A Contrastive Study Of The Pragmatic Strategies Of Evasive Answers At Chinese And American Press Conferences From A Perspective Of Adaptation Theory

Evasion takes place in interpersonal communication frequently since everyone has something that wants to be hidden from others. This is especially true at press conferences. As Nicholson(1950) says the most universal meaning of diplomatic language is “guarded statement that enables diplomats to say sharp things without being provocative or impolite.” As a result, when being asked some sensitive or touch questions, government officials should evade those questions in a tactful way since how they answer concerns the government’s stance and national core interests.Evasion is universal and pervasive. Many scholars have tried to analyze evasive answers from different angles. The purpose of the thesis was to conduct a tentatively contrastive study on evasive answers performed by Chinese government officials(CGOs) and American government officials(AGOs) based upon Verschuren’s adaptation theory. Specifically speaking, the following objectives were reached:(1) to classify evasive answers applied by CGOs and AGOs at press conference;(2)to analyze the pragmatic functions of evasive answer at press conference;(3) to analyze the similarity and dissimilarity between Chinese and American spokespersons in adopting evasive strategies and to explore the reason why CGOs and AGOs tend to use disparate evasive strategies at press conference. In order to achieve the objectives of the present study, the following research questions were put forward for further investigation.1) What evasive strategies do the spokespersons usually adopt at press conferences?2) What are the pragmatic functions of evasive answer at press conference?3) What are the similar and dissimilar strategies employed by FMSC and FMSA and what are the main factors influencing the similar and different evasive strategies applied by GOs?To attain these goals and answer the research questions, Bull& Mayer’s functional approach, Galasinski’s semantic approach and Clayman’s sociological approach were used. Based on these three approaches, 11 working classifications of evasive answers at press conference were mainly adopted, namely, making political points, deferring the answers, refusal on grounds of inability, asking others for the answers, unwilling to answer, stating that the question has already been answered, ignoring the questions, attacking the questions, attacking the interviewers, vague questions and questioning the questions. Verschuren’s adaptation theory was adopted as the theoretical framework. Adaptation to the social world, mental world and physical world would be taken into consideration when evasive answers were analyzed.The procedure of the thesis was as follow:1) 160 texts of press conference were collected randomly via Internet ranging from 2014 to 2015 from the website of PRC Foreign Ministry(http://www.fmprc.gov.cn) and the website of White House(http://www.state.gov), 80 in American Press Briefing and 80 in Chinese Press Conference.2) All those data in Chinese were translated into English for further discussion.3) The data was examined. Among those data, 51 of 80 texts of American Press Conferences applied evasive strategy while 54 of 80 texts of Chinese Press Conferences used evasive strategy. As a result, those texts that applied evasive strategy were adopted based on Adaptation Theory.4) Evasive answers were classified based upon the modified typology of Bull and Mayer’s functional approach(2003), Galasinski’s semantic approach and sociological approach. The number of evasion strategies was calculated and evasive strategies were classified to meet the requirement of the present study. There were 11 categories that could be used in the present study.5) Examples of evasive strategies were analyzed based on adaptation theory and the similar and dissimilar evasive strategies applied by CGOs and AGOs were compared by using the quantitative and qualitative analysis.6) Social and culture implications have been drawn from the quantitative and qualitative analysis.Through the careful analysis and investigation, the following major findings have been concluded:1) Based on Bull& Mayer’s functional approach, Galasinski’s semantic approach and Clayman’s sociological approach, evasive answers at press conference were analyzed and the 11 working classifications of evasive answers were summarized.2) There were three pragmatic functions of evasive answers: withholding information, minimizing the probability of potential conflict and conveying positive image.3) Both of the CGOs and AGOs tended to use the evasive strategy of refusal on grounds of inability, because it was the easiest and best way to avoid answering the questions without breaking rapport. However, there were some disparate in applying evasive strategies between CGOs and AGOs. CGOs preferred to use the evasive strategy of making political points and when they applied this strategy, it was often combined with other 10 strategies while AGOs expressed their unwillingness to answer the questions more often than CGOs and sometimes they would attack the interviewers. Religious origin, thinking pattern and rhetorical philosophy were the main factors that influenced CGOs and AGOs to choose evasive strategies.