A Comparative Study On The Operation Of The Pragmatic Principles Under Chinese And British Cultural Backgrounds

This thesis tries to comparatively analyze the conversations between the judges and thecontestants of TV talent shows—China’s Got Talent (CGT) and Britain’s Got Talent (BGT)from the perspectives of pragmatics, in an attempt to explain the reasons for observing orviolating the pragmatic principles in their conversations.Grice’s Cooperative Principle (CP) and Leech’s Politeness Principle (PP) are employedto analyze the collected data of the thesis. The two theories are respectively analyzed, andtheir relationships are also illustrated, which provide the present thesis a clear theoreticalframework. Then cultural values, including individualism and collectivism，privacy, modestyand self-denigration, indirectness and equality are employed to analyze the similarities and thedifferences of employing the CP and the PP in CGT and BGT.In terms of the selected examples of the conversations between the judges and thecontestants in CGT and BGT, they are classified into different categories according to thesub-maxims of the CP and the PP and made a comparative analysis. Most of the time, thejudges and the contestants of the conversation observe the sub-maxims of the CP and the onesof the PP, but sometimes they also violate these sub-maxims to produce conversationalimplicatures. For instance, the speaker violates both the CP and the PP, or observes the PP bysacrificing the CP. The reason of the violation is to preserve the hearer’s face or reduce theirconflicts. The main body of the thesis elaborates the observations and the violations of the CPand the PP by quantitative analysis and qualitative analysis. Due to different cultural values ofChina and Britain, there are also some similarities and differences between the employment ofthe CP and the PP in CGT and BGT, and they are analyzed in detail by the writer.This thesis analyzes the application of the CP and the PP in a new area—TV talent show.It widens the research object scope of Grice’s CP and Leech’s PP, and gives a deeperunderstanding of the conversations between the judges and the contestants of TV talent shows,hoping to help both the Chinese and the British language learners to get a bettercomprehension of the CP and the PP, and thus increasing the communication between Chineseculture and British culture. Finally, limitations of this study and recommendations for further studies are provided.