A Study Of Non-observance Of The Maxims Of Cooperative Principle In 'Free Debate' In Intercollegiate Chinese Debate Contest

Debate, fascinating and appealing, enjoys tremendous popularity in universities both at home and abroad. This speech event can not only enhance wisdom, also enrich the accumulation of knowledge. Therefore, it arouses the enthusiasm of many people who are attracted by the distinctive language use and debating skills.The study aims to explore the general linguistic tendency in the stage of 'free debate' in intercollegiate Chinese debate contest (hereinafter abbreviated as ICDC), and account for the occurrence of this phenomenon.Based on the data from 'free debate' in 11 sessions of ICDC, detailed descriptive analysis of non-observance of maxims of Cooperative Principle (hereinafter abbreviated as CP) in 'free debate' is made. Moreover, to fulfill the research objectives, basic statistical analysis is -carried out as supplementary method. Meanwhile, the thesis attempts to make a discussion concerning the reasons for this phenomenon of violations of maxims of CP.The results reveal the answers to the first two research questions: first, the employment of non-observance of maxims of CP is a general tendency in the verbal confrontations between two sides in 'free debate'. Second, as is indicated by the statistics, maxim of Quantity is most frequently violated, while maxim of Manner can be basically fulfilled. The current study, on the basis of the results, goes further to discuss the third research question of why debaters often deliberately violate maxims of CP. Through the investigation into the dominant factor leading to the general tendency of language used in 'free debate', it is found that it is debaters' conversational goals of winning out that result in the strategic use of non-observance of maxims of CP.With some enlightenment gained from the findings of this study, it is hoped that debaters can, for the purpose of persuasion, make skilled use of maxims of CP togive more forceful attacks and rebuttals so that the overall debating skills and strategies can be enhanced. Meanwhile, it is also expected that the present study could offer some implications for the English debate contest, and reflect the guiding significance of pragmatics in practice.