| This research is a pragmatic study of deviation in opening remarks in Chinese public speeches (ORcps, for short) from a dynamic perspective. The main purpose of the study is to detect the mechanism of the deviation or flexibility in ORcps and to inquire whether dynamics is a major factor to interpret a deviated ORcps. With this objective being focused, two major problems are to be solved: the WHY or WHAT problem, i.e. why does a speaker want to deviate from the regular pattern, or what factors cause a speaker to go far away from the expected pattern? and the HOW problem, i.e. how does a speaker deviates from the conventional pattern in order to attract an audience?To pursue this aim, a dynamic deviation model is proposed. Drawing from Linell's (1998, 2001) notion of dynamics, Verschueren's (1998, 2000) dynamic theory and Thomas's (1985, 1995) dynamic pragmatics as a big theoretical complex for the study, our model is built upon the modification of Verschueren's and Thomas's theories. Three elements are involved in the dynamic deviation model. Element 1 elaborates the factors of a non-linguistic context in the non-regular ORcps containing four sub-elements: social factors, mental ones, participants' ones and physical ones. The major function of this element is to examine if the four factors would lead to a non-regular pattern. It mainly deals with the WHY problem. Element 2 sets forth pragmatic strategies executed for the non-regular ORcps. The major task of this element is to ascertain what pragmatic strategies a speaker can use to manipulate implicit and explicit contexts in the non-regular ORcps. It tackles the HOW problem. Element 3 intends to solve the WHY problem in terms of the degrees of the OR deviation.In the light of the three elements of the deviation model, 285 non-regular ORcps have been analyzed out of 496 ORcps samples collected by the author. The results show that a dynamic view could be used to explain the phenomena of deviation in ORcps. What follows is that three outcomes are produced. First, a primary factor to cause a speaker to deviate from a regular pattern of ORcps is a non-linguistic context, which contains four main sub-factors: (1) social factors (e.g. beliefs, cultures, social customs, etc.), (2) mental ones (i.e. a speaker's personality, thestyle of speaking, motivations and wisdom), (3) participants' ones (e.g. the virtual utterance, non-virtual utterance, direct or indirect participants, the reversing roles of the utterer and the interpreter, etc.), and (4) physical ones (e.g. the temporal reference, the spatial reference and some assistant-verbal actions like singing, role-playing and raising a voice).As far as pragmatic strategies are concerned, a speaker usually employs different strategies to achieve certain purposes of deviating from an expected pattern of ORcps. The representative pragmatic strategies for the OR deviation contain seeking difference to more or less extent, following an utterance with a relay-baton-style, using metaphors, quoting idioms, proverbs or other events, utilizing an irony and employing a rhetorical means, to mention only a few.In addition, there have existed various degrees of the OR dynamics and varied degrees of the OR deviation in the non-regular ORcps. From the non-regular data, two degrees of the OR deviation are clarified as micro-deviation and strong deviation. The more a speaker operates the contexts in the OR deviation, the larger the degrees of the OR dynamics are, and consequently the larger the degrees of the OR deviation are.The present research supports the hypothesis that dynamics is a major factor to interpret a deviated ORcps. Hence, it demonstrates that the studies of openings and public speeches within the field of institutional talk or semi-institutional discourse under the views of dynamic pragmatics are meaningful. Besides, the present study can serve as practical guidelines for those who want to have a distinctive beginning in any kinds of public speeches.
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