A Study On Politeness In TV Talk Shows From The Perspective Of Rapport Management Theory

Brown and Yule(1983) indicate that language has two main functions: the function of information-transferring and the function of maintenance of social relationships. Nowadays, the progress of scientific technology encourages “global village” to come into being, and day by day people interact more and more frequent, which makes language’s function of maintenance of social relationships more important. In the field of linguistics, politeness is the vital component to maintain interpersonal harmony and linguists pay much attention to it all the time. Meanwhile, the progress of scientific technology also encourages TV talk shows to develop. To a large extent, various forms of TV talk shows with novel contents have affected people’s social life. Many scholars have explored TV talk shows from different perspectives and gained some significant achievements, but the phenomenon of politeness in TV talk shows lacks enough attention, so that there is much research space. Thus, this thesis aims to study the politeness in TV talk shows from the perspective of Rapport Management Theory, and provide guidance for people to maintain and enhance interpersonal harmony.Based on the theoretical framework of Spencer-Oatey’s Rapport Management Theory(RM Theory, 2000), the thesis chooses the politeness in The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon to carry out a qualitative study. RM Theory is one of new developments of politeness theories, and focuses on the use of language to establish, maintain or threaten social relationship, involving the management of face and of sociality rights. Both face and sociality rights are concerned with personal and social angles. Therefore, under the guidance of RM Theory, the author tries to answer three research questions:(1) How many kinds of politeness phenomenon are revealed in The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon?(2) How is each kind of politeness phenomenon realized in The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon?(3) Why is politeness considered realized by the interactants?Based on the theoretical framework of RM Theory, the thesis chooses 39 examples from 19 videos in November of the year of 2014 to explain that in The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon there are four types of politeness: the politeness of quality face, the politeness of identity face, the politeness of equity rights, and the politeness of association rights. All in all, apart from the politeness between the host and guests, the politeness in The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon is presented between the host and audiences, between guests and audiences, and between the program-self and sponsors. Moreover, the politeness can be realized verbally and nonverbally. Additionally, there are three reasons to achieve politeness: the speaker holds good rapport orientations; the utterances or body language are in accord with the expectation of contextual variables and of pragmatic conventions.Through the study on the politeness in TV talk shows, the thesis provides a new angle for the research into politeness, proves the explanatory power of RM Theory and remedies the politeness studies on the basis of classical Face Theory. The author hopes that this thesis can provide guidance for people when they show politeness in ordinary communication. Besides, by introducing and studying a foreign TV talk show, the thesis enlightens the improvement of domestic TV talk shows.