A Pragmatic Study Of The Conversations Of Zhuge Liang In The Romance Of The Three Kingdoms

At present, the study of pragmatic in China is more limited in introduction and analysis of theory, and less in applying the pragmatic theory to analyzing fictional dialogue. As Chinese classic The Romance of the Three Kingdoms depicts many dialogues, pragmatic theories and methods should be applied to analyzing verbal communication behavior of the character to reveal the characteristics of their verbal communication and pragmatic function.Taking the pragmatics theories such as verbal behaviors theory, politeness principle, the principle of cooperation, conversation meaning and so on as the guide, this paper specifically analyzes verbal communication behaviors of Zhuge Liang, the character of The Romance of the Three Kingdoms", to portray and explain in details as soon as possible. Summing up the pragmatic features of Zhuge Liang verbal communication are as follows: First, providing a false, no association or obscure information in communication to deceive the opposite side of the communication; Second, providing some unrelated information to the conversations on purpose makes the opposite side of the communication aware of the implication, to achieve the communicative purpose; Third, applying "tell someone flat" verbal behaviors to the subordinates in communication, while applying "beating around the bush" verbal behaviors to the senior officers in communication; Fourth, depending on the context, selecting the appropriate verbal communication strategies to communicate successfully and achieve the expected communicative purpose; Fifth, for the communication purposes, using polite expressions to show the amity, or using non-polite language to show the dignity; Sixth, depending on the communication objectives to change the title of opposite side of the communication. In addition, the paper summarizes the verbal features of Zhuge Liang, such as the wise humor, sharpness, hitting the nail on the head, resourcefulness, and so on.It is researched in the paper that applying the pragmatic theory to analyzing literary character dialogues. The research can be contributed to a new angle—deepening the understanding of Zhuge Liang as "incarnation of wisdom" from appreciating the excellent verbal communication of Zhuge Liang in the level of pragmatics, and extend perspective of researching Zhuge Liang...