Misunderstanding In Conversational Interaction

Misunderstanding in conversational interaction is a frequently occurring pragma-linguistic phenomenon in daily communication. It has received much attention from scholars at home and abroad. Excellent work has been done from various perspectives and at different levels, but the study is far from complete.Some misunderstandings can be detected and corrected. However, some others can cause serious consequences and even lead to communication breakdown. For more effective communication, the study of misunderstanding in conversational interaction is of great theoretical importance and practical value.This paper attempts to make a more systematic study of misunderstanding in conversational interaction from the perspective of pragmatics. The study is conducted mainly within the frame work of Speech Act Theory and conversational context. The nature of misunderstanding can be more clearly recognized in real conversational context rather than under idealized conditions.Based on real cases of misunderstanding, a detailed description of misunderstanding is provided including a multi-angle definition and a reason-based classification. Misunderstanding should be explored from different angles. As a communication phenomenon, misunderstanding involves two parties:the speaker and the hearer. For the speaker, misunderstanding is that the hearer distorts his meaning; while for the hearer, he assumes that his interpretation is not accepted by the speaker. As for the interpreter, misunderstanding actually is a mismatch between the speaker's intended meaning and the hearer's interpretation. The task is not only to find this mismatch but also explore how the divergence comes into being. The reason-based classification offers an insight into the sources of misunderstanding. Based on observation, misunderstanding tends to occur in four kinds of situations:1) the mismanagement of context,2) the misunderstanding of specific intention,3) the misunderstanding of connotative meaning,4) over interpretation.Second, efforts are also made to analyze causes of misunderstanding and seek for possible ways of avoiding misunderstanding in order to eliminate negative consequences and promote successful communication. The causes of misunderstanding can be attributed to intra-linguistic and extra-linguistic factors. The former refers to ambiguity of language and the speakers'presupposition. The latter concerns factors such as the speaker knowledge of the hearer, different focuses and cultural discrepancy.Third, Misunderstanding may be undesirable in daily life but it is not completely passive. In literary works, misunderstanding in certain situation can produce humorous effects which greatly enhance verbal communication.