A Pragmatic Study On Movement In The Chinese Language-From The Perspective Of Linguistic Adaptation

In terms of the flexibility of the Chinese language, one noticeable phenomenon is movement, which refers to the deliberate replacement of the static positions of syntactic constituents without altering the initial syntactic relation and semantic meaning for the purpose of realizing special pragmatic effects in actual language use. The linguistic phenomenon of movement abounds in the Chinese language, but little attention has been paid to it, not mentioning any research from a dynamic perspective. Therefore, this study attempts to make a relatively comprehensive analysis of movement from the pragmatic perspective, concentrating on the variability, adaptability, and functionality of movement in the Chinese language. Methodologically speaking, this study is mainly a qualitative study based on the data selected from contemporary novels, plays, newspapers and daily conversations. And the conceptual framework is constructed on the basis of Jef Verschueren's (1999) Linguistic Adaptation Theory.Bearing in mind the three properties of language which are proposed by Jef Verschueren, we are to scrutinize the meaning functioning of movement by answering the following three questions, namely, how should we define and delimitate movement? Why does the communicator choose movement as a communicative strategy? And what are the communicative functions that this strategy can perform?To be more exact, the present study is to be carried out from the following three aspects:Firstly, being a strategy of communication, movement relies on various linguistic structures to realize its functions. Thus, the communicator needs to manipulate his/her language so as to choose a proper linguistic structure which can help him/her carry out this strategy. Based on a working definition of movement in the Chinese language, this study begins with a delimitation and classification of it from the following two aspects, that is, the characteristics of movement and the types of movement. Naturally, the variability of movement can be demonstrated with the afore-mentioned understandings.Secondly, to probe the question why movement is chosen in a specific situation, we find out that movement is employed to adapt to various contextual factors. In this research, the contextual factors are divided into the communicative context and the linguistic context. The mental world and the social world to which different kinds of movement in the Chinese language get adapted fall into the communicative context; and the two ingredients of linguistic context, namely structural objects and contextual cohesion to which movement adapt are under our discussion of the linguistic context. Besides, some specified sub-adaptations are also pointed out in the analyses.Thirdly, having known how and why movement is exploited in communication, we still feel curious about what functions or communicative effects that a movement has or is intended to have. The present investigation finds out that movement can highlight information, intensify specific emotions, viz. joy, amazement, irony, and grief, and create special communicative effects, viz. urgency and euphony.Movement is a pervasive language phenomenon in our routine communication. A dynamic and systematic research may prove both its theoretical and practical significance in linguistic studies.