A Pragmatic Study On Mental Illness-referring Expressions In English Media

Traditionally, most of the research conducted on mental illness-referring expressions in the media has been psychological studies in a social context. This thesis,however, takes a linguistic approach to mental illness-referring expressions in English media and regards its language as a speech act in communication. Language related to mental illness often feeds directly into a certain stigma, (ie. the referral of violent or angry persons as mentally ill). This in turn, helps perpetuate the myth that all mentally ill people are angry and capable of violence. Based on the Speech Act Theory (locutionary,illocutionary, and perlocutionary), this thesis focuses the pragmatic functions of mental illness-referring expressions involved in English media through news, TV interviews,and magazines.The participants in this stigma of mental illness-referring speech acts include both the producer (interlocutor or TV host) and the recipient. Sometimes, the producer may use signaling strategies to indicate their real intention or entry into communication if they think it is necessary. The recipient (interlocutor or audience) would then make a certain response in their involvement.In order to keep communication smooth and effective, producers tend to use different communication strategies, both verbal and nonverbal. People make linguistic choices in verbal communication when they need to convey particular meaning. However speakers do not only choose forms; they also choose strategies (Verschueren, 1999: 56).It is the choice of form that reveals different communication strategies, or in other words we can say that language use is always strategic, for various pragmatic purposes.Therefore, we find that the adoption of pragmatic strategies exists in many cases of stigmatized mental illness-referring speech acts. In the following context, I have distinguished different pragmatic functions for speakers in misusing words when referring to mental illness. The communicative purpose or effect of misusing mental illness-referring speech acts can be labeled as "abuse". This in turn makes it reasonable to define "abuse" as its pragmatic function.Unfortunately, what producers linguistically use as their pragmatic strategies can easily turn into stigma towards mentally ill recipients, although it may not have been the producers’ original intent. This has serious side effects when it occurs in mass media like talk shows or news reports and has caused much trouble for those who suffer mental illness.Mental illness-referring expressions have always been a neglected field of linguistic study. This study is of great significance not only in pragmatics but also in human rights development. It has provided us with a new understanding and perspective of the existing problems and I hope this article will bring some inspiration to its readers.