An Investigation Of Pragmatic Competence And Cognitive Context Analysis Of Pragmatic Failure

The correlation between linguistic competence and pragmatic competence is stillworth to be analyzed in the field of pragmatics. There is still less research on pragmaticfailure from the perspective of cognitive context, though it is viewed as the reflection ofpragmatic competence.This thesis aims to analyze the current situation of Chinese non-English majorfreshmen’s pragmatic competence; the correlation between linguistic competence andpragmatic competence of the Chinese non-English major freshmen and the potential causesof pragmatic failure as the reflection of Chinese non-English major freshmen’s pragmaticcompetence.This thesis investigates the pragmatic competence of206Chinese non-English majorfreshmen, and this investigation adopts the questionnaire method. The questionnaireconsists of two parts, altogether36questions.The conclusions are as follows: First, the current level of pragmatic competence of thesubjects participating in the investigation is still quite low. Second, their pragmaticcompetence and the linguistic competence of NMET are slightly correlated, which meansthat accumulation of linguistic knowledge is important for the development of pragmaticcompetence. Third, as the main reflection of pragmatic competence, the causes ofpragmatic failure are probed into under the framework of cognitive context from thefollowing aspects: lack of cognitive context, select wrong assumption about cognitivecontext, mismatch of cognitive context, failure to derive cognitive effect and failure toexploit the implicature. At last, the author puts forward some suggestions to promotepragmatic competence and to avoid pragmatic failure.