A Comparative Study Of Deception In English And Chinese Based On The Adaptation Theory

Many scholars have carried out many researches on deception at home andabroad. Most scholars have conducted researches from the approaches of ethics,psychology, philosophy, sociology, rhetoric, logic and so forth. And most of theresearchers paid much attention to the harmfulness of deception and to how to detect itand escape from it. As for the use of pragmatic principles, many scholars explaindeception with Grice’s Maxim of Quality, Leech’s Politeness Principle, the FaceTheory of Brown Levinson and some others. However, they can’t give acomprehensive account of deception.The thesis tries to analyze the similarities and differences of deception in Englishand Chinese from the perspective of the Adaptation Theory. Most scholars only use onekind of material. And very few scholars have done that from the same perspective. Thisthesis can fill the gap in the study of deception and start a new field from theperspective of pragmatics on comparative study. Furthermore, the author tries to findout the reasons behind these differences so that we can have a better understanding ofdeception. What’s more, the author will illustrate the similar pragmatic effects ofdeception in English and Chinese in order to help people communicate smoothly andsuccessfully.This thesis has important theoretical and practical meanings in cross-culturalcommunication. On one hand, the Adaptation Theory can give a full and dynamicexplanation to the deception in movies, TV programs and literary works and so manyothers. It demonstrates more powerful strengths on them. Through careful comparison,it can help people have a better understanding and better appreciation of them. On theother hand, this thesis can make people know how to use deception to avoid conflicts and help save face and achieve some other pragmatic effects. It can help people mastersome communicative skill in some certain situations and develop their abilities ofspeaking and communicating so that it can make people’s daily conversation gosmoothly and successfully. Last but not least, studying on deception can give someadvice to language teaching. Mastering it well can help teachers build a goodrelationship with students in order to create a harmonious atmosphere in class.Moreover, it can help achieve a better effect of teaching.