The Speech Situations In Russian TV Interviews (in Communicative-pragmatic Perspective)

People’s speech behavior in public communicative occasions is fully reflected in the TV interview, a genre of dialogue. In order to successfully complete the informational tasks of interview, the presenter and the interviewee are seeking to implement communication strategies and tactics, which are constrained by the particular speech situation. Therefore, it is very important to analyze TV interviews from the perspective of communication pragmatics. However, studies on the speech situations of Russian TV interviews are still rare. Based on the reasons mentioned above, the research topic of this thesis is established.On the basis of classificatory description, interpretation and contrast of linguistic material, by analyzing the patterns of TV interviews participants’speech behavior in different thematic speech situations, this research systematically examined the cooperative situations and the potential conflict situations in the TV interviews from the perspective of communication pragmatics. The examples in this thesis are TV interviews selected from programs of leading Russian TV channels.The scientific novelty of this thesis lies in the fact that, firstly, the speech situations in the TV interviews were described within the framework of communication pragmatics; secondly, the TV interviews was divided into different thematic speech situations, which systematically falled into a cooperative and a potential conflict communication category respectively according to the degree of coordination of speech behavior.The thesis consists of introduction, three chapters, conclusion and references.The first chapter defines the theoretical preconditions of analysis. This chapter includes a review of the formation and establishment of communication pragmatics as a linguistic direction; a summary of the speech activity theory, the speech act theory and the speech etiquette theory, and an introduction of the roles of speech etiquette, Cooperative Principle and Politeness Principle in communication.According to O.S. Issers’ theory, the concepts of "communication strategy" and "communication tactic" are embodied in the cognitive level of organizing speech behavior. In accordance with the models of discribing speech situations, which are proposed by I.N. Borisova and A.V. Lansky, we analyzed and concluded the parameters of speech situations in the TV interview. Based on the understanding of speech situations in its microstructure level, we presented three-step approach to researching the speech situations in the TV interview from the perspective of communication pragmatics:1) divide the TV interview into different thematic speech situations; 2) decode speech situations by deconstructing tactical tasks manifested in the form of communication motions; 3) reconstruct speech situations by reconstructing strategical purpose, which command communication tactics.The second chapter illustrates the cooperative situations in the TV interview. We started with the contact and the regulatory functions of communication and analyzed cooperative situations at the beginning, during and in the end of the TV interview.The speech situation of "welcome" occurs by the natural mode of starting. The contact tactics of the presenter and the interviewee can be deconstructed as "courtesy greeting and presentation of interviewee". Implementation of such contact tactics are reconstructed for the purposes of "establishing comfortable conversation atmosphere and attracting the attention of audience". The speech situation of "farewell" at the end of a TV interview is based on the presenter’s and the interviewee’s conduct of "saying generalizing words and a valedictory speech". In fact, they are presenting the tactics of terminating the contact. The guidance of such a communication tactical implementation is the strategic purpose of "summing up the conversation and ending the interview in an expected atmosphere".Behind the speech situation of "agreement" in the process of interview stands the cultural concept of cooperation and mutual trust. The presenter and the interviewee are taking such communication motions as "affirmative echo or answer". The agreement tactics reflect the strategic essence of "active participation and mutual assistance in the conversation". The speech situation of "appellation" also belongs to the category of polite communication. The communication motions of the presenter in selecting an appropriate call of the interviewee reflect the communication tactics of changing the call of interviewee through the whole interview. The presenter intentionally changes the call of interviewee in order to complete the communication tactics of "changing the conversation tone and attracting attention of the interviewee and audience".The third chapter illustrates the potential conflict situations in the TV interview. On the basis of the subject and the object of speech influence, the speech situations were discussed by taking the examples of the presenter and the interviewee.The presenter that is leading the interview purposively influences the interviewee’s speech behavior. In the speech situation of "request", it is impossible, that the speech behavior of the presenter violates the "Generosity maxim". So s/he takes the preventative communication motions of "pointing out the reasons and stating the necessity". By doing so, the presenter has a chance to achieve the strategic purpose of "arousing the interviewee’s speech response and getting interesting information". In the speech situation of "interruption", the presenter, who wants to control the program process, violates the communicative ethics. Reformulation of thoughts and expansion the views can be thought as communication motions on the basis of interruption tactics. The use of interruption tactics of the presenter is the key to smoothly realizing the strategic purpose of "ensuring the priority to speak and controlling the communication initiative".The interviewee resists the influence from the presenter in order to maintain his own image. The potential conflict in the speech situation of "refuse" is reflected in the interviewee’s violation of "Quantity maxim". The communication motions of "ignoring the information requested and expanding topics" of interviewee can cause a remedial effect in his "refuse" tactics. The interviewee refuses to build a harmonious mechanism in order to realize the strategic purpose of "transferring the focus of the conversation and avoiding providing complete information". The breaking of "Agreement maxim" of the interviewee is the potential conflict in the speech situation of "objection". The communication motions of "adducing the strong evidence and narrowing topic" of the interviewee can reduce the loss of the presenter in communication. The objection tactics of the interviewee might offer the possibility of realizing his strategic purpose of "amending the knowledge composition and conceptual view of the presenter on the basis of respect to the presenter".The conclusion summarizes the main points of this thesis.