Deliberate Misinterpretation In Verbal Communication

The present research makes a qualitative study of deliberate misinterpretation occurring in verbal communication from pragmatic perspective. Its main focuses are placed on the realization of deliberate misinterpretation at different levels of language use and its pragmatic apparatuses and motivations.Deliberate misinterpretation is a marked pragmatic phenomenon happening between two interlocutors in communication, in which the speaker's communicative intention is factually understood but deliberately distorted for some pragmatic motivations. Different from the unmarked pragmatic phenomenon of misunderstanding which is unintentional and results from the hearer's linguistic, cognitive or pragmatic inability or inadequacies, deliberate misinterpretation is a planned pragmatic strategy and based on the hearer's relatively strong linguistic, cognitive and pragmatic abilities.Deliberate misinterpretation can be well interpreted within the framework of pragmatic theories formed by Brown & Levinson's Face Theory, Leech's Politeness Principle as well as Sperber & Wilson's Relevance Theory. These theories partly constitute the pragmatic apparatuses of deliberate misinterpretation. The phenomenon of deliberate misinterpretation can be traced at almost all levels of language use, including phonological, semantic, pragmatic and social-cultural levels. The pragmatic strategy of deliberate misinterpretation is often employed in verbal communication for the purposes of saving face, showing politeness, avoiding embarrassment, avoiding getting humiliation or getting disadvantageous inference.The thesis's original exploration into the concrete expressions of deliberate misinterpretation from different levels of language use and the pragmatic motivations of such a pragmatic strategy may strengthen people's understanding of this special pragmatic phenomenon and enlighten further researches in the same field.