A Study Of Evasion In Political Interview Based On Relevance-Adaptation Model

In interview, to accomplish the whole interview successfully and avoid the conflicts with interviewer, the interviewee frequently adopted evasive answer to reply sticky questions, which happened at high ratio in political interview.The application of evasion was a dynamic process to search optimal relevance and adaption between language structure and contextual elements, which was also manifested through the efforts given by participants in communication to achieve success; meanwhile, a process of strategy choosing. Based on Relevance-Adaptation Model, the author wanted to make the analysis of evasion in more systematical, comprehensive and dynamic way, therefore to know its generative mechanism, formation and pragmatic effects.Evasion consists of overt evasion and covert evasion, and this thesis focused on the covert one. Under the guidance of Relevance-Adaptation Model, twenty-nine fragments, chosen from nineteen pieces of transcripts of political interview, have been used to research to figure out the generative mechanism of evasion through qualitative method and data description. The interviewees appeared in all interviews were key statesman or press spokesman, and the contents involved in were formal and serious which belong to materials for pragmatic study. To produce evasive answer, the first thing was to search optimal relevance that was caused by speaker's continued adaptation to various contextual sources on the basis of relevance. In political interview, interviewee adjusted some relevant contextual ingredients by extending, reducing or changing way to avoid answer or refuse the question directly prompted by interviewer. To make the study more detailed, three contextual factors, topic, concept and intention, have been chosen to investigate. While the utterer made the conversational contents relevant, evasion also results in adaptation. Adaptation indicates that utterer adapts physical world, social world, and mental world of two participants. Utterer is not an isolated entity, but a mainstay in social conventions and culture. From the perspective of adaptation, the interviewee is viewed as such mainstay during research. In political interview, when politician meets the question which can be answered, with the utterance of evasion, he/she can keep relevant information, avoid conflicts with interview and achieve expected effects of political view transmission.To investigate evasion based on Relevance-Adaptation Model, on one hand, the thesis was hoped to prompt guidance for the politician when they were involved in political activities; on the other hand, it was expected to make the public have deepen understanding of implied meaning of evasive answer and politician's aim when it was used, and then improve own pragmatic competence in communication.