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1、Selectivity Of Understanding Abstract：This paper discusses the selective feature of understanding．The process of understanding is in nature that of constructing meaning and obtaining information, meanwhile, to construct meaning is to integrate different signs into a text by means of metaphor and me

2、tonymy and to naturalize the meaning of the text, which turns out to be a process of constant selection. In addition, the contextual factors such as different individuals or groups and different cultural backgrounds make the understanding process selective. The knowledge of the selective feature of

3、understanding plays an important role in text reading, translation and daily communication, especially intercultural communication practice. Key words: understanding, selectivity, metaphor and metonymy, naturalize- tion, context Introduction In modern society, communication becomes one of the

4、 important parts of peoples life, whether it is daily communication or intercultural communication. In this process, understanding is definitely the most important link, for the aim of communication is to understand each other. Yet different people of different ages, sex, or with different social ba

5、ckgrounds under different contexts may have different interpretations towards the same text, that is to say, understand- ing is selective. For example, the sentence “今天太累啦!” ( So tired today!) may have the following four different interpretations under different contexts by different people: a. 咱們

6、回家吧。(Lets go back home.) b. 該睡覺了。 (Its time for bed.) c. 你洗一下碗吧。 (Could you wash the dishes?) d.今天不看書了。 (I will not do any reading today.) Why does this happen? Are there any reasons underlying these superficial phenomena? The author of this paper will provide a strong theoretical basis for

7、these phenomena, give a systematic explanation of the selectivity of understanding and also raise peoples awareness of it in text reading, translation, and communication practice. 1.Defining selectivity of understanding According to Verschueren (1999), the process of using and understand- ing la

8、nguage is that of constantly making choices, consciously or unconsciously, for language-internal and/or language-external reasons. These choices can be situated at any level of linguistic form: phonetic/phonological, morphological, syntactic, lexical, and semantic. They may range over variety-intern

9、al options, or they may involve regionally, socially or functionally distributed types of variation. This is what we call selectivity. As for the selectivity of understanding, choices are made at the level of semantic form or meaning, and this feature comes into being as a result of the interaction

10、between internal and external factors of language which will be elaborated in detail in later chapters. 2. The process of selective understanding The process of understanding is, in nature, that of constructing mean- ing and obtaining information, and in order to construct meaning and obtain in

11、formation, signs, which are basically arbitrary, should be organized into a text by going through a series of choices. "Where there is choice, there is meaning," this is a basic rule in communication, and still it can be applied to the understanding process, or meaning construction, which could be e

12、xplicated in the following two aspects: a) signs are organized selectively into a text and its meaning is determined by a special group and then naturalized; b) to do the sign-organizing job, metaphor and metonymy are commonly used, the ways of which are also full of choices. 2.1 Meaning construc

13、tion A meaningful text is fundamentally a selective organization of a set of signs. According to F. de Saussure， all of the languages and sings are constructed on the basis of a coordinate formed in two dimensions, namely, syntagm and paradigm. Syntagm refers to the composition of these signs whil

14、e paradigm deals with the relation of choice. An alphabet is a paradigm while the letters chosen from it can be composed of words and expressions, which is a kind of syntagm. The units in a paradigmatic relation with others in a paradigm should be different from each other and consequently obtain th

15、eir separate meaning. To put it more clearly, the meaning construction of these units is defined by their relationship with other units, which havent been selected out in a paradigm. This is a sort of selective/choice relation. For example, in the eyes of laymen, in the paradigm of animals on the fa

16、rm, the meaning of the unit cow is distinguished from pig, horse and sheep; however, from a farmers point of view, it means differently in that it is differentiated from heifer, steer, and bullock. In this example, it is because of the differences between each unit in a paradigm that their separate

17、meaning is constructed and therefore one type of understanding of the meaning comes from one of the differences and so it is selective. After the units are picked out, they are organized into a text. Since signs are arbitrary, the meaning of the text should be indefinite. However, the innate lazi

18、ness of human beings, as said by Saussure, makes it appear to be definite. This process, from arbitrariness to convention, is what we call the naturalization of meaning, or the fixation of meaning. Roland Barthes, a French thinker and semiologist, once proposed that meaning naturalization is determi

19、ned by a group of authority, which is a small group; that is to say, it can be some experts on technology, or may be some anonymous group. In the fixation of meaning, the group authority selects its preferred meaning on the basis of its own ideology and makes it a consensus in its authoritative rang

20、e. Therefore, meaning is constructed and naturalized. In the process of naturalization of meaning, metaphor and metonymy are commonly used, which will be formulated in the next section. 2.2 Metaphor and metonymy 2.2.1 Metaphor Metaphor is such a mode in which we compare two things according to

21、 their similarities; for example, we may use the upper and lower space to refer to the social status of an individual. To construct meaning by using a metaphor, we need form between two things a relation that does not originally exist and is a choice relation. This is because metaphor is operated ac

22、cording to the associative ( paradigmatic ) relation, that is to say, by using a metaphor an object unknown to others is embedded into a new associative relation and the unknown object thus obtains some new meanings. For example, in the metaphor "The ship is ploughing in the sea", the word sail, as

23、an untold and unknown object, is embedded into the paradigm of the way of dividing up objects, and so it is coordinated with slice, unrip, saw, exscind, scissor, chop, unstick, etc. Through a certain imagination, the reader then transposes the general characteristics of the paradigm and the specific

24、 features of plough chosen from the paradigm and thus the unknown term sail is endowed with a new meaning. Here plough is selected from the paradigm and forms a relation with the ship and therefore, a new meaning of sail comes into being. 2.2.2. Metonymy Metonymy, to put it simply，refers to the

25、 mode in which a certain part is used to substitute the whole; and it manifests how the meaning of a sign substitutes for that of another. Which part can be used to substitute for the whole? This is a selective process. For example, on Oct. 27th, 1968, a peaceful anti-war in Vietnam demonstration wa

26、s processed for five hours in London, and it ended still peacefully with only some small conflicts near the U. S. embassy and a few people injured. However, reports from British media went too far from the truth: they, with no exception, focused their reports on the conflicts happening near the U.S.

27、 embassy, and described a peaceful demonstration as a violent one. In this case, the media substituted the small conflicts for the whole demonstration, which is a metonymy; in that they transferred the meaning of the sign demonstration to conflict and so the meaning presented by conflict forms the m

28、eaning of demonstration. Obviously, this is a kind of choice. The media selected details to report the news for the purpose of the value of the news or maybe because of their own value system and social and cultural environment. But for whatever reasons, the selected information is still different f

29、rom what the truth is. The above analysis of the case formulates such a fact that metonymy bears a selective nature, and the signs in it should have relativity. Choice is made artificially but not arbitrarily: a sign should be selected in the scope of the other, that is, conflict should not be ou

30、t of the range of the sign demonstration, and thus it is unworkable to substitute fashion for demonstration. 3. Contextual factors According to the previous analysis, understanding of a text, in itself, is a selective and dynamic process. Yet there are still some external elements that make the

31、results of understanding vary greatly from one person to another or one culture to another, etc. In order to make sense of those factors, a core notion of context should be introduced. 3. 1 Definition of context In his article Meaning and Context, Zhang Zhigong makes it clear that context, in a

32、 narrow sense, refers to the actual linguistic context, for example, on what occasion the talk takes place, which directly affects the understanding of the meaning of a text. Besides, in a broad sense, time or society and its nature and features, and the situation of the individuals in communication

33、, for example, educational background, life experience, language style and dialect, are also included in the realm of context. Generally, context can be divided into three kinds, namely, immediate linguistic context, social and cultural context, and individual context, each of which will be elaborat

34、ed later in detail. 3.2 Immediate linguistic context 3.2. 1 Definition of immediate linguistic context Communication needs a place or an occasion. Either verbal communication or non-verbal communication always takes place under actual circumstances. So in order to understand the exact m

35、eaning of a text, the immediate linguistic context should be taken into consideration. Immediate linguistic context is the specific communication situation, which includes time and place of communication, topic, degree of formality, the relationship between the speaker and the hearer, etc. It is

36、these factors that most directly influence our understanding of a text. 3.2.2 The impact on the understanding process In the course of communication, the hearer selects the meaning, which is in consistence with what the speaker wants to convey, from his repertoire of the meaning set of the text

37、according to the context. For example, In a long-jump competition, Maling did a good job. The audience thought it amazing, saying, “他跳得多遠(yuǎn)!” (How far he jumped!) When one Of the audiences came back and talked about this, one of the hearers may ask, “他跳了多遠(yuǎn)?” (How far did he jump?) Here the

38、word cluster “多遠(yuǎn)” in two contexts has different meanings. In the first one “他跳得多遠(yuǎn)!”, “多遠(yuǎn)” means "very far", which forms an exclamation to express the audiences praise and amazement towards Maling. As for the second sentence“他跳了多遠(yuǎn)?”, the hearer wanted to know the exact meters Maling jumped, so the cl

39、uster “多遠(yuǎn)” means "What is the distance between the starting point and the point that Maling jumped up to?" The example shows that it is the different immediate linguistic contexts that give rise to the meaning differences of the same phrase. In our understanding of a text, we are always trying to

40、combine our previous knowledge about the text and its meaning set with the immediate linguistic context and thus picking out the meaning which is most suitable to the specific circumstance. Another example, the simple sentence "He is a good student" may have at least four different interpretations a

41、s follows: a. He is a student who behaves well. b. He is a student who works well. c. He is a student who gets high marks. d. He is a student who shows a high level of ability. Here in order to get the exact meaning of the sentence, we should consider where and when the sentence is uttered

42、. Two instances are given here. a. Several teachers are correcting test papers. Having finished doing that, they talked about those who did a good job in the exam. One of the teachers pointed to the name of a student and said," He got the highest marks. He is really a good student." In this ca

43、se, the teacher made the sentence while discussing the marks of the exam, which presupposes that the meaning of the word "good" is definitely "getting high marks". So the sentence "He is really a good student" should be understood as "He is a student who gets high marks." b. George is a student ve

44、ry popular with his teachers. One day, the head teacher was told that George beat someone when he was playing basketball. The teacher was surprised to hear that, and he said to other teachers, "Its incredible! George is a good student. He always behaves himself!" The teachers impression of George

45、was that he couldnt have done that, and the sentence "He is a good student" here thus means "He is a student who behaves well." As we see from the above examples, immediate linguistic context directly conditions our selection from a meaning set of a text and therefore our understanding of it. 3.

46、3 Social and cultural context Social and cultural context refers to the historical background and a nations unique traditions and customs formed with historic and social development. The following formulations will focus on two aspects, i. e. history and a nations culture and their far-reaching im

47、pacts on our understanding of a text. 3.3.1 Historical background The impacts that history has on meaning can be illustrated in the aspects of specialization, extension, amelioration, degeneration and transference of meaning. Consequently, our understanding of a specific word or text is also ch

48、anging with the development of history. The word cab, which meant "a horse-drawn carriage for hire" in the 19th century, now means the same as the word taxi. Another example," John built a house in the north of Ottawa. "We now may interpret it as "John asked the construction company to dispatch an e

49、ngineer corps to build a house for him in the north of Ottawa." But if it were in the 19th century, people would understand the sentence in this way: "John built a house by himself in the north of Ottawa." It is the same case with the sentence "He bought a car." It may be a symbol of his richness at

50、 the beginning of the 20th century, but it is now quite ordinary. 3.3.2 Cultural factors For a nation, its unique social and historic advancement develops its unique style and tradition. Thus people from different cultures may react variably to the same word or text. Muslims and Britishs underst

51、anding of the word pork can be quite different. Family may also raise different emotions for Japanese women and American women. Sea, mountain, valley, etc. could represent different significances, and color words like black, white and red have different symbolic meanings in different cultures. La

52、nguage is a set of symbols and the rules for combining these symbols that are used and understood by a large community of people. Culture influences language symbols and rules for using these symbols. To some extent, meaning is culturally determined. Being a collective culture, the Chinese usually u

53、se yes or no to express respect for the feelings of others, for example, to politely refuse an offer three times before they accept it, while most North Americans learn to say yes and no as a means of expressing their individual views. It is because of different understandings of the word no that ma

54、ny Chinese may be left hungry at an American table. Another example is about the understanding of a message of greeting. According to Chinese cultural norms, a message of greeting is encoded into “吃了嗎？”( Have you eaten?), but is decoded as an invitation to a meal in Western culture. 3.4 Individual

55、 context Individual context here means the educational background, life experience and dialect, etc. of an individual during interpersonal communication. The receptors understanding of a text is operated under such a circumstance thus is affected by the context. Firstly, the receptors educationa

56、l background plays an important role in the understanding of the communicators utterance. It has a great impact on ones power of comprehension. The more advantageous an individuals educational background is, the more his/her knowledge repertoire is, and thus the more exact and more profound theunder

57、standing he/she arrives at. Secondly, an individuals familiarity with the history and traditions and customs of a nation is a manifestation of his/her education in that with this knowledge the receptor may have a clear picture and relatively exact interpretation of the culture-specific words and e

58、xpressions, especially allusions, idioms, etc. Lets take《圍城》 ( Fortress Besieged ), written by Qian Zhongshu, as an example. As most of us know, the novel is about Chinese intellects love and marriage, and Mr. Qian made good use of Chinese idioms and allusions to reflect the real picture of the high

59、-ranked intellects. For those who failed in receiving a good education, they couldnt understand those quotations and they may regard the novel as a very boring and obscure story, while those who are well-educated tend to appreciate Qians style and dig into the novel to find the savor of sarcasm to C

60、hinese intellects in an allegorical way, which left them much room for thinking. Besides, an individuals dialect forms one of the individual contextual factors in a broad sense. Different understandings may be produced because of different dialects. According to Dai Weidong, dialect can be divided

61、 into six types: regional dialect, sociolect, gender-specific dialect, age-specific dialect, idiolect, and ethnic dialect. Take regional dialect as an example, the words“老太婆”and “老漢”may have different meanings in different dialects because in some dialects to call somebody in this way may be quite p

62、olite while in other dialects they are savor of disrespect. 4. Practical significance From the previous formulations, it is clear that the process of understanding bears the feature of selectivity as a result of language-internal and/or language-external factors. This casts some light on severa

63、l practical fields, such as the understanding of a text, translation practices and communication. 4.1 Preferred reading Text, which has its origin from semiology or linguistics, refers to the message that has its own material form and is dependent on the sender or receiver and therefore consists

64、 of representational codes. A book, a tape, a letter and/or a photo can all be viewed as a text, so is a TV show, or a record of a speech. A text is endowed with different meanings by different readers with different socio-cultural experiences. Since understanding is selective, a text is open to several potential readings but there is often a certain reading which is preferred. Readers tend to use their resources of meaning system to produce their own reading, which could be affected by a series of factors, as we have mentioned in the previous chapters, such as the social and cultu