摘要
从模因论角度看,语言本身就是一种模因,它可以在字、词、短语、句子、段落乃至篇章层面得到体现,语境经常内嵌于语言模因之中。语言模因本身不但具有意义,而且还能引领出浮现意义;浮现意义可以演变成缺省含义。语言模因既是社会实践的产物,也是催生社会实践的潜在动力。语言使用者可以根据自身的表达需要对已有模因进行重复使用,还可能在此基础上类推出新模因。重复与类推是模因复制与传播的重要机制,而这一切与人的模仿天性不无关系;模因就是模仿的产物。本文最后探讨语言模因的含义,指出模因是人类赖以生存的东西,人类本来是也应该是模因的主人,但却经常成为模因的机器。
This paper, inspired by the meme theory proposed by Richard Dawkins (1976), argues for viewing language as a kind of meme. Language memes can be represented at various levels, from the lexical through the sentential and the textual. Language memes, with contexts embedded, not only have meaning of their own, but often prompt emergent meaning that exists prior to default meaning. Language memes are closely related to specific social events in the sense that they are at once the products and potential driving forces of social practice. Language users are, thanks to their imitative nature, capable of replicating given memes and of creating new memes in accordance with their communicative needs. Repetition and analogy are two crucial mechanisms responsible for the replication and transmission of memes. This paper concludes with a discussion of the meaning of language memes, pointing out that memes come from imitation, that memes are what we live by and that, human beings, who are and should be meme owners, are often reduced to meme machines.
出处
《现代外语》
CSSCI
北大核心
2007年第1期30-39,共10页
Modern Foreign Languages
