A Pragmarhetorical Study On Dramatic Discourse

Rhetoric is an ancient branch of language study, while pragmatics is one of modern times. The subjects of pragmatics and rhetoric both deal with the language in use, and the theories and methods in them coincide with each other in many aspects. Basically speaking, it is of theoretical and practical significance to combine the ancient rhetoric and the newly-emergent learning—pragmatics in the intensive researching of the dramatic language from the linguistic perspective and in the exploration of their language features.Drama is the art of language. In terms of the theory of Literature and Art, dramatic discourse is a method to portray the characters, while from linguistic perspective, it is a language of artistic quality which conveys messages and aesthetic feeling. Drama is a comprehensive artistic form of creating the artistic images on the stage. Drama writing should focus on the theme and highlight the main clues and events because of the limitation of stage and restriction of performance time. As the literature genre, it mainly refers to scripts of the plays. Dramatic language has the features of individualization, artistry, abstraction and sufficient expressive power.The following are the linguistic features of dramatic discourse: (a) abundance of melody and rhythm; (b) richness of artistic words; (c) variety of sentence patterns; (d) frequently-used figures of speech. Dramatic discourse is a special discourse type, and a typical artistic type of writing. Apart from its meaning expressive function, dramatic discourse has the functions of image portrayal, emotion expression, and aesthetic value as well.The subjective elements such as time, place, occasion, the corresponding participants and objective elements such as character's identity, occupation, thought, accomplishment, circumstance, mood in dramatic discourse constitute the specific speech context. They are the foundation of the construction of dramatic discourse and the basis for readers and audience to understand the meanings in dramatic discourse.In the specific context, the tension and rich meanings that dramatic language demonstrates are the unique charms of dramatic discourse. In the construction of dramatic discourse, the use of rhetorical devices and methods is restricted by the context. All the elements in the context of the dramatic discourse require the use of rhetoric devices. And only when rhetorical devices perfectly suit the context, will they have the rhetorical effects.In the concrete context, dramatists create utterances to outline the emotions, mental activity of subtle change and state of mind, in order to help the characters have their respective unique features of individuality. Dramatic language emphasizes implication, dramatists always exaggerate their efforts to employ the simple language to create enormous contents of thinking. This requires the use of language should closely rely on context and make use of context to adequately represent the implied meanings of the utterances. The more sufficiently and uniquely the context is represented in the dramatic discourse, the richer the information becomes although the language of the characters is simple and obvious.Presupposition and implication in dramatic discourse plays an important role in the generation of dramatic discourse. The traditional study of presupposition is conducted at the sentential level.The study at the discourse level can not only reveal the operating mechanisms in the super-sentence structures but also illustrate the process of the information organization.As the precondition and background information, presupposition composes the common ground of the two parts of the communication. From the dynamic perspective, the text communication between dramatists and readers is an interactive process that the two parties consulting the common ground to construct and comprehend the dramatic discourse. In the process of information organization, presupposition restricts the way of information development. In the constructing of dramatic discourse, dramatists need to make reasonable and appropriate arrangements for all kinds of information, and determine what should be manifested and what should be implicated. The Cooperative Principle, Face-saving Theory, Politeness Principle and Relevance Theory in pragmatics are of reference value in the study of implication in the dramatic discourse.Dramatic discourse is the artistic refinement of the real and colorful social life, which is represented through the characters'utterances. In order to better portrait images by demonstrating their characters, dramatists need to make the utterances vivid and descriptive in tone and affection. In constructing the dramatic discourse, it is necessary for dramatists have a sufficient and thorough cognition about the role relationship. Only in this way, the pertinency and precision of dramatic discourse can be promoted. All of the characters'utterances are supposed to take place among social roles. The use of language is different as role relationships are diverse. When the tenor of the whole dramatic discourse is set appropriately according to a role relationship, and has the function of making everything is just happening on the audience themselves, then rhetoric effects can be achieved. And the audience will be influenced by character relationships and attracted by the characterized language.Addressing terms can well reflect the characters'identities, social statuses and degrees of affinity, and display the complex and delicate relationships among the characters. The use of addressing terms of intensive force play an important role in the construction of the implied meanings in dramatic discourse. Take the addressing terms as the penetrating point, from the perspective of Power and Solidarity Theory, and we can make a micro-study of characteristics of language used in dramatic discourse.