Impoliteness In Dialogues From William Shakespeare's Comedy The Merry Wives Of Windsor:a Pragmastylistic Study

William Shakespeare's comedies have been the object of much scholarly attention due in large part to interest in its literature value and linguistic significance.However,in years the bulk of research has been conducted on his drama primarily from a literary perspective,and only secondarily from a linguistic perspective.Even if there is few,but just in a more circumscribed way.Although there are studies on drama dialogues to depict the language function as politeness,very few depict the function of impoliteness,which results in the imbalance between the study of politeness and impoliteness.This thesis reads closely William Shakespeare's comedy---The Merry Wives of Windsor,via a study of pragmastylistic depiction of impoliteness phenomena in dialogues.The work endeavors to examine the drama as a coherent and complex literary unit from a linguistic perspective.It applies a pragmastylistic approach to impoliteness model that Derek Bousfield has articulated.This model has not yet been applied in any extended way in Shakespeare's comedies although some articles and papers have engaged Derek Bousfield's approach theoretically.This model is adopted in an effort to demonstrate that impoliteness study informed by linguistic approach in the appreciation of literature works can yield more precision in the way drama is interpreted and more clarity regarding the language function.Under the framework of Bousfield's(2008)impoliteness model,the major findings of the present study are as follows: Firstly,we make it clear that various conflicts are reflected mainly through different impoliteness strategies employed by different characters with different power and characteristics.Secondly,it has pointed out that various on-record and off-record impoliteness strategies can be utilized singly or in a combined way to achieve face damaging effects.Thirdly,this present research has found out that this model has a forceful explanatory power in three dimensions such as the utterance level,the discoursal level and the turn-taking system.Fourthly,the author displays the three major pragmastylistic functions of impoliteness in The Merry Wives of Windsor,such as characterization and the indication of interpersonal relationship;the creation of conflicts and the promotion of plot development as well as the triggering of comedic effect.The present study has both theoretical meaning and practical meaning.Theoretically,this study is not about the simple presentation of Bousfield's impoliteness model,but analyzing the impoliteness phenomena of the text intensively.More importantly,this study has expanded impoliteness research from the micro utterance level to macro discoursal level even to turn-taking system,which is innovative compared with previous impoliteness study.Practically,the present study,on the one hand,provides a new perspective for the analysis and appreciation of dramatic discourse;on the other hand,it is beneficial for people to have a better understanding of impoliteness phenomena in daily communication,which will facilitate the disposal of interpersonal conflicts to create a harmonious interpersonal relationship.