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Pragmatic Study Of Chinese Tongue Slips In Online TV Programs

Posted on:2014-01-10Degree:MasterType:Thesis
Country:ChinaCandidate:T T LiFull Text:PDF
GTID:2235330398454382Subject:English Language and Literature
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Language is of significance for us to deliver our thoughts, wishes and viewsabout the outside world. However, we are constantly trapped into this plight: ourwords deviates our intention once in a while, and we call this phenomenon ‘tongueslip’(shorten for ‘TS’ in this study). Concerning the definition of TS, differingscholars hold differing views. Boomer&Laver (1968) insist that TS is theunconscious deviation of the speaker’s planned pronunciation, grammar, lexicons andso on, which is also sticked to in the present research, except that we make somesupplements. TS in this dissertation also covers ‘pragmatic failure’ in pragmatics. Anoverwhelming majority of TSs, can not only prevent the accurate transmission ofinformation, but also incur the ones with a status, like the speakers, broadcasters andthe politicians denouncement and mockery. Hence, the study of TS is beneficial to oureffective avoidance of its negative influence.The study of TS begins in the eighth century AD, when the Arabic linguist,Al-ki-sa’I issues his book Errors of the Populace. Later, the research on TS hasexperienced the following three stages: psychological analysis, linguistic analysis andthe combination of both. The study of Chinese TS is initiated by Zhang Ning (1990a),with the publishment of his Language Study and the Slips of the Tongue. Later, ShenJiaxuan (1992,2001,2006), Meng Guo (1998), Jiang Meiyu (2002,2004), Yang Jin(2011) etc. have made significant contributions to the study of Chinese TS. Theprevious studies, nevertheless, are not systematic and comprehensive, moreover, mostof them just focus on the types and causes of TSs or the comparison between Englishones and Chinese ones.Based on the former studies, the present one develops a system to analysis theproduction mechanism of TSs by jointing Austin’s Speech Act Theory, Fromkin’sModel of Speech Production and the five remedy strategies of Brown and Levinson’sFace-saving Theory. The present dissertation presumes that the production andremedies of TSs are closely related to the three acts of the Speech Act Theory, where TSs are caused in locutionary act or illocutionary act, while their remedies is taken inperloctionary act. This study finds:(1) three factors are involved in triggering TSs: intra-language causes,inter-language causes and extra-language ones.(2) TSs posed in locutionary act mainly gather in errors in meaning, syntacticstructures, intonations, words and phonetic segments, while those inillocutionary act refer to that the speaker uses the correct expression ininappropriate situations, which is similar to pragmatic failures inpragmatics.(3) Since TSs are an overt face-threatening act, the exploration of their remedies(one of the perlocutionary acts of TSs) are of practical value to our everydaycommunication. Under the guidance of the five remedy strategies ofFace-Saving Theory, this study put forward five remedial measures from thepoint of hearers. They are:(a) use body languages, like eye contact, frown,deep thought and so on.(b) remind of the speaker implicitly, like the speakerrepeats the TSs, or politely requires the utter to repeat his words.(c) pointout the speaker’s TS directly and openly.(d) befriend with speaker, then lethim know his TSs.(e) tell the speaker his TSs self-effacingly.(4) Remedies for the speaker are to lesson the threat TS brings him. The presentstudy holds three types of remedies will be adopted when TS occurs. Theyare:(a) public apologies, which are usually employed by hosts of TVprograms;(b) self-mockery, which is taken advantage of by public figures,like politicians;(c) timely repairs, which are adopted by common people.Here, five patterns of timely repairs are recommended.In short, this study discovers that the production of TS is closely related to threeacts of the Speech Act Theory, and it can occur in each stage of language production.Thus, the study of TS is both of practical and theoretical value.
Keywords/Search Tags:Tongue Slips, Speech Act Theory, Fromkin’s Modle of SpeechProduction, Face-Saving Theory, repairs
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