A Pragmatic Analysis of Tautology

吉冰冰

【Abstract】Tautology is a kind of special linguistic phenomenon which is a repetition or duplication of an idea using the words with the same meaning. Tautology seems to be pointless in the logical perspective but shows rich meaning on the pragmatic analysis. The focus of this paper is to present the pragmatic analysis on the basis of the Cooperative Principle, Conversational Implicature and Language Attitudes. That is, speakers violate the Cooperative Principle in the conversation and express certain language attitudes; while listeners try to obtain such conversational implicature depending on the specific context. In this case, the pragmatic value and effect of tautology become the focus of this article.

【Key Words】 tautology；pragmatic analysis；Cooperative Principle；

Conversational Implicature; Language Attitudes

1 Pragmatic Analysis

1.1 Theoretical Contribution

In this chapter, some theories will be provided for pragmatic analysis of tautology. First, the theory of Cooperative Principle, Conversational Implicature and Language Attitudes will be showed, including what the Cooperative Principle is, how the Conversational Implicature takes place and what characteristics the Conversational Implicature has, what kind of language attitudes the speakers would like to express. Then, some examples of tautologies related to the above theories will be presented in order to summarize Conversational Implicature as a type of implied meaning, which is deduced on the basis of the conventional meaning of words together with the context, under the guidance of the CP and its maxims.

1.2 Specific Examples and Analysis

According to different semantic meanings, we can divide tautology into three categories. First, N is N. “Politics are politics” and “Business is business” are such examples. Such structure is defined to certain human activities which are special lifestyles. It implies that people have clear attitude to the activities. Second, A (n) N is a (n) N. For instance, A promise is a promise; A singer is a singer. This kind of tautology is to express certain duty and responsibility. In a broad sense, it is the regulation of the human behaviors. Third, A is A, B is B. East is east, west is west. This one is different from the above two. It shows the difference in essence between two persons or things. (Mao, 1997)

2 The Comparison of Implicit Meaning with Favorable and Unfavorable Declension

2.1 Brief Introduction

There are two kinds of situations to occur in the course of implicative inference. Beyond the literal meaning, the implicature comes about either with favorable declension or with unfavorable declension. Whether it goes this way or the other way depends on the context. The implicit meaning with favorable declension means that it has the favorable implicature or the good side beyond the literal meaning of the sentence; while the implicit meaning with unfavorable declension refers to the unfavorable implicature or the undesirable side beyond the literal meaning of the sentence. Anyhow, the implied meaning should be in agreement with the current context or speaking environment. According to the different contexts, different attitudes are noticed, such as attitudes of admiration and disappointment, attitudes of approval and disapproval, attitudes of care and hatred, and so on.

2.2 Attitudes of Praise and Criticism

The attitude of praise means that with the implicit meaning detected from tautology in certain context, the speaker can show his praise to the person or thing he is talking about. For example, Premier Zhou is Premier Zhou. The above example has obviously affectionate tendency. Premier Zhou is well-known for his wisdom, politeness, grace and so on. Therefore, when people use such utterance, they mostly want to praise him no matter from what perspectives.

Speaking of the attitude of criticism, it means we are very dissatisfied with something and just use the tautology to show our dissatisfaction. For instance, No matter how the crow decorates itself with the feather of the peacock, the crow is the crow. A coward is a coward. To the above two examples, there is even no need for us to consider the context, because we can easily understand the tone of emotion. After all, the crow and the coward can hardly make us reflect on the pleasant and good things.

2.3 Attitudes of Gratefulness and Hatred

…No matter what nationality we have, mothers are mothers. Mothers comfort, softness, trust and deepest love that lavishes upon her child are never going to change. Mother is enduring and everlasting…

The beginning of this passage just tells us: To different mothers, although they treat their children in different ways, the love they express is similar. Perhaps an Italian and a Japanese mother have nothing in common, no matter in customs, religion, politics, and habits, they may be absolutely different. However, there is one thing which will never change and is incredibly similar when speaking of the motherhood and their feelings of being a mother of their own children, even if the geographic and cultural distances can make them different from each other. All the words above are what we can deduce from the tautology “mothers are mothers.” Although on the surface, this passage does not directly give us above-mentioned meanings, we can obtain them in our mind. We can even say this tautology highlights the whole passage. By using such a simple and short sentence structure, it actually conveys a lot of information and gives more room for readers to think and feel. This is a great example to convey the attitude of greatness.

Wars are wars. Reasons for going to war have been debated over and over for centuries. There are no good wars. Wars are all bad. Wars kill people.

This example also presents the authors feeling of hatred. Most modern people in the world love peace and search for a peaceful and harmonious world. People hate wars because they have brought destruction and all kinds of disaster. So far, the war is so cruel that it has become the saddest and most terrible thing in the world. In the human history, wars have ever led to the death of innumerable people, the painful tears and endless sorrow of many people left. In a word, no one wants to see wars as wars mean death, blood and damage. As a result, this tautology just strengthens the sense of hatred.

3 Conclusion

Tautology is not a simple meaningless repetition, it is abundant in the pragmatic value in spite of the seeming simplicity of their structures.That is, it violates the Cooperative Principle, Conversational Implicature happen correspondingly and expresses the Language Attitudes of the speaker or the author. Whats more, there are mainly three kinds of opinions of tautology research, but the pragmatic explanation is more reasonable. According to the analysis of meanings expressed by various tautologies, the further study should focus more on the exploring the concrete course of expressing conversational implicature and making clear the concrete mechanism worked out by communicators. If it is made clear, it will bring important effect of a variety of phenomenon, such as metaphor, metonymy and so on.

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