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An Analysis Of Deceptive Talks In Ordinary Lies Based On Adaptation Theory

Posted on:2018-02-18Degree:MasterType:Thesis
Country:ChinaCandidate:Y FengFull Text:PDF
GTID:2335330518489924Subject:Foreign Linguistics and Applied Linguistics
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Deceptive talks,as a part of the verbal communication,have often been considered as a kind of communicative strategy.In the past years,deceptive talks have captured much attention from scholars in such research fields as ethics,psychology,philosophy,sociology,rhetoric,and pragmatics.Some scholars claim that deception is immoral in verbal communication which should be prohibited and concentrate on certain psychological clues to identify the behaviors of deception.As a matter of fact,it is apparent that some positive effects of deception have been ignored by them.Although some research findings on deception are obtained in the pragmatics field,the majority of them are based on the theoretical frameworks of Cooperative Principle,Politeness Principle and Face Theory,which are still insufficient.This study aims to analyze the deceptive talks in a British teleplay by using the Adaptation Theory,which is proposed by Jef Verschueren.In terms of adaptability,linguistic choice-making should be adapted to four angles: contextual correlates of adaptability(mental world,social world,and physical world),structural objects of adaptability,the dynamics of adaptability and the salience of adaptation.The main corpus of this study is collected from deceptive talks of Ordinary Lies.It is a relatively new and famous British TV play which presents a series of stories in JS Motors and Cooper Outdoors company.So far,there has been little research on this TV play available.Four research questions run through the whole research:(1)How are deceptive talks adapted to the communicative context in Ordinary Lies?(2)How are deceptive talks adapted to different levels of structural objects in Ordinary Lies?(3)How do interlocutors realize the dynamics of adaptability in the deceptive talks of Ordinary Lies?(4)How do interlocutors make deceptive linguistic choice with different degrees of salience in Ordinary Lies?Through the quantitative and qualitative analysis,the study has reached the following findings:(1)deceptive conversations in the Ordinary Lies are the outcome of linguistic choice-making in the dynamic process which are adapted to the interlocutors' social world,mental world and physical world;(2)several positive pragmatic functions could be illustratedif interlocutors make use of deceptions artfully and reasonably in the verbal communication;(3)the operating process of deceptive talks in the Ordinary Lies is mentioned,such as:misrepresenting the true information believed by the speaker,withholding pertinent information on purpose and shifting topic deliberately;(4)the research of deceptive talks on the perspective of Adaptation Theory has its own theoretical and practical significance and offers a more novel and comprehensive angle to further study.
Keywords/Search Tags:Deceptive talks, contextual correlates of adaptability, structural objects of adaptability, dynamics of adaptability, salience of adaptability
PDF Full Text Request
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