A Relevance-theoretic Approach To Deliberate Misinterpretation In Zhao Benshan’s Comic Sketches

The present study is a pragmatic analysis of deliberate misinterpretation in Chinese comicsketches carried on under the theoretical framework of Speber&Wilson’s Relevance Theory.Deliberate misinterpretation (DMI) occurs when the hearer has correctly understood theintended meaning expressed by the speaker via an utterance, yet subsequently produces anutterance to present a mismatch between his/her understanding and the speaker’s intendedmeaning on purpose. By doing this, the hearer satisfies his/her own communicative needs,which means DMI is a specific pragmatic strategy in verbal communication. It has been foundthat generating mechanism of DMI is used at different levels such as pronunciation, lexicon,syntax and rhetoric, among which phonetic and lexical generating mechanism account for thetwo largest proportions. Apart from the hearer’s intention to deliberately misinterpret, thecharacteristics of Chinese language and the vagueness in the speaker’s utterance also become atrigger of DMI. The characteristics of Chinese language include:(1) some words are of the samepronunciation, but different characters or meanings or both;(2) some are made up of the samecharacters but these characters are in different order;(3) some are different in characters andmeanings but similar in pronunciation; and (4) some words may mean differently in differentcontexts.The Relevance Theory (RT), the theoretical framework of this thesis, is a communicativetheory of cognitive pragmatics, which is dedicated at the studies of ostensive-inferentialcommunication and also oriented to establish a general principle to interpret the innermechanism of communicators. RT has evoked intense attention in world-wide circles oflinguistics and pragmatics, as it provides a new perspective and approach to study thecommunicative and pragmatic problems and demonstrates a wealth of possibilities ofinterpreting language phenomena.As a popular art form, the Chinese comic sketch aims to create humor or sarcasm toentertain audience by verbal means. DMI is one of the verbal means which is often utilized inthe Chinese comic sketch. As a representative of the comic sketch in China, Zhao Benshan’scomic sketches are popular for their distinctive humorous language and Zhao’s comic sketcheshave been awarded the first prize for thirteen years in CCTV Spring Festival Evening Gala since1999. This thesis aims to study on Zhao Benshan’s comic sketches, analyzing the examples ofDMI in details.This thesis is a pragmatic study on the means and causes of DMI in Zhao Benshan’s comic sketches. Methodologically, the present study is a qualitative one, in which the RelevanceTheory is used as the general theoretical framework. Data are collected form Zhao Benshan’sworks for many years, especially those performed on CCTV Spring Festival Gala. In order tomake the thesis impartial and comprehensive, the author has made every effort to collect asmany data as possible.It is hoped that the present study can improve our knowledge of the pragmatic strategies,and may instruct and enlighten our daily communication as well as our understanding ofChinese comic sketches. It is believed that more substantial research would shed more light onthe study of deliberate misinterpretation.