| Evasion,as an important pragmatic strategy,often occurs in diplomatic discourse.As a speech act,evasive answers in diplomatic discourse has unique pragmatic functions.Previous studies on evasive answers in diplomatic discourse were mainly based on their characteristics,and focused on the definition and classification of evasive answers,but seldom touched on the essence of evasive answers.This thesis will study evasive answer in diplomatic discourse from the perspective of Neo-Cognitive Pragmatics.Neo-Cognitive Pragmatics emphasizes the use of the basic principles of cognitive linguistics that explain language phenomena according to the basic cognitive way of human beings to explain speech production,pragmatics and conversational meaning.The novelty of Neo-Cognitive Pragmatics mainly lies in the combination of cognitive factors and social factors to explain language phenomena.Using the theory of Neo-Cognitive Pragmatics,this thesis aims to solve the following three problems:(1)What evasive strategies are used in evasive answer in diplomatic discourse?(2)What pragmatic functions does the evasive answer of diplomatic discourse have?(3)What is the generation mechanism of evasive answer in diplomatic discourse?The research of this thesis is mainly carried out from the following three steps: 1)This thesis establishes a small corpus of 500 randomly selected transcripts from the regular press conference of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the official website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,classifies and labels the corpus,and summarizes the evasive response strategies in diplomatic discourse.2)Combining with real corpus,this thesis studies the pragmatic function of evading answers in diplomatic discourse.3)Combining with the perspective of Neo-cognitive pragmatics,this thesis studies the generation mechanism of evasive answer in diplomatic discourse from the cognitive and social perspectives.To solve the above questions,this study draws three conclusions.1)Referring to the classification of functional view,this thesis believes that the evasive strategies in diplomatic discourse mainly include: stating position,temporarily evading(delaying),putting forward suggestions(consulting a third party),euphemistic refusal,attacking questions,refusing questions+ putting forward suggestions and other strategies(attacking questions,putting forward suggestions,euphemistic refusal)+stating position.2)The pragmatic strategy of evasive answers in diplomatic discourse is quite unique.In addition to the pragmatic functions of avoiding conflicts and keeping information,there are also the pragmatic functions of positive communication effects of events and maintaining national image.3)The generation mechanism of evasive answer in diplomatic discourse is related to cognitive and social factors.From a cognitive point of view,evasive answers in diplomatic discourse is achieved through the cooperation of the event-domain cognitive model that affects the Q&A event:when evading general questions and selective questions,the speaker does not make positive or negative answers,and does not choose the options given by the question,Which means not selecting the two opposite characteristics of the “action” or “being”in the event domain cognitive model of the question,and not selecting the related individuals of the “being” or sub-action and sub-event of the “action” provided in the problem,nor providing related individuals of the “being” or sub-actions or sub-events of “action”.This makes the event-domain cognitive model of the Q&A event not coincide,thus leading to zero cooperation in the Q&A event and achieving the evasion of questions.When evading wh-question,the speaker does not instance the focus information in the question schema frame,but only answers the background knowledge of the question or avoids the focus information and background information in the question,so that the event domain cognitive model of the question-and-answer event partially cooperates or zero cooperates to achieve the evasion of wh-question.From a social perspective,the evasive answer in diplomatic discourse is formed under the guidance of social contracts,the influence of face theory and high-context culture,and the realistic need to maintain good diplomatic relations.This thesis will help enrich the research content of Neo-Cognitive Pragmatics and promote the development of interdisciplinary research.In addition,this thesis will help people understand the evasive answer in diplomatic discourse and enhance their sensitivity and critical awareness. |
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