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Abstract：Zipf′s Principle of least effort applied in linguistics includes two principles, and they are “principle of the speakers′ economy” and “principle of the hearer′s economy”, so it seems that these two principles are paradoxical each other. But comparatively speaking, these two principles are not absolutely opposite to each other, when certain factors considered. They can reach one kind of balance，which can be regarded to be efficient and effective. And in the process of seeking better communication effect, many factors will interact to get better communication effect between the speaker and the hearer. This paper attempts to analyze the importance of context on the application of Zipf′s Principle of least effort. To some degree, context plays a crucial role for the participants to achieve efficiency and economy in communication.
Key words：Zipf′s Principle of least effort; principle of the speakers′ economy; principle of the hearer′s economy; context
Ⅰ.Introduction
Zipf′s Principle of least effort applied in linguistics includes two principles, and they are “principle of the speakers′ economy” and “principle of the hearer′s economy”. In order to achieve the most desirable effect of communication, the participants in certain utterance would attempt to grasp all the information related to the present context. Obviously, context is a factor in the determination of the set content of particular utterance, and the participants operate with contextual information under the level of conscious in everyday utterances. In the following parts, Zipf′s Principle of least effort and the notion of context and their relationship would be discussed respectively.
Ⅱ.Zipf′s Principle of Least Effort and Context
1. Zipf′s Principle of Least Effort
The principle of least effort was first studied by linguist George Kingsley Zipf. In 1949, he carried out an experiment: there are several axes presented before one carpenter, and when he needs one to use, he always choose the one close to him. And Zipf concluded that the carpenter usually gets the closest axe in order to save the energy and time, so he called it ‘the motivation of least effort’. It postulates that animals, people, even well designed machines will naturally choose the path of least resistance or “effort”. Later Zipf applied this principle into the study of language. Zipf theorized that the distribution of word use was due to humans′ tendency to communicate efficiently with least effort and this theory is known as Zipf′s Law of least effort.
The principle of least effort becomes increasingly important when considering pragmatics. To some extent, it corresponds to Grice′s two sub-maxims of the quantity maxim and Horns′ Q-principle and R-principle.
In Grice′s theory of cooperative Principle, the first maxim goes as follow:
QUANTITY：Make your contribution as informative as is required (for the current purposes of the exchange)；Do not make your contribution more informative than is required.
According to the first sub-maxim, the hearer should give enough information to express his intention, only in this way, will the hearer have less difficulty grasping the speaker′ meaning. In a sense, this is consistent with Zipf′s “principle of the hearer”. And to the second sub-maxim, it shows the policy that when meeting the necessary needs, the speaker would better not say excessive information, and just the required is sufficient. Grice proposed that these two principles should be always followed in our daily conversation. If these principles violated, the purpose of communication will be led to failure.
Based on the theories of Zipf′s Principle of least effort and Grice′s CP, Laurence Horn first developed Q-principle and R-principle in 1984. And in his 1988 article, Horn describes the e Q-principle as “a hearer-based economy for the maximization of information content, which demands the speaker give information of no more or less for the current purposes of the exchange. And on the other hand, he regards the R-principle as “a speaker-based economy for the minimization of form”. These two principles are also justified valid in applying the Principle of least effort.
2.Context
The notion of Context is first proposed in 1923 by English anthropologist B. Malinowski. And later, many linguists define the word of Context. Here two definitions will be dealt with. One is Lyons′ version and the other one is Gadar′s.
According to Lyons, Context is a theoretical construct which integrates all the factors that linguists abstract from the actual situations and which, by influencing the participants in the language-event, “systematically determines the form, the appropriateness or the meaning of utterance” (Lyons 1977). Lyons identified a number of contextual variables which must be recognized by each participant for a successful communication.
Another linguist Gazdar defined Context in a quite different way. According to Gazdar (1979), the Context consists of a set of proposition that are mutually known by participants, or which could be at least be accepted to be non-controversial. Gazdar′s concept of Context excludes all the concrete environmental elements such as roles, time, place and focuses on the relationships between utterances and inference. Context is relevant to the determination of what is said. We do not know what propositional content is being expressed unless we know what sentence is being uttered. Context, therefore, is a factor in the determination of the propositional content of particular tokens of utterance-inscriptions on different occasions of utterance. Usually, we operate with contextual information below the level of consciousness in our interpretation of everyday utterance. Most ambiguities, whether lexical or grammatical, therefore pass unnoticed. From time to time, however, we are made aware of such ambiguities, precisely because our contextual beliefs and assumptions differ from our interlocutors. We may then either fail to understand what they are saying, hesitating between alternative interpretations, or misunderstand their utterances by taking them in the wrong sense.
Ⅲ.The Influence of Context on Principle of Least Effort
Language is a tool of communication among humans, and it is the game of everybody for every normal person using language all the time.
Actually Context provides certain backgrounds for the present communication, for example, the time of language-event, the place, the occasion, the topic, and the social and cultural backgrounds, etc. And the participants in the language-event will try their best to associate these clues to achieve a comparatively better effect of communication. So in order to apply the principle of least effort in the language-event effectively and efficiently, the participants should share some conventional policies and certain backgrounds in certain context. If one end of the utterance lacks the relevant background information, the exchange of information will fail or cannot reach the expected goal. On that condition, both ends of utterance are more likely to reach real economy. Next, to take some language instances, Context will contribute to the application of the principle of least effort. And its importance will be highlighted.
Ⅳ.Conclusion
As to the principle of least effort, many linguists have their own insightful judgments. The tendency to speak efficiently in terms of least effort under the cause of human instinct cannot be defined as using the least words to express the speaker′s intention. In one word, the most desirable effect of communication is the precondition of the application of economy policy, and in that case, the principle of least effort can be called economical and efficient.
References：
[1] George Kingsley Zipf . Human behavior and the principle of least effort, Addison-Wesley Press，1949.
[2] John Lyons. Linguistic Semantics: An Introduction, Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 2009.
[3] 胡壮麟. 编语言学教程.北京大学出版社，2006.
[4] 刘润清，文旭. 新编语言学教程.外语教学与研究出版社，2006.
（责编 潘冰）
Key words：Zipf′s Principle of least effort; principle of the speakers′ economy; principle of the hearer′s economy; context
Ⅰ.Introduction
Zipf′s Principle of least effort applied in linguistics includes two principles, and they are “principle of the speakers′ economy” and “principle of the hearer′s economy”. In order to achieve the most desirable effect of communication, the participants in certain utterance would attempt to grasp all the information related to the present context. Obviously, context is a factor in the determination of the set content of particular utterance, and the participants operate with contextual information under the level of conscious in everyday utterances. In the following parts, Zipf′s Principle of least effort and the notion of context and their relationship would be discussed respectively.
Ⅱ.Zipf′s Principle of Least Effort and Context
1. Zipf′s Principle of Least Effort
The principle of least effort was first studied by linguist George Kingsley Zipf. In 1949, he carried out an experiment: there are several axes presented before one carpenter, and when he needs one to use, he always choose the one close to him. And Zipf concluded that the carpenter usually gets the closest axe in order to save the energy and time, so he called it ‘the motivation of least effort’. It postulates that animals, people, even well designed machines will naturally choose the path of least resistance or “effort”. Later Zipf applied this principle into the study of language. Zipf theorized that the distribution of word use was due to humans′ tendency to communicate efficiently with least effort and this theory is known as Zipf′s Law of least effort.
The principle of least effort becomes increasingly important when considering pragmatics. To some extent, it corresponds to Grice′s two sub-maxims of the quantity maxim and Horns′ Q-principle and R-principle.
In Grice′s theory of cooperative Principle, the first maxim goes as follow:
QUANTITY：Make your contribution as informative as is required (for the current purposes of the exchange)；Do not make your contribution more informative than is required.
According to the first sub-maxim, the hearer should give enough information to express his intention, only in this way, will the hearer have less difficulty grasping the speaker′ meaning. In a sense, this is consistent with Zipf′s “principle of the hearer”. And to the second sub-maxim, it shows the policy that when meeting the necessary needs, the speaker would better not say excessive information, and just the required is sufficient. Grice proposed that these two principles should be always followed in our daily conversation. If these principles violated, the purpose of communication will be led to failure.
Based on the theories of Zipf′s Principle of least effort and Grice′s CP, Laurence Horn first developed Q-principle and R-principle in 1984. And in his 1988 article, Horn describes the e Q-principle as “a hearer-based economy for the maximization of information content, which demands the speaker give information of no more or less for the current purposes of the exchange. And on the other hand, he regards the R-principle as “a speaker-based economy for the minimization of form”. These two principles are also justified valid in applying the Principle of least effort.
2.Context
The notion of Context is first proposed in 1923 by English anthropologist B. Malinowski. And later, many linguists define the word of Context. Here two definitions will be dealt with. One is Lyons′ version and the other one is Gadar′s.
According to Lyons, Context is a theoretical construct which integrates all the factors that linguists abstract from the actual situations and which, by influencing the participants in the language-event, “systematically determines the form, the appropriateness or the meaning of utterance” (Lyons 1977). Lyons identified a number of contextual variables which must be recognized by each participant for a successful communication.
Another linguist Gazdar defined Context in a quite different way. According to Gazdar (1979), the Context consists of a set of proposition that are mutually known by participants, or which could be at least be accepted to be non-controversial. Gazdar′s concept of Context excludes all the concrete environmental elements such as roles, time, place and focuses on the relationships between utterances and inference. Context is relevant to the determination of what is said. We do not know what propositional content is being expressed unless we know what sentence is being uttered. Context, therefore, is a factor in the determination of the propositional content of particular tokens of utterance-inscriptions on different occasions of utterance. Usually, we operate with contextual information below the level of consciousness in our interpretation of everyday utterance. Most ambiguities, whether lexical or grammatical, therefore pass unnoticed. From time to time, however, we are made aware of such ambiguities, precisely because our contextual beliefs and assumptions differ from our interlocutors. We may then either fail to understand what they are saying, hesitating between alternative interpretations, or misunderstand their utterances by taking them in the wrong sense.
Ⅲ.The Influence of Context on Principle of Least Effort
Language is a tool of communication among humans, and it is the game of everybody for every normal person using language all the time.
Actually Context provides certain backgrounds for the present communication, for example, the time of language-event, the place, the occasion, the topic, and the social and cultural backgrounds, etc. And the participants in the language-event will try their best to associate these clues to achieve a comparatively better effect of communication. So in order to apply the principle of least effort in the language-event effectively and efficiently, the participants should share some conventional policies and certain backgrounds in certain context. If one end of the utterance lacks the relevant background information, the exchange of information will fail or cannot reach the expected goal. On that condition, both ends of utterance are more likely to reach real economy. Next, to take some language instances, Context will contribute to the application of the principle of least effort. And its importance will be highlighted.
Ⅳ.Conclusion
As to the principle of least effort, many linguists have their own insightful judgments. The tendency to speak efficiently in terms of least effort under the cause of human instinct cannot be defined as using the least words to express the speaker′s intention. In one word, the most desirable effect of communication is the precondition of the application of economy policy, and in that case, the principle of least effort can be called economical and efficient.
References：
[1] George Kingsley Zipf . Human behavior and the principle of least effort, Addison-Wesley Press，1949.
[2] John Lyons. Linguistic Semantics: An Introduction, Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 2009.
[3] 胡壮麟. 编语言学教程.北京大学出版社，2006.
[4] 刘润清，文旭. 新编语言学教程.外语教学与研究出版社，2006.
（责编 潘冰）