The Language Appropriateness Of Chinese TV Talking Program Hosts: A Pragmatic Perspective

TV talk shows are becoming increasingly popular with the audience in China. The language of program hosts directly influences the quality and broadcast effect of the program. Therefore the host's verbal ability is crucial to the program. One important standard for evaluating the level of the host's verbal ability is the appropriateness of his or her language. Some appealing hosts enjoy their fame for their appropriate language in the program.Appropriateness has been a topic of interest in pragmatics in recent years. Despite the vast number of scholarly outputs dedicated to appropriateness, it appears that little has been done on the language appropriateness of TV talk shows'hosts. This thesis, taking the language of talk shows'hosts as the object, attempts to probe into this largely neglected sector by examining the language appropriateness within the framework of context, Cooperative Principle, Politeness Principle and Face Theory.The thesis firstly gives a brief introduction to the definition, history and categories of Chinese TV talk shows and defines what appropriateness is. Then it analyzes the elements and characteristics of the TV talk shows'context and their impacts on the host's language. After that it moves to the illustration of the host's leading status of speech in the program,and then discusses the relation between appropriateness and pragmatic principles like Cooperative Principle, Politeness Principle, and Face Theory. On this basis, the thesis discusses in detail how the host achieves language appropriateness by employing conversational principles. The maxim of quantity requires the speaker to offer abundant but not surplus information. The host can not speak unceasingly nor forcibly to occupy too much time in the program. The maxim of quality requires the host to be sincere, which is the foundation of communication with audiences. The maxim of relation requires the host to choose appropriate language forms according to different identities of different targets in the exchange of views. The maxim of manner demands for the host's careful and rigorous language in the program. The Politeness Principle and Face Theory require the host to use courteous term correctly, fully consider the participants'faces, and let audiences like to hear, like to accept what he/her says in order to make the communication go on smoothly and achieve good program effect. The host's observation of Politeness Principle and Face Theory is mainly embodied in six aspects: the forms of address, introduction, questioning, making response, interrupting and sentence patterns.The pragmatic research of the host's language appropriateness does not merely further promote the research and the application of relevant pragmatic theories; it broadens the research field of the host's language, contributes to finding the broadcast law of talk shows and seeks the feasible way for the improvement of host's verbal ability.