A Pragmatic Study Of Counseling Language

The present study focuses on the counselor's language in the process of counseling, which is termed as "Counseling Language". This study is a qualitative study based on the data collected from the psychological books and magazines. The conceptual framework is constructed on the basis of Jef Verschuern's (1999) Linguistic Adaptation Theory. The present study aims to test whether the Adaptation Theory can well explain the counselor's language in the process of counseling, that is, whether the counseling language adapts to the client's social and psychological world.With the rapid development of society and drastic competition in every field, psychological pressure and problems are universally brought to the people at different ages and in different field, therefore, counseling gradually reveals its great importance. However, study on the counseling is only restricted within psychology. Great importance has been attended to theories and therapies of counseling by psychologists, while the special function and importance of the counseling language in the process of counseling are disregarded. The linguists are only concerned with language itself and little attention has been given to the counseling language from the perspective of adaptation theory. In order to make up for the vacancy, this study investigates the counseling language from the perspective of adaptation theory.This research, through the pragmatic analysis of counseling language, based on J. Verschueren's Linguistic Adaptation Theory, investigates the properties of the counseling language, the adaptability of counseling language, and the pragmatic strategies employed in the counseling language, then tries to build a theoretical model for the study of counseling language. By carefully scrutinizing some successful data and synthetically taking linguistic, social, cultural and psychological factors into account, the present research finds out that the counseling language adapts to the client's social and psychological world, thereby, Jef Verschuern's Linguistic Adaptation Theory is proved to be sufficient to explain the counseling language. In practice, we hope to guide people to deal with the psychological problems involved in their study, work and daily lives, consequently making contribution to the establishment of a harmonious society.