A Discourse Stylistic Analysis Of Harold Pinter's Drama The Homecoming

As an important variety of English, drama is known for its distinctive stylistic features. For a long time, it is the apple of literary critics' eyes, but it has seldom aroused any attention from linguists and stylists. It is considered as "the neglected child". Since the 1970s and the 1980s, some domestic and foreign linguistic researchers began to pay attention to drama. In recent years, with the development of English Stylistics researches, quite a number of linguists become interested in drama. However there are a few researches on drama from the perspective of discourse Stylistics.Based on some relevant researches carried out by domestic and foreign stylists, the thesis attempts to analyze the drama The Homecoming, written by the winner of Nobel Prize for Literature Harold Pinter from the perspective of discourse Stylistics. It carried out stylistic analysis, mainly adopting discourse analysis theories and analytic methods. Moreover, pragmatics, especially speech act theories and cooperative principles, provides important theoretic support and analytic tool. The most distinctive feature of drama is its dialogue. A lot of connections between dramatic dialogue and ordinary conversation make it possible that the theories of conversational analysis are applied to the analysis of modern dramatic dialogue. The delicate and complicated personal relationships among protagonists in the drama makes pragmatics become a useful analytic tool. This study systematically investigates the discourse stylistic features of Harold Pinter's The Homecoming, and provides a new method for literary appreciation in order to secure a better understanding of the theme in this dramaIn the aspect of conversational analysis, turn number, turn length, turn distribution and pause can perfectly reveal the characteristics and relationships of the protagonists in this drama. But the speaker who produces the most number of turns, utters the longest turn is not necessary the person who holds the power. According to speech act theories and cooperative principles, we have discovered that the speakers in the drama always adhere to speech act principles, rather than cooperative principles, in order to express their real intentions. The adherence or violation of these principles also can reveal the relationships of the protagonists and some attitudes in this drama.Besides these, because of the similarities between dramatic dialogue and ordinary conversation, the study has enlightened English teaching. The concepts and application of turn number, turn length, turn shift and adjacency pairs help English learners efficiently communicate with each other in English. The understanding and mastery of speech act theories and cooperative principles could help us understand the exact meanings expressed by speakers and make real daily conversation carry out smoothly.