A Pragmatic Approach To The Images Of Yao Mulan In Moment In Peking

As the protagonist of a historical novel, Moment in Peking, written by LinYutang, Yao Mulan is an ideal female representative in China at that time who’s bothnurtured by oriental and occidental cultures. Style is the man, and the content andmanner of a person’s speech is an index of his or her inner world and character. Inother words her images are intertwined with her utterances. The thesis selects themost typical conversations and a letter between Yao Mulan and other characters in thenovel, and analyzes them from the pragmatic angle so as to explore the images of YaoMulan.Grice’s Cooperative Principle and Leech’s Politeness Principle are two majorpragmatic theories which can analyze and explain people’s utterances in interpersonalinteraction to some extent. And the thesis makes47case studies by qualitativeapproach from the perspectives of Cooperative Principle and Politeness Principle.With the analyses of Yao Mulan’s utterances, her art of speaking andmulti-faceted images are displayed more directly and explicitly. Being full of wit,Mulan communicates with others using various techniques very well. Besides it canbe found that her way of speaking depends largely on the relationship between herand speakers, her position, as well as the occasion. Her image is intertwined with herspeech. Based on her observing or flouting the various maxims, the author analyzesthe function of these maxims employed in her speech. If she observes CP most of thetime, then she would sort of lack vigor and vitality. In violating CP, a lively, witty,composed and courageous Mulan stands vividly before readers. Meanwhile, sheestablishes a good relationship with others through observing some maxims of PP.The thesis finds out that Mulan is a great beauty both inside and out, but that there aresome situations where Mulan feels helpless and a bit regretful. She is a modernwoman who is beautiful, full of wisdom, and very brave, while at the same time she isstill influenced by traditional ideas. Indeed, she is more beautiful inside than out.Essentially, her art of speaking is worth learning and further exploration. As one reads more of the novel, he or she would find Mulan more adorable from her tactfuluse of various skills in her utterances. Beauty is known by the spiritual or inner side inthe final analysis, and one has to start with enriching the inner world in becomingmore charming.