A Study Of Pragmatics Strategies In Free Debate

Debate is a special form of verbal communication and regular debates are competitionswhich are very popular in schools these years. If the two sides of a debater want to obtain thefinal victory, skills and strategies should be used. According to the literature search, we foundthat there are few researches on Free Debate Discourse especially for discourse function andpragmatic strategies. Some papers had summarized the strategies but with shallow layers.Based on literature research and empirical observation, this dissertation first summarizestwo major functions of Free Debating Discourse：assault and defense, then the dissertationcategories the Free Debate Discourse by its major functions.On this basis, the dissertation focuses on pragmatic strategies for assault and defense ofFree Debate Discourse. The research shows that when assaulting the main strategies are: rhetoricquestion, rhetorical question, hyperbole, using opponent’s examples to prove our own point ofview, taking an example to retort, giving an example to prove our point of view, doubting thecorrectness of the opponent’s elucidation, imitation, deliberate misinterpretation, askingquestions in a dilemma. The strategies for defense include: transferring the focusing point,answering vaguely and answering the question directly.The dissertation proves that Pragmatics is explainable to Free Debate Discourse. In one side,my research further deepens the Pragmatic understanding of debate discourse, and in the otherside, it theoretically support the practice of debate.