A Pragmatic Study Of English Deliberate Misinterpretation

Deliberate Misinterpretation, DMI for short, is a special pragmatic strategy in verbal communication, by which, the second speaker, on the basis of the correct and complete comprehension of the first speaker's intention, utilizes the context and the uncertainty or ambiguity in the utterance of the first speaker to deliberately distort the original discourse intention of the first speaker so as to accomplish certain communicative goals. This thesis makes a pragmatic study of English DMI for the purpose of revealing its triggering mechanism, operation mechanism and pragmatic effects.Firstly English DMI and MIS are clearly distinguished by comparison, which is followed by a review of the previous literature conducted both at home and broad. And the limitations of the previous researches and significance of the present study are introduced. Then triggering mechanism of English DMI is analyzed from the perspective of meaning uncertainty and meaning conflict and the operation mechanism of DMI illustrated from the perspective of context theory, where context is classified into four different types, namely, textual context, situational context, socio-cultural context and psycho-context. Lastly, the positive and negative pragmatic effects of English DMI are summarized.The study of the English DMI from the perspective of context complements previous theoretical explorations and expands the research scope of the pragmatic study of this linguistic phenomenon. Hopefully, it will help promote the smooth carry-on of the communication, cross-cultural communication in particular, and the sound establishment of interpersonal relationship. At the same time, it offers some implications for the EFL teaching and learning.