A Study Of Impolite Utterances In Political Debates

Impoliteness is a pragmatic act of attacking the face of others in social communication in order to achieve a certain goal,and it is a cross-discipline extended from the Politeness Theory.In recent years,more and more attention has been paid to the study of the impoliteness phenomenon which extends from the study of impoliteness theory to the application of impoliteness utterances in political discourse,social media,and other fields.Up to now,most of the relevant studies in China have focused on the analysis of impoliteness strategies,but there is a lack of research on the pragmatic behaviors behind impoliteness.Guided by Bousifield’s(2008)Impoliteness Theory,this thesis focuses on the use of impoliteness in the discourse of the public debate between Trump and Biden in the 2020 U.S.presidential debates.The combination of qualitative method,quantitative method and the comparative analysis method is employed to find out the answers to the following questions:(1)What are the impoliteness strategies in the debate between Biden and Trump?(2)What are the response patterns to impoliteness in the debate between Biden and Trump?(3)What are the differences between Biden and Trump in the employment of impoliteness strategies and impoliteness response patterns?(4)What are the pragmatic functions of the employment of impoliteness strategies?The results of the study show that,firstly,most of the impoliteness output strategies put forward by Bousfield are embodied in this debate.Biden and Trump respectively use different impoliteness strategies.The analysis shows that sixteen types of impoliteness strategies have been presented in the debate between Biden and Trump: snubbing,excluding the other from an activity,disassociating from the other’s presence,using inappropriate identity markers,disagreeing with the other,making the other feel uncomfortable,using taboo words,calling other’s name,frightening,condescending,invading the other’s space,hindering/blocking,sarcasm/mock politeness,criticizing,challenging,exposing other’s weakness.Secondly,the response patterns of impoliteness utterances,which can be divided into Offensive-Offensive Response Pattern,Offensive-Defensive Response Pattern and the pattern of the joining of the third party,have been fully reflected in this study.utterances,which can be divided into Offensive-Offensive Response Pattern,Offensive-Defensive Response Pattern and the pattern of the joining of the third party,have been fully reflected in this study.The result also shows clearly that compared to Biden,Trump uses more impolite output strategies.And at the same time,the thesis finds that in this debate,Trump uses more Offensive-Offensive Response Patterns,while more Offensive-Defensive Response Patterns are utilized by Biden.The pragmatic effects of the use of impolite utterances and the factors that influence the use of impolite strategies are also analyzed in detail.Through the analysis of the public presidential debate,the results of the study is intended to help people understand the phenomenon of impoliteness in political debates and broaden the research fields of Impoliteness Theory.Furthermore,the thesis is intended to help people in public debates correctly use impolite language in order to maintain harmonious interpersonal relations.