A Study On Indirect Criticism From The Pragmatic Functions

Criticism is a phenomenon of language that is often used in daily life. And it is the speechact that critics put forward opinions to the shortcomings or errors of the others. According toSearle’s standards of speech acts classification, criticism belongs to the expressive speech act.Different types of criticism can be divided by different standards. Indirect criticism is one ofthem, which divided by speaker’s literal meaning and discourse meaning is identical or not.Indirect criticism is relative to direct criticism. Critics point out the shortcomings or errors ofthe others indirectly by certain means of expression. Indirect criticism is also a strategy ofspeech communication. Indirect criticism is a kind of speech acts which has indirectness.According to the politeness principle, face theory and relevance theory, indirect criticism canbe interpreted from the pragmatic perspective. The indirect criticism has interpersonal andcommunicative of two kinds of pragmatic function, the former including face-saving functionand stability of the hearer emotional function, the latter includes guiding the hearer to haveresponse. According to the means of expression and pragmatic functions, critics take certainpragmatic strategies and ensure the communication proceed smoothly, and then achieve thepurpose of communication. The indirect criticism is a speech acts which is threatening. Thespeaker should consider how to transfer criticism information effectively and effected by thehearer. Study on indirect criticism not only reflects the complexity of language, but alsoprovide the important reference for the study of other language phenomena, which has acertain reference value.