A Study Of Verbal Impoliteness From The Perspective Of Adaptation Theory

Impoliteness is a common occurrence in social interaction.People tend to use impolite utterances to release negative emotions or achieve communicative goals.More recently,there has been extensive research on impoliteness.However,most studies in the field of impoliteness have only focused on the realization of impoliteness strategies.There has been little discussion about impoliteness from the perspective of Adaptation Theory.This thesis,therefore,based on the previous studies on impoliteness,tries to make a coherent study focused exclusively on verbal impoliteness under Verschueren’s Adaptation Theory.Both qualitative and quantitative methods are employed to figure out the three research questions.First,what kinds of impoliteness are reflected in Golden Marriage?Second,what are the motivations for choosing impoliteness in Golden Marriage?Third,what pragmatic functions can be achieved by impoliteness in Golden Marriage?After an analysis of the data,the major findings are drawn as follows:First,based on Yangzi’s(2007)classification,four types of impoliteness are classified and analyzed in light of the data,which consists of impoliteness being both intended and perceived(non-strategic impoliteness,strategic impoliteness);impoliteness not intended but being perceived mistakenly;impoliteness being intended but not perceived;impoliteness being neither intended nor perceived.Numbers of each type of verbal impoliteness are calculated and the results show that the most frequent verbal impoliteness in Golden Marriage is “strategic impoliteness”,“non-strategic impoliteness” and “impoliteness due to pragmatic failures”,occupying50.5%,30.5% and 9.5% of the total respectively.It shows that,in most cases,the speaker regards impoliteness as a kind of pragmatic strategy to fulfill certain communicative goals.The function of verbal impoliteness is not just for emotional relief.Therefore,the positive effects of strategic impoliteness are worthy of our attention.Moreover,impoliteness due to pragmatic failures is frequently found in our daily life due to unsuccessful adaptation.Second,based on Verschueren’s Adaptation Theory,the author tries to explore the motivation behind impoliteness selection in daily life.The result shows that the choice of verbal impoliteness is the product of adaptation to the contextual correlates.As to non-strategic impoliteness,being impolite is the sole or main intention of the speaker which is reflected in the literal meaning of the utterances.Impolite verbalization produces the release of negative emotions and it is the result of a dynamic adaptation to speaker’s mental worlds.As to strategic impoliteness,the speaker aims to achieve certain communicative goals so that strategic impoliteness can be regarded as a kind of linguistic strategy.The production of strategic impoliteness involves a complicated task of interadapting with the speaker and hearer’s mental world(especially the speaker’s motivations as well as the hearer’s mental world after interpreting the speaker’s expressions)and social world.As to impoliteness due to pragmatic failures,the speaker ignores or overemphasizes certain contextual correlates,so that the hearer misunderstands the meaning,causing communicative failure.Furthermore,concrete functions of language are generated in the negotiable process of linguistic adaptation to the contextual correlates.Based on the analysis of the hearer’s reaction to the impoliteness,four pragmatic functions of verbal impoliteness have been concluded,namely,showing power,regulating the hearer’s inappropriate behavior,prodding the hearer to take actions,getting away from entanglement.These positive effects of impoliteness have a strong practical reference and application.This study has gone some way towards enhancing our understanding of verbal impoliteness.It not only adds some findings to the domestic existing impoliteness research but probes into the contextual correlates which influence the choice-making of impoliteness and the pragmatic functions fulfilled by verbal impoliteness.This research may shed some light on people’s appropriate employment of impoliteness,and thus promote the success of communication.