The Study Of Pragmatic Distance Manipulation In Mediation Context Based On The Adaptation-Accommodation Model

Mediation,a relationship negotiation activity with communication as the medium,plays a vital role in maintaining interpersonal harmony and promoting social stability.In mediation practice,mediators usually manipulate the pragmatic distance with parties through specific discourse so as to influence their relation state.Nevertheless,this kind of activity,though critical to successful communication,has not yet attracted much attention from scholars,especially within the context of mediation.As the“pragmatic turn” emerges in jurisprudence research,introducing the pragmatic perspective to mediation research becomes an inevitable trend,which is why the current Pragmatic Distance Manipulation(PDM)research exists.Basically,pragmatic distance has two categories,the initial pragmatic distance and the instant pragmatic distance,of which the former is determined by stable social relations while the latter is negotiated in discourse.The current study casts light mainly on the latter,because the instant pragmatic distance arises from the interlocutor's perception of the closeness of discourse in instant context,which is manipulative and emerges rich communicative significance.In this paper,the Pragmatic Adaptation Theory and Communication Accommodation Theory are borrowed as theoretical sources and by combing their kernel views on language use,we refine our Adaptation-Accommodation analytical framework.As we consider that Pragmatic Distance Manipulation can be defined as a pragmatic strategy out of specific intentions.It is context-sensitive,and its operation must adapt to various context relations,which is in line with the Adaptation theory.However,the Adaptation Theory,explaining language form language,cultural,social perspectives(Verschueren 1999),is too macro a theory to fully explain the micro mechanism of Pragmatic Distance Manipulation.While the Accommodation Theory focuses more on the social psychological aspects to explain the subtle characters of language.Thus it can be borrowed as a complementary part.By analyzing self-built mediation corpus JTD(including Golden Mediation(Jin Pai Tiao Jie),Mediation Face to Face(Tiao Jie Mian Dui Mian)and The Third Mediation Room(Di San Tiao Jie Shi))with Qualitative and quantitative methods,we try to inquire into the following questions:(1)What language strategies are employed by mediators in the PragmaticDistance Manipulation process?(2)What is the operative mechanism of Pragmatic Distance Manipulation?(3)What are the pragmatic motivations of Pragmatic Distance Manipulation in mediation context?Results of the three questions are shown below:First of all,Pragmatic Distance Manipulation is realized by a variety of linguistic means,including agreement,praise,echoing,positive conduct judgment,denying,direction/order,blaming,casting doubt,interruption,and opinion attack.Those means are the concrete embodiment of representatives,directives,and expressive speech acts.In terms of perlocutionary effect,linguistic devices like agreement,praise,echoing,and positive conduct judgment may narrow interlocutors' pragmatic distance,contrary to denying,direction/order,blaming,casting doubt,interruption,and opinion attack.The underlying reason,we consider,lies in their different linguistic and interest orientations.Those devices that can narrow pragmatic distance have high intimacy degree,and share similar interest and linguistic features with parties,while the rest may cause linguistic divergence and interest conflicts.Secondly,Pragmatic Distance Manipulation is operated under Adaptation and Accommodation mechanism.Referring to Adaptation-Accommodation analytical framework,Pragmatic Distance Manipulation complies three complicated contexts,individual psychological context(sadness,anger,etc.),interpersonal conflict context(antagonism,disdain,abuse,etc.)and interpersonal harmonious context(moderate attitude,rational expressing,etc.),which forms the prerequisite of making language choices.In addition,Communication Accommodation Theory views communication as a language adjusting process,emphasizing subject factors represented in language and various contextual factors.Specifically,to express communicative intentions,interlocutors have to constantly adjust their language orientations,making them either similar or different from each other(speech convergence and speech divergence),which in Psychology is called "similar attraction" principle and is well tested in our mediation data.Thirdly,Pragmatic Distance Manipulation is accompanied by the following motives: comforting,encouraging,maintaining the mediation order,criticizing,advising,and maintaining authority.According to the JTD corpus,the mediator's narrowing pragmatic distance can soften the negative emotions of the parties and encourage them to make favorable concessions,while the mediator's broadeningpragmatic distance is for standardizing the behavior of the parties,to convey rational thoughts and to improve the efficiency of mediation.In mediation context,construction of interpersonal relationship is always the priority of the discursive construction,and the specific interpersonal intention can be realized by Pragmatic Distance Manipulation to promote the benign transformation of interpersonal relationship.Regarding Pragmatic Distance Manipulation as a pragmatic strategy means distance is an available pragmatic resource,which breaks the static view of previous distance studies.Our work,focusing on mediation context to explore its implementation,operation mechanism,and pragmatic functions can not only enrich the perspective of pragmatic distance,but also can provide reference for practical mediation activities,thus having rich theoretical and practical significance.