An Adaptation-Relevance Approach To Tautology "X Be X"

As an interesting language phenomenon in verbal communication,"x be x"has drawn grammarians and rhetoricians'concern since long ago. As a rather controversial topic, it has also been receiving great attention from various fields (such as rhetorical, logical, philosophical even linguistic field). Many scholars spare no pains to do researches on"x be x"from different perspectives and a lot of splendid achievements have been achieved especially in syntactic, pragmatic, and semantic fields. However, none of them provide a comprehensive and convincing description for the production and interpretation of"x be x". Thus, the essential process of"x be x"use remains to be explored further.On the basis of absorbing the merits of the Relevance Theory of Sperber & Wilson and the Adaptation Theory of Verschueren, cognitive linguist Ran Yongping (2004) proposes Adaptation-Relevance Model. This model is used to clarify many language phenomena in terms of its great explanatory and descriptive power. This thesis tentatively adopts this model to analyze the whole process of"x be x", attempting to put forward a new model of tautological communication so as to further explore the essential process of the production and interpretation of"x be x".This research makes its own contribution to the systematic study of"x be x", as an interdisciplinary phenomenon. From the point seldom ever touched upon by other researchers, a new model concerning the concrete process of the production and interpretation of tautological communication is put forward. By means of analyzing the collected examples of"x be x"with the qualitative and documentary methods,"x be x"use is unfolded as a dynamic of conforming to various contexts and making constant choice based on the optimal relevance. In the light of the above analysis, this thesis can not only help people to grasp the essential process of"x be x"use but also further understand the motivations of"x be x"intending to realize.The thesis is composed of five chapters: Chapter One introduces motivations and the objectives of the present research, the methodology of the study, as well as the structure of the thesis.Chapter Two gives a literature review on previous studies of tautology"x be x"both at home and abroad from various perspectives. At the end of the chapter, the achievements and limitations of the past researches are discussed.Chapter Three provides the theoretical framework of the present thesis. First, Relevance Theory and Adaptation Theory are introduced and discussed respectively, with the vital concepts introduced and their relevant merits and demerits of clarifying the processes of production and interpretation of"x be x". Second, the Adaption-Relevance Model is put forward by integrating the merits of the two influential theories together, which hence is regarded to be a more perfect model than either of the original two, concerning the capacity of dealing with"x be x"use.Chapter Four is devoted to employing the Adaption-Relevance Model to make a tentative investigation on the production and interpretation of"x be x"in verbal communication, attempting to provide a new model of tautological communication.Chapter Five summarizes the major findings, points out the limitations of the current research and gives suggestions for further studies.