A Study Of Evasive Answer In Benghazi Hearing From The Perspective Of Adaptation Theory

As an important pragmatic strategy,evasive answer is widely used in communication activities.Evasive answer in the hearing is very different from that in the interview programs and political interviews because of its special communicative purposes and needs and is worthy of further study and analysis.Evasive answer has aroused widespread concern at home and abroad and has been carried out in many related areas.On the basis of previous research,this thesis conducts a tentative study in a new field from the perspective of adaptation theory and analyzes the evasive answer in Benghazi hearing with qualitative method.The study focuses on the following three questions: 1.What are the realization means of evasive answer in Benghazi hearing? 2.How does evasive answer in Benghazi hearing adapt to contextual correlates on the basis of adaptation theory? 3.What pragmatic functions does evasive answer in Benghazi hearing achieve in the light of adaptation theory? The corpus of this study is from the Washington Post in which has a full record of the Benghazi hearing,so it ensures the authenticity and accuracy of the research data.The author first discusses how to realize evasive answer in Benghazi hearing,that is,what are the realization means of evasive answer? From the analysis,it finds that Hillary Clinton mainly adopts four methods to realize evasive answer: reaffirming facts,using vagueness,evading issues and repeating answers.Based on this research,this thesis further draws a conclusion that Hillary's evasive answer is limited by contextual correlates.In order to achieve evasive answer and fulfill the purpose of communication,Hillary must adapt to communicative context,including the social world,mental world and physical world.Through the detailed analysis,this thesis concludes that the adaptation to the social world includes the social setting,politeness and self identity.The adaptation to the mental world mainly contains the personal emotions,the audience's emotions and the personal motivations.The adaptation to the physical world is reflected in time factors and space factors.Through the adaptation of these factors,the respondent can use evasive answer to achieve his own purpose and meet the communication needs.Finally,the pragmatic functions of the evasive answer in Benghazi hearing are analyzed in detail,such as saving face,shaping positive public image,escaping from condemnation and ensuring information security.This thesis not only broadens the research field of evasive answer,but also indicates the explanatory power of adaptation theory to evasive answer and enriches the study of linguistic phenomena from the perspective of pragmatics.In addition,through the study of this special pragmatic strategy,evasive answer can effectively guide people's communication activities,improve the application ability of language strategies,achieve communication purposes and smooth the development of communication activities.