A Study On The Use Of Evasive Strategies In Chinese And American Talk Shows

In recent years,with the deepening of theoretical and empirical pragmatic studies,some scholars have studied evasive answers as pragmatic strategies.Based on previous studies and enlightened by the Theory of Linguistic Adaptation proposed by Vershueren(1999),this thesis has studied 70 talk shows by collecting 35 from “A Date with Lu Yu” from Phoenix Television in China and 35 from the “Ellen's Show”on CBS in the United States.This study analyzes the evasive strategies used in the two talk shows from the perspective of the linguistic context and the communicative context,etc.The thesis focuses on three questions:i.What kind of evasive strategies are used by the interviewees in two talk shows?ii.What is the context of each kind of evasive strategies?iii.What are the similarities and differences of evasive strategies used by the interviewees? What causes the similarities and differences?In response to the above three questions,first,this research investigates and finds out the use of strategies:(i)overt evasive strategies include querying the question,attacking the question and directly refusing to answer;(ii)covert evasive strategies include maintaining pragmatic ambivalence,giving an incomplete answer and ignoring the question raised;(iii)new evasive strategies include humor transfer,interrupting the topic,guiding the discourse to end and admitting the question but not answering it.Second,this study makes a comparative analysis of evasive strategies from the perspective of the linguistic context and the communicative context andfinds the similarities and differences.Third,it analyzes the similarities and differences of evasive strategies used by the interviewees in the two talk shows and explains the reasons from five aspects: talk show settings,the difference in consideration of face between Chinese and Americans,the difference in understanding of politeness,the difference in contextual understanding and the difference in values.This study analyzes and addresses the interpersonal issues that interviewees have encountered in the two talk shows.Through studying the context and function of evasive strategies,it will help more interviewees in future programs and the general public to make better use of the strategy of evasion.It can also provide inspirations for the study of language harmony to broaden the cognitive vision of pragmatic phenomenon,so as to help to understand the pragmatic mechanisms and their functions better.Besides,it makes tremendous contribution theoretically and practically to pragmatics research and provides a reference for cross-cultural mass media communicative ability,language acquisition,cross-cultural interaction and translation,etc.