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A Study On The Characters’ Utterances In Sense And Sensibility From The Perspective Of Contextual Adaptation Theory

Posted on:2013-05-29Degree:MasterType:Thesis
Country:ChinaCandidate:L J WangFull Text:PDF
GTID:2235330395476465Subject:English Language and Literature
Abstract/Summary:PDF Full Text Request
Language use always depends on the context. Context is an important research object in linguistics. After many linguists researched at home and abroad, Belgian linguist Verschueren fully developed the context study in his book Understanding Pragmatic published in2000. The thesis applies the contextual adaptation of Adaptation Theory to study the characters’utterances in Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility. It aims to do research on language use from a new pragmatic perspective-functional perspective.This thesis is divided into two main parts:In the first part, the context study at home and abroad is reviewed and Verschueren’s Adaptation Theory is elaborated, especially the contextual adaptation theory. For a long time, linguists have just focused on the static study of context, that is, the definitions, characteristics and classifications of the context. With the development of context study, linguists realize that the context is generated from the communicative process. The study on context gradually turns to the dynamic study. Verschueren’s Contextual Correlates of Adaptability are one of the four angles of Adaptation Theory, together with structural objects of adaptability, dynamics of adaptability and the salience of the adaptation processes. According to Adaptation Theory, language use can be defined as continuous language choice-making. The language users can make choices based on three properties of language:variability, negotiability and adaptability. Choice-making is closely adapted to the contextual correlates:mental world, social world and physical world.The second part is devoted to a dynamic and full analysis of the characters’ utterances in Sense and Sensibility on the basis of the contextual adaptation theory. The processes of characters’linguistic choices are the ones that the characters dynamically adapt to their mental world, social world and physical world. The choices made are always adapted to the characters’ mental world which includes characters" personality traits, motivation, patterns of belief and emotional involvement and so on. The thesis analyses the characters’utterances to adapt to their mental world from these four aspects. There is no limit to the range of social factors that language choices are interadaptable with. The thesis discusses the utterances to adapt to the social world in the novel from two angles:power and solidarity, and social relationships. Language use takes place over time and space. The characters choose different forms of expression according to different time and space in order to achieve the communicative purposesThe present study has both theoretical and practical significances. Theoretically speaking. Verschueren’s Adaptation Theory provides a general new functional perspective for studying context. Practically, the thesis supplies a new perspective for analyzing the literary characters’ utterances. It can help readers have a better understanding of the language and the theme of Sense and Sensibility.
Keywords/Search Tags:Adaptation Theory, contextual adaptation theory, language choice, context, adaptation
PDF Full Text Request
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