An Analysis Of The Lexical Repetition Of Catch-22 Based On Socio-cognitive Approach To Pragmatics

Lexical repetition is not only one of the greatest linguistic features of Catch-22,but also one of the most common phenomena in the characters’dialogue.As for the pragmatic study of repetition in Catch-22,most scholars mainly use the Cooperative Principle,Conversational Implicature and Relevance Theory to analyze it,while few scholars adopt Kecskes’Social-cognitive Approach(SCA)to pragmatics to study lexical repetition in the novel.As a recent development of current pragmatic theory,SCA has been paid attention and recognized by many scholars at home and abroad.This thesis adopts SCA,combining with the novel’s story plot and characters’utterance and behaviour,to analyze the lexical repetition in Catch-22,which mainly discusses three issues:1.What are the communicative phenomena and communicative functions reflected by the different lexical repetitions in the novel?2.What role do these communicative phenomena and communicataive functions play in depicting the characters and themes in the novel?3.What is the root cause of the characters’ failed and successful communication in the process of lexical repetition?The research shows that lexical repetitions are mostly repetitions in terms of egocentrism in Catch-22,which reflects negative verbal communication phenomena including misunderstanding and quarrel.The root cause of its communicative failure lies in the communicators’ egocentrism.In the process of communication,egocentrism and cooperation are opposed to each other,leading to the failed co-construction of core common ground or emergent common ground.As a manifestation of the positive communicative function of reaching consensus and expressing echo,repetition in terms of cooperation is relatively few in the novel,and the root of its communicative success lies in the cooperative nature of communication.The unity of cooperation and egocentrism in the process of communication makes the co-construction of common ground successful.On the whole,the communicative phenomena and functions reflected by the different lexical repetitions in the novel enhance the absurdity and black humor of the novel.To some extent,this thesis verifies the feasibility and operability of socio-cognitive approach to pragmatic and provides a new perspective for the study of lexical repetition and the characters and themes of Catch-22.