A Pragmatic Study Of Repair: A Rapport Management-Adaptation Perspective

This thesis is a pragmatic exploration of repair in interpersonal communication from the perspective of Rapport Management-Adaptation approach.The theoretic framework is tentatively constructed based on Spencer-Oatey's Rapport Management Model and Verschueren's Adaptation Theory,with the view of investigating the dynamic process of communicators' conscious selection and use of repair.In the present research,repair is comprehended and defined from two meaning potentials,namely,functioning as a kind of linguistic mending device and working as a kind of interpersonal mitigating device.It aims to give an account of how repairing strategies are generated by communicators to remove out all kinds of communicative problems and obstacles so as to make sure of the smoothness of informative transmission,and how communicators manage the relationship among participants so as to achieve the rapport orientation of interpersonal relation through the use of repair.The present study is mainly designed to account for the aspects of the dynamic process of the use of repair by using the tentative Rapport Management-Adaptation theoretic framework.Repair is rapport-oriented during the process of interpersonal communication.In specific context,the selection and use of repair should dynamically adapt to the contextual correlates.As a result,it produces a particular repairing utterance,which is considered as the variation of repair.The variation of repair conducts a particular pragmatic function,which can not only eliminate those communicative problems and obstacles occurring in interpersonal communication,but also can effectively manage the interpersonal relation among communicators,which is in turn of great importance to actualize the rapport orientation of interpersonal relation.As to this claim,the main body of the thesis is discussed from three aspects.Firstly,it discusses the rapport orientation of repair in interpersonal communication.According to Spencer-Oatey,rapport orientation includes four types.They are rapport enhancement orientation,rapport maintenance orientation,rapport neglect orientation and rapport-challenge orientation respectively.In the thesis,repair is considered as both a linguistic mending device and an interpersonal mitigating device.As a linguistic mending device,it can repair or mend those communicative problems and obstacles to assure the transmission of information so as to complete the performance of speech acts.Additionally,it can mitigate or clear away those potentially interpersonal conflicts and negative effects.Therefore,repair in interpersonal communication is of great use to maintain or construct the harmonious interpersonal relation by conducting the functions of rapport enhancement and rapport maintenance.In the present study,the rapport orientation of repair is expounded from its rapport enhancement orientation and rapport maintenance orientation.Secondly,it probes into the generative mechanism of repair.It is found that the particular repairing utterance generated in particular context is the result of its dynamic adaptation to the contextual correlates.In this research,the thesis mainly discusses its adaptation to spatial context and temporal context in the physical world,the power and social distance in the social world,and the mental motivation and mental affection in the mental world.Finally,it discusses the interpersonal pragmatic functions of repair.They chiefly include: 1)satisfying participants' face wants;2)filling the informative gap;3)creating harmonious communicative surroundings;4)mitigating or avoiding potential conflicts;5)mitigating the force of negative utterance;6)transferring the turn of speech;and 7)shortening the social distance.The process in which repair conducts pragmatic functions involves communicators' conscious operation to manage the face and the sociality rights of their interlocutors,through which a harmonious interpersonal relation is expected to be maintained or constructed accordingly.It is a pragmatic exploration to study repair from the perspective of Rapport Management-Adaptation approach,with the purpose of enriching the analytical perspective of the study of repair.