A Study On The Positive Functions Of Impolite Utterances

As the contradictory of politeness, impoliteness can also be found extensively in social communication. However, previous researches have tended to focus on politeness, with impoliteness being rarely studied. In recent years, some researchers have realized the importance of the impoliteness study, and they have carried out studies on impoliteness being regarded as something that causes social conflict and disharmony.However, the author finds out that besides the above bad effects, impoliteness can also be found in communication to achieve some positive effects, which are based on the role of context in understanding impoliteness. Therefore, this thesis makes an attempt to explore the positive functions impolite utterances can produce in communication with the application of the theories of dynamic context in pragmatics, mainly including Sperber and Wilson's cognitive context and Verschueren's context adapation. The reason why A Dream of Red Mansions is chosen as the source of data is that it is one of the four masterpieces in Chinese literature well-known at home and abroad and it presents a comprehensive and typical picture of Chinese language art.In the major part of the thesis, the author first discusses the definition of impolite utterances based on the previous definitions, in order to set criteria for the data selection. With the help of the definition, the author reads through the novel A Dream of Red Mansions and gathers the impolite utterances for analysis. The positive functions analyzed are classified into two categories, namely, emotive function and conative function which are two functions from Jakobson's classification of six language functions. The former one includes a mark of intimacy and a means of praise and a means of fun. The latter includes enhancement of persuasion and realization of specific practical goals. Through the analysis, the author finds out that the realization of the positive functions can be categorized into two kinds in relation to the literal meaning and the implied meaning. Besides, the author proposes that it is the special context that enables impolite utterances to realize the positive functions and that the use and interpretation of the impolite utterances is also interadaptable with the context.Through exploring and analyzing the positive functions of impolite utterances, the author hopes to give some implications to the perfection and development of the theories on impoliteness and to help people better understand the use of impolite utterances in communication.