Study On Ambivalent Response To Pragmatic Ambivalence Speech In Daily Verbal Communication

Pragmatic ambivalence is a common linguistic phenomenon in daily verbal communication, which is studied extensively by scholars from various aspects. However, most of the studies focus on the categories of pragmatic ambivalence and its pragmatic functions analyzing from the aspect of the speaker singly. Few scholars do the research from the perspective of the listener. It is studied that the listener will take ambivalent response to speaker?s pragmatic ambivalence speech in order to achieve one specific pragmatic effect or goal under some contextual conditions, which affects the success of communication.Under the theoretical framework of Rhetoric Interpersonal Principles, this paper studies from the perspective of the listener to analyze the ambivalent response to collected pragmatic ambivalence speech through the combination of qualitative analysis and quantitative analysis, considering the American TV series “The Big Bang Theory”(1-6 seasons) as corpus sources from which 95 episodes are extracted. The classifications of ambivale nt response and its corresponding communicative functions are mainly researched. Irony Principle means that the speaker adopt the irony utterance to avoid criticizing or abusing others directly; Banter Principle means speaking somewhat unreal or impolite words to show the intimate relationship with listener(s); Interest Principle means speak ing unpredictable utterance to arouse listener?s/listeners? attention, and Pollyanna Principle means speak ing positive words when the listeners are confronted with troubles.The thesis states that there are 15 kinds of pragmatic strategies of ambivalent response to pragmatic ambivalence speech the listener adopts, which are classified as : the ambivalent response expressing irony including complaining, censuring, warning, teasing and questioning; the ambivalent response expressing banter involving bantering, negation and offering help; the ambivalent response expressing interest covering changing the subject, euphemistic refusal, exaggeration, euphemistic request and explaining; the ambivalent response expressing pollyanna consisting of comforting and admitting mistakes. After concise analysis, the communicative functions of listener?s ambivalent response to speaker?s pragmatic ambivalence speech can be mainly condensed in four aspects: smoothing the conversation which is realized by minimizing the possibility of face-threatening, maintaining the interpersonal relationship and for self-protection; creating sense of humor; moderating the communicative atmosphere including mitigating atmosphere and mitigating the association between unhappiness and embarrassment; strengthening the interpersonal relationship.Therefore, it is conducive to command the initiatives and fulfill the communicative purposes for the addressee when the listener utilize the ambivalent response reasonably and appropriately in daily verbal communication.