An Analysis Of Impoliteness In Pygmalion From The Perspective Of Adaptation Theory

Impoliteness is as important and pervasive as politeness in humancommunication, but many scholars choose to neglect it consciously or unconsciously.The extreme imbalance between the study of politeness and that of impoliteness is aclear proof of it. In China, there is little study on impoliteness, less study onimpoliteness in the play from the perspective of Adaptation Theory.The present thesis makes a deep study into impoliteness in G. B. Shaw’sPygmalion from the perspective of Verschueren’s Adaptation Theory. According toVerschueren, language use is a continuous process of choice-making by adapting tothe related contextual factors. Contextual correlates of adaptability are the essentialelements that language users are inter-adaptable with when certain impoliteness ischosen. Pygmalion is a great comic play written by George Bernard Shaw. It mainlytells us a story that a flower girl is transferred from a lower-class flower girl to anupper-class graceful lady by language standardization. Impoliteness is a muchpervasive phenomenon in the play.This thesis explores how impoliteness in Pygmalion adapts to elements ofcontextual factors: mental world, social world and physical world. The study revealsthat the usage of impoliteness in the play is the result of linguistic choice-makingwhich is adaptive to personality, emotion, friendship, family, power, time and space toachieve certain motivations. As a useful communicative strategy, impoliteness is usedby characters to show their various personalities, to reveal subtle relationshipsbetween different characters and to create humorous effect.The detailed analysis deepens readers understanding and appreciation ofPygmalion. Meanwhile, the thesis proves that Adaptation Theory has a powerfulexplanatory which offers a new perspective for impoliteness study.