A Study Of Pragmatic Functions Of Quoting In US Presidential Debates

Quoting is a special organization of speech where the speaker relocates and reproduces prior discursive products and meta-represents them in a different context.In US presidential debates,quoting can function as an argumentative tool being frequently employed by candidates to support their own political ideologies and combat opposing views.Quoting in US presidential candidates’ discourse is not working alone and it need to be analyzed with some additional factors in the new context such as the source of the quotation,the quotatives the speaker chooses and evaluative words or sentences issued by the quoter,which often indicate the quoter’s attitude towards the quoted and the purpose of his application of the quotation.In this study,410 items of quotation extracted from eight bouts of US presidential debates are being analyzed and three research questions are to be solved:（1）What are the formal features of quoting in US presidential debates?（2）What macro-speech acts and micro-speech acts are performed by candidates in US presidential debates when quoting?（3）How do candidates apply quoting in the process of image construction? To solve those questions,this thesis discusses the pragmatic functions of quoting from two perspectives.On the one hand,it regards quoting as a meta-communicative act which aims to assist in the constitution of component micro-speech acts in the process of the performing of macro-speech acts by the candidates;on the other hand,it explores the process of candidates taking advantage of quoting to establish their positive public image and damage their opponents’ by quoting from different sources.Throughout this thesis four types of macro-speech acts: attacking macro-speech act,defending macro-speech act,acclaiming macro-speech act and advocating macro-speech act are found.In attacking macro-speech act,quoting can perform the constituent micro-speech acts of criticizing,blaming,supporting and manifesting contrast.In defending macro-speech act,quoting can perform the constituent micro-speech acts of correcting,denying and justifying.In acclaiming macro-speech act,quoting can perform the constituent micro-speech acts of complimenting and supporting.In advocating macro-speech act,quoting can perform the constituent speech acts of aligning,emphasizing and appealing.Four types of image construction strategies: constructing positive policy image,deconstructing policy image of opponent,constructing positive character image and deconstructing character image of opponent are found.In the process of constructing positive policy image,candidates can use the strategies of quoting others,quoting opponent and quoting self.In the process of deconstructing policy image of their opponent,candidates can use the strategies of quoting others and quoting opponent.In the process of constructing positive character image,candidates can use the strategies of quoting others and quoting self.In the process of deconstructing character image of their opponent,candidates can use the strategies of quoting opponent and quoting others.This investigation brings pragmatic functions of quoting in political discourse into our attention and advances the study of quoting.