A Pragmatic Analysis Of White Lies From The Standpoint Of Speakers

The thesis studies the pragmatic functions of white lies from the standpoint of speakers. The study of white lies belongs to the category of deceptive study that involves many fields such as psychology, ethics and linguistics. From the perspective of pragmatics, white lies are regarded as a kind of pragmatic strategy that harmonizes interpersonal relationships and smoothes social communication. The aim in this paper is to describe and explain the major pragmatic functions of white lies in communication with the help of politeness theory and other relevant theories, then to reveal the essence of white lies. A new, more contextualised form of analysis is developed to reflect the complexity of both white lies and politeness.White lies are told to achieve a multiplicity of functions that embody politeness in verbal communication. Compared with the inappropriate truth, white lies can perform an illocutionary function and produce perlocutionary effect; that is, white lies soften an impolite directive act, commit the speaker tactfully and express the speaker's attitude and opinion. In addition there are two other functions: the phatic function and the interpersonal function.The study is a further inquiry into politeness theory. The thesis is the promotion of the research of politeness sincerity and politeness appropriateness, surface politeness and deep politeness and so on.The thesis draws a conclusion from a detailed discussion of pragmatic functions of white lies: a white lie is an indirect pragmatic strategy that plays a positive role in communication. It is more appropriate and tactful than the straightforward truth in a special speech situation. To some degree, the study of white lies reveals the meaning of deep politeness, which pushes forward politeness research.