從認知語言學看中文的疼痛表達

Abstract

本篇研究致力於探討中文母語人士如何形塑並表達疼痛。疼痛向來是普遍、常見的感受，然也被認為太過主觀、隱私、抽象而無法具體描述或表達。從認知語言學的角度而言，語言應扮演傳遞訊息的功能，而透過語料的驗證可發現中文母語人士在表達疼痛時往往會藉由轉化型的語言機制，例如隱喻作為疼痛的表徵。常見的疼痛問卷McGill疼痛量表(Melzack 1975)中，ㄧ系列的痛覺形容詞亦涉及隱喻的使用；然而，該疼痛量表對應至中文時無法全然對應與被中文使用者所理解，而中文的疼痛表達亦尚未被深入探討與研究，因此，為了補足現有研究的不足，本篇論文透過搜集聯合報線上資料庫的「健康你我他」專欄（從1990年10月至2015年10月）、部分中文文學作品與2013-2014兩年在正念減壓工作坊中對於29位慢性疼痛患者所進行的訪談作為語料基礎，輔以Johnson (1987) 的force schema與Hopper & Thompson(1980)的transitivity hypothesis作為研究架構，發現了兩組conceptual metaphors，包含PAIN IS FORCE 以及 PAIN SUFFERERS ARE CONTROLLED OBJECTS從中我們也討論了在中文裡，疼痛常被形塑為一種施加並牽制他人的力量，而疼痛患者則因受限於自身疼痛傾向將自己物化。另外，在分析語料的過程，我們也發現「自我」扮演認知調節機制中關鍵的角色，也因此我們比較了2013年正念減壓工作坊中的疼痛患者在參與工作坊前後的訪談調查結果，進而探討中文母語人士在集體文化框架下的忍痛特性並試著追溯可能成因；最後，因受限於研究篇幅，我們提出了另外三個可以發展的面向，包含疼痛與同理心的關係、疼痛與記憶，以及疼痛與醫學。我們希望透過此篇論文讓更多人瞭解表達疼痛的可能方式，進而理解自己，或他人的疼痛。

The study aims to explore how pain is conceptualized and expressed in Mandarin Chinese from the perspective of cognitive linguistics. Despite its commonality shared by all, the instrumental tendency of language seems impracticable in conveying such elusive, private and subjective sensation. Yet, to convey pain, we have to resort to language, an essential medium transferring our knowing into telling (Mishler 1986) and through language, our experience can be noticed, constructed, and assessed (Dyer 2011). The gap between the inexpressible nature of pain and the communicative essence of language is bridged via figurative devices like metaphors and hyperboles. From the widely used pain assessment measure entitled McGill Pain Questionnaire (Melzack 1975), a wide variety of pain sensations are metaphorically represented and categorized into sensory, affective and evaluative pain descriptors. Since then, a number of literatures of pain metaphors were found; notwithstanding, rarely can we identify Chinese counterparts of English pain descriptors, nor is the language of pain in Chinese well studied. To examine pain language in Mandarin Chinese and gain more perspectives into the conceptualization and expressions of pain, data from everyday practice are collected from planned discourse as well as unplanned discourse: Written data were retrieved from Chinese literary works and a health column in United Daily News from United News Online Database from October 1, 1990 to October 1, 2015; besides, verbal data were manually transcribed from the interviews with pain sufferers, mostly fibromyalgia patients, in 2013 and 2014 workshops entitled Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR). Adopting Johnson’s force schema (1987) and Hopper & Thompson’s transitivity hypothesis (1980) as the theoretical groundwork of our data analyses, we find that people convey their pain experiences through conceptual metaphors like PAIN IS FORCE and THOSE SUFFERING PAIN ARE CONTROLLED OBJECTS. We reveal that the force schema provide the fundamental concrete basis for conceptual mappings in the conceptual metaphor PAIN IS FORCE. Pain is construed as volitional agent that is capable of exerting force on people. Such transfer of action from one participant to another characterizes Hopper & Thompson’s transitivity hypothesis. In other words, the degrees of intensity or impact of the action depends on the transitivity of the clause. On the other hand, people suffering pain are objectified as a result of being controlled or manipulated by pain. In the conceptual metaphor PAIN SUFFERERS ARE CONTROLLED OBJECTS, people portrayed themselves as objects without volition and even without any power to control their own lives, entailing the distress inflicted by pain. Based on the pain expressions in the present study, we further put forth the discussion of the concept of self. We propose that cognitive modulation of pain is possible as long as people’s perspectives toward self and pain change, as manifested in the pre- and post-interview of participants of MBSR workshop. In addition, we argue that like pain self is a “publicly negotiated concept” (Wittgenstein 1953). The self arises through social experiences and in the process language is essential for the transmission of culture: Based on the Chinese character 忍ren “tolerance” and the lexicalized Chinese proverbs and idioms of Confucianism and Buddhism, self-control or self-restraint is encouraged, entailing the diminution of self for the harmonious collective Chinese society. Finally, we propose some possible future studies relevant to pain, inclusive of pain and empathy, pain and memory, and pain and medicine. It is hoped that the present study deepens the understanding of the commonly felt yet rarely discussed sensation and made possible the vicarious understanding via the elaboration of linguistic mechanism of pain expressions.