A Pragmastylistic Approach To Conversations In Fiction

Fictional conversation refers to the dialogue assumedly carried on by characters in fictions. Fictional conversation, as the term itself suggests, takes place in the fictional world which is of great resemblance to the real world; therefore, characteristics of naturally occurring conversation are also available in fictional conversation and pragmatics is valid to approach the styles of dialogues in fictions. In fictional communication, characters are constantly making both linguistic and extra-linguistic choices and adopting various communicative strategies so that they can have the chance to meet their communicative needs.The stylistic analysis of literary works, as is more and more acknowledged in the linguistic field, should take pragmatic elements into consideration in order to make the analysis more complete and scientific. The thesis intends to adopt the pragmastylistic approach to fictional conversations based on the theory of pragmatic adaptation proposed by Jef Verschueren. According to the theory of pragmatic adaptation, every unique linguistic and extra-linguistic choice made by speakers in the process of conversation, whether consciously or not, will certainly make special stylistic effects. The pragmatic adaptation theory studying all levels of language provides a new perspective and framework to analyze the language of fictional conversations on the basis of social, cultural and cognitive contexts,The present thesis gives a review of discourse stylistic approach and functional stylistic approach to styles of fictional conversations, and makes a brief evaluation of their strong points and shortcomings, then proposes the pragmastylistic approach to fictional conversations with the theory of pragmatic adaptation as its basis. It analyses how different stylistic effects are produced by various choices of words, sentences, speech acts and conversation building principles with the pragmatic factors borne in mind in the dynamic process of fictional conversations with data collected from several fictions written in English.The pragmastylistic approach to conversations in fictions is of great significance in revealing personalities of fictional figures, unfolding the dynamic development of the plots, and displaying the authors' writing techniques. It also sheds light on the historical, cultural, social and mental states of the particular phase when the literary work was written. In the meantime, it helps to deepen the understanding of a particular society in a particular period, spread moral ethics and enlighten the public by interpreting literary works based on the social and pragmatic contexts. Moreover, theories in the fields of literary criticism, stylistics, pragmatics and discourse analysis are infused with new blood since the pragmastylistic approach is an inter-disciplinary one involving the above-mentioned fields.