE, and especially that
we make ourselves present or revealed.
•
On the contrary, we live, but we do not make ourselves present or revealed
without the three kinds of basic survival ways. That is to say…
•‘
In order to be who we are, we human beings remain
committed to and within the being of language, and can never step out of
it…’ (Heidegger,)
•4
The
theoretical significance and value of this theory (of last homestead of
human beings)
•4.1
life-dynamics of man;
•4.2
the last fingerprint and bequest of a nation;
•4.3
collapse or hold of a civilization ;
• “Language
is the house of Being” Vs
•“Language
is the last homestead of human
beings”
•The
two possible symbols for China incarnation of pragmatics:
•The
first symbol of this incarnation: the theoretical constructions
•
From Pragmatics in Chinese Culture(1997)
•
to Language: the last homestead of Human Beings (2004)
The main tenet of Pragmatics in Chinese Culture:
the intervention of language use by
contexts, by the cluster of signs adhering to speakers taking part in speech
events
as well as by intelligence
The main tenets of this research:
the extremely dependent state of man
upon language;
Man makes himself present or
revealed, by means of speaking,
The second symbol of China incarnation of pragmatics:
the case-study purely typical of
Chinese-culture
1) traditional Chinese wedding ceremonies,
2) charivari in bridal
chambers,
3) bargaining on cattle
markets,
4) bargaining on food markets,
5) street fortune-telling,
6) family dinner talk on the
eve of the Spring Festival,
7) mediating between two
quarrelling parties,
8) clinical interviews in
traditional Chinese medicine… to name just a few.
the case-study purely typical of Chinese-culture
is necessary
……
……language use that takes place in the Chinese culture, one of the oldest
civilizations in the world, must have developed some unique characteristics,
ranging from communication rules and discourse patterns to pragmatic
strategies (Qian, 1997, 2002)
Varying perspectives on everyday language in terms of the three types of
pragmatics
1. The pragmatic type representative of Levinson, S.C. (1983);
2. The pragmatic type given by Verschueren, J. (1999)
3. The pragmatic type with the
background of Chinese culture (1977,
2002) : the main tenets of the above: ‘the three interventions’ ……
the last homestead in the sense
of space-dimension instead of tempo-dimension
the most fundamental survival
ways of man
the most reliable rest-place for
man
A snail bears a shell with
itself. Wherever it crawls, the shell is always carried with it. The shell
is the house of the snail. Like the snail, wherever man goes, he carries
language as his homestead.
So, man can not become poor as naked, because he possesses the safest
property of his, even if he loses everything he has. The property is nothing
but his last homestead, namely, language. The last homestead is the most
reliable, the safest one.
Man living within language
Man living in the utterance-field
One or two statements: master of you all your life:
A book is a real
money-spinner;
A book is by no means
money-spinner.
You have to obey orders from one or
two statements. And you have to obey it almost large half of your life, even
all your life. If you would have changed your mind, you have to choose
another statement to obey. A belief or style of your life or concept of
value or spiritual pursue or idea or thought, all this must be changed into
one or two statements. It controls you all your life.
Man having to live within language:
religion and language…
in a nation identity…
…fingerprint hints in a language community
…the last bequest of a nation
The identity of local accents: a spiritual and psychological homestead
Locals…tend to speak
in their local accents
Man has to live within fixed speech events (henceforth FSE).
FSE: fixed moves, fixed phrasings and their fixed co-occurrence
…1)
both the moves and the phrasings in FSE are basically fixed,
2) the co-occurrence of the
phrasings and the moves is noticeably fixed as well as repeatable, and
3) the sequence of the steps of
action, like the sequential turns of the phrasings, is relatively fixed.
•A
traditional Chinese wedding ceremony:
•Fixed
Phrasings
Action
Co-occurring with each
•M:
“一拜天地!”
(B&G’s bowing, with their backs
•
facing the shrine for ancestral
•
tablets, to pay homage to Heaven)
•M:
“二拜高堂!”
(B&G’s bowing to the groom’s
•M:
“夫妻对拜!”
(B&G’s bowing to each other)
•M:
“送入洞房!”
(B&G’s being directed to the bridal
•
chamber, clustered around with
•
their relatives and friends)
The driving force of the stable co-occurrence of fixed moves and fixed
phrasings is
co-operation, expectation,
cultural stability, effectiveness (relevance, economy,
…)
The pragmatic mechanism of FSE
……
Pragmatic Theory of Games
from Theory of Games (John von Neumann) .
The main tenets of PTG in the
present research:
1, decision-making method, the use
of strategies;
2, Competitions, co-operations and
conflicts arise from various outcome;
3, An outcome is arrived at from
the choice of strategies as well as
decisive moves；
4, An upshot also depends on assumptions and expectations from both sides of
the game-players in interactive situations;
5, Whether a game is co-operative
or non-co-operative depends on whether the game-players of both sides stand
to benefit or not from the game;
6, Consequences of a game tend to
be results of bargaining and compromises, with everyone having a set of
preferable choices that are controlled by the ending outcome;
All this would be projected onto what is called Pragmatic Theory of Games.
