A Study Of Verbal Communication In Moment In Peking From The Perspective Of Economics Of Language

There has been little research on the magnificent novel Moment in Peking by Lin Yutang since its publication. This paper, as an interdisciplinary study of communication, economics and literature, intents to analyze verbal communication of the novel in detail from the perspective of a new rising subject - Economics of Language in the hope that some solutions to obstacles or some suggestions in communication can be obtained.Moment in Peking, published in 1940, is a novel of broad canvas that began with the Boxer Rebellion in 1901 and ended with the beginning of the Sino-Japanese War. It is a novel that follows the lives of two Chinese families over 40 years. Through the portrayal of the characters, the author manifests the Chinese philosophies: Taoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism. The novel reveals the profound Chinese culture to the world and gives the foreign readers a panoramic view of Chinese society including all kinds of characters, outdated people and brand-new people, persons in high and low classes, old and young which provide abundant material for the research. This paper tries to analyze the communicative language in the novel and seek some suggestions in communication which may help communicators to work out good communicative effects, use language in an economical and scientific way and furthermore set harmonious relationship with others.This paper gives a brief introduction to Lin Yutang, the novel Moment in Peking. The key part of the paper is an elaboration of communicative examples extracted from the novel in which the combination and outcome of linguistics and economics is employed to analyze the research material. With Economics of Language as its theoretical pillar, this paper looks into the major existing problems in verbal communication and divided them into three kinds in general. Then some suggestions or solutions are summarized through the detailed analyses of the problems. They are minimum words, clear expression, amicability and comprehensive knowledge. Though these suggestions give people a clear standard to follow and save time and efforts of communicators, they still have their limitations. Because of some special subjective conditions and objective circumstances, these methods can not be applied into these exceptional examples.Verbal communication has been studied both from the angle of linguistics and economics. Much enlightenment and guidance can be concluded from the research. It can be obviously proved that Principles of Economics is very helpful in explaining and guiding human behavior. The new rising subject Economics of Language is becoming noticed and studied by more and more linguists and common people. It will play a more significant role in linguistics study. The author hopes that the suggestions concluded from the research can provide useful rules for communicators to follow and be beneficial for them to use language economically in social communication and to set up a good image to some extent. It is also hoped that the paper can bring some enlightenment in linguistics research.