ability’ (p. 11). Specifically, developing a full theoretical understanding of how languages work, and how they are acquired by infants, Pullum notes, is fundamental scientific research with a broad range of applications. The book’s second chapter focuses on grammar and highlights the descriptive, rather than prescriptive, nature of linguistics. Pullum discusses grammatical ambiguity and its potential legal consequences, and how an in-built sensitivity to ungrammaticality (in the linguistic sense) may be one factor contributing to language acquisition in humans. In Chapter 3, Pullum discusses words, meaning and thought. Here, he touches upon the significance of conversational implicature, notions of ‘untranslatability’ and the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis. Discussing sentence processing and psycholinguistics, Pullum draws attention to the important application of research in this area to addressing – and treating – learning difficulties and brain injuries. In the fourth chapter, Pullum describes what he sees to be perhaps the most important applications of linguistics, that is, re-evaluating what is considered worthy of study. He discusses the (lack of) prestige afforded non-standard varieties such as African American Vernacular English and sign languages, and the potentially grave real-world consequences of this lack of social value, from marginalisation to miscarriages of justice. What linguists can do for repairing the damage done by ideologies around nonstandard varieties and for changing broader ideas about what is indeed worth studying is some of the most important work that linguistics can do, Pullum argues. In the book’s final chapter, Pullum discusses machine learning, noting that while speech recognition has been achieved, sentence comprehension remains far beyond the current technological capacity of computers. He claims that for this to be achieved, computers will need to understand information far more complex than standard lexical content and syntax. That is, computers will need to be able to take into account (for example) pragmatics and formality to truly be able to accurately understand sentences. To achieve this, Pullum claims, will require the work of many, many linguists working on a full grammatical description of a given language. This perhaps would have been an opportune point at which to draw upon the valuable potential of discourse analysis – and analysts – in contributing to a fuller understanding of contextual interpretation, implicature, inference and so forth. Pullum’s book comprises a sampling of illustrations of the importance of scientific investigation of language. As he states himself in the book’s preface, the number of linguists who will agree with the choices of examples he has made ‘will be approximately zero’ (p. vii). While the book will be of little use in providing beginners to linguistics an entry to discourse analysis, it is a succinct and useful introduction to the practical application of a range of areas of linguistic study.

中文翻译：

---

书评：Ira A Noveck，实验语用学：认知科学的形成

能力”（第 11 页）。普勒姆指出，具体而言，对语言的工作原理以及婴儿如何习得语言有完整的理论理解，是具有广泛应用的基础科学研究。本书的第二章侧重于语法，并强调了语言学的描述性而非规定性。Pullum 讨论了语法歧义及其潜在的法律后果，以及对不合语法（在语言意义上）的内在敏感性如何可能是促进人类语言习得的一个因素。在第 3 章中，Pullum 讨论了文字、意义和思想。在这里，他谈到了会话含义的重要性、“不可译性”的概念和 Sapir-Whorf 假设。讨论句子处理和心理语言学，Pullum 提请注意该领域研究在解决和治疗学习困难和脑损伤方面的重要应用。在第四章中，普勒姆描述了他认为可能是语言学最重要的应用，即重新评估被认为值得研究的东西。他讨论了非标准变体（例如非裔美国人的白话英语和手语）所提供的（缺乏）声望，以及这种缺乏社会价值的潜在严重现实世界后果，从边缘化到误判。普勒姆认为，语言学家可以做些什么来修复意识形态对非标准变体造成的损害，并改变关于确实值得研究的更广泛的想法，这是语言学可以做的一些最重要的工作。在本书的最后一章中，Pullum 讨论了机器学习，并指出虽然已经实现了语音识别，但句子理解仍远远超出计算机当前的技术能力。他声称要实现这一点，计算机需要理解比标准词汇内容和句法复杂得多的信息。也就是说，计算机需要能够考虑（例如）语用和形式，才能真正准确地理解句子。Pullum 声称，要实现这一点，将需要许多语言学家的工作，他们致力于对给定语言进行完整的语法描述。这也许是一个利用话语分析和分析师的宝贵潜力的合适时机，有助于更全面地理解语境解释、含义、推理等等。普勒姆的书包括一些关于语言科学调查重要性的插图样本。正如他在这本书的序言中所说的那样，同意他所选择的例子的语言学家的数量“大约为零”（p. vii）。虽然这本书在为语言学初学者提供话语分析的入门方面没有多大用处，但它是对一系列语言研究领域的实际应用的简洁而有用的介绍。