A Study Of Pragmatic Empathy And De-empathy Through Person Deixis In Hong Lou Meng

Person deixis,as a common linguistic phenomenon,is the “single most obvious way in which the relationship between language and context is reflected in the structures of languages themselves”.[1] It plays an important role in human communication,which is reflected obviously in Hong Lou Meng.A variety of deixis witnesses the complicated relationship in Hong Lou Meng,which provides valuable data for person deixis studies.Currently,the studies of person deixis in Hong Lou Meng include conventional usage studies and unconventional usage studies,of which the former have been the focus while the latter are far from enough.The unconventional usage of person deixis refers to the linguistic phenomenon that the speaker,in specific contexts,deliberately deviates from habits or conventions of using person deixis so as to realize a certain pragmatic effect.With the qualitative research method,this thesis,through the analysis of the unconventional usages of person deixis in the first eighty chapters of Hong Lou Meng,aims to explore the means to realize pragmatic empathy and de-empathy via person deixis and the factors influencing the speakers' choice-making to realize pragmatic empathy and de-empathy in Hong Lou Meng.It can be seen that pragmatic empathy and de-empathy are mainly realized by personal pronouns,kinship terms,social appellations,and other person deixis including honorific terms and modest appellations,joking names,disparaging names,and arrogant terms,of which kinship terms is not so often used to realize pragmatic de-empathy.Within each group there are certain specific classifications.The same specific means may possibly be used to realize pragmatic empathy as well as pragmatic de-empathy.To identify whether certain person deixis is adopted to realize pragmatic empathy or de-empathy depends upon the context.And the factors to influence the realization pragmatic empathy and de-empathy through person deixs are also the context,including social context and communicative context.The former includes social institutions—hierarchy and patriarchy,and the tradition of social culture—politeness.The latter involves both participants' objective factors,such as social status and educational level,and subjective factors,such as intention,emotion,and personality.As these factors are in constant competitions,therefore,it is hard to assert which factor absolutely occupies the dominant position without considering the context.The present study of the pragmatic empathy and de-empathy through personal deixis in Hong Lou Meng helps to better the understanding of the society and culture during the first half of the eighteenth century.It also helps to broaden the scope of research on person deixis for a deep understanding of Chinese person deixis and provides a new perspective for the literary studies on Hong Lou Meng.