A Pragmatic Study Of English Parentheses

Parenthesis, as the term suggests, is an interpolation which interrupts the continuity of both the structure and the meaning of a sentence. As a means of discourse expression, parentheses are found to exist in a large amount in both written and spoken English. Parentheses in English not only vary in form and meaning, but also play an important role in communication.Many scholars at home and abroad have made different studies of parentheses. But it seems most of them are descriptive analysis or are mainly restricted to the grammar analysis and some specific pragmatic functions, while why and how parentheses are employed in discourse have not been fully discussed.Thus, on the basis of previous studies made by scholars, the author of the present study attempts to analyze the phenomenon of parentheses from pragmatic perspective, following Verschueren's Adaptation Theory and some theories of Functional Grammar. Verschueren's Adaptation Theory is a theory of behavior and cognition about human language communication. It takes choice and adaptation as its foundation, and explores the psychological mechanism of human linguistic communication, and its process and the roles of social cultures. It reveals the essence of the language use. Adaptation Theory is regarded as a comprehensive pragmatic theory with strong inclusive and explanatory capacity for language.Why do people employ parentheses consciously or unconsciously in discourse? We think the employment of parentheses in discourse by communicators is an adaptation to various contextual factors: 1.adaptation to communicative context, which includes adaptation to language users (involving utterer's voices and the different roles of interpreters); adaptation to the mental world of communicators (involving the personality traits, emotions, motivations and intentions); adaptation to the social world (involving the utterer's profession, social status and social rites); adaptation to the physical world (involving time and space and the surroundings). 2, adaptation to linguistic context, which includes adaptation to contextual cohesion and adaptation to different styles of language. What's more, during the course of adaptation, parentheses fulfill various functions in discourse and succeed in realizing the communicator's goals.This thesis is composed of three parts which include four chapters. The first chapter is a brief introduction to English parentheses. Definitions, distinctive features and semantic classifications of English parentheses are discussed in this part. In addition, some related studies on this linguistic phenomenon are reviewed and the objective and value of the present study are presented. The second chapter introduces the framework of the present study, elaborating the concept of context and dynamic adaptation. The third and the fourth chapter are core section of this study. Guided by the Adaptation Theory, the author analyses the generative mechanism of English parentheses from pragmatic perspective, trying to reveal how the communicators employ parentheses to adapt to the various contextual factors to achieve their communicative goals.Through the present study, we find the employment of parentheses in both written and spoken language is actually a product of dynamic adaptation to various contextual factors. Parentheses are not only a linguistic phenomenon, but also a communicative strategy. Communicators employ parentheses to achieve some communicative goals. We think that Verschueren's Adaptation Theory can provide a good theoretical framework for a scientific explanation of parentheses in English. The ,present study is carried out in the hope of helping English learners to better understand and use English parentheses.