Script-Based Inference Of Indirect Directive Speech Act

This thesis indicates some shortcomings and defects in the present researches of cognitive inference on Indirect Directive Speech Act (IDSA). On the basis of the previous scholars' research achievements, an improved script model of IDSA inference has been put forward by the author. Then the author provides a detailed explanation of IDSA script's internal relationships and criteria of script classification. According to the script theory and the Spreading Activation theory, the script of IDSA dialogues in contemporary and modern novels and dramas have been analyzed in detail in order to prove the effectiveness and correctness of the model. This paper is of certain significance to discourse analysis, writing and foreign language pedagogy both theoretically and practically.Thesis Section 1 includes research background, significance, objective and thesis organization.Section 2 is a generalization of Thornburg & Panther's Speech Act Scenario based on Searle's research. In this section, IDSA execution conditions are reconstructed (including three major parts and all components making up each part). Thus, a new IDSA script model is completed. Then, the author pays more attention to the detailed discussion of script classification and the dimensions to organize IDSA script. Finally, the paper describes the makeup of the script model and demonstrates the relations among all the components of an IDSA script.In section 3, according to the Spreading Activation Theory, the author illustrates the rationale of the IDSA inference by using dialogues in the short stories and dramas (especially functions and positions of each part, ) in order to elucidate IDSA script's rationality. In the given discourse context, IDSA in single sentence will be discussed first, and then multi-turn discourses.Section 4 is the generalization of the research focuses and the conclusion of this thesis.