Znaczenia niedosłowne w pragmatyce językoznawczej i lingwistyce edukacyjnej

Abstract

Researches on non-literal meanings of expressions, e.g. allusion, irony, metaphor, are nowadays among the most intensively developed branches of classical pragmatics as well as preferable subject of interest of both cognitive grammar and educational linguistics. Common metaphorical use of language reflects, according to foundations of cognitive grammar, the nature of human thinking and activity, i.e. processes directed to gaining knowledge of the world, serving the cognition, naming and understanding reality, oneself, and language. Within educational linguistics that assumes gradualness of competences (intermediate, approximated, and destination ones) the author tries to prove that the precision of interpreting non-literal utterances depends on the degree of giving a clearly definite way of interpretation that results from circumstances and context of an utterance rather than depends on newness and creativeness of utterances. The clue to easy and possibly univocal decoding the meaning of a non-literate utterance that appears in classroom communication is stating precisely an interpretation frame that consists several important pieces of information: a) what semantic-lexical parameters are the subject of a dialogue at a given stage of a conversation between a teacher and a pupil, b) which parameters are estimated and what are the values of them, c) which parameters are not yet but should be estimated, and d) how should a pupil state the values to interpret utterances correctly - is it based on the context, memory or intuition? Accepting the perspective of ontology and situational semantics results in describing metaphor, allusion, and irony as clear or not clear to a pupil rather then conventional and non-conventional ones. Cognitive approach to language causes some changes in understanding the process of teaching hitherto and needs thorough empirical interdisciplinary studies (linguistic, psychological, and pedagogical ones). The problems of understanding and acquiring metaphor make not only the clue to understanding in general but also a kind of a keystone of cognitive grammar, pragmatics, and educational linguistics.