（外国语言学及应用语言学专业论文）汉语安慰语的顺应性研究.pdf

ii摘摘 要要 安慰是人际交流中一种特殊的交际方式，在日常交际中广泛使用。它可以表现为非言语行为，也可以表现为言语行为，本文研究的是作为言语行为的安慰安慰语。安慰语是人际交往中普遍的语言现象，是指当事人遭受不幸，挫折而处于忧伤，气愤，失望，痛苦等消极情绪状态时，说话人为改变其消极情绪所实施的语言行为，可以起到增进感情的作用。 近年来，国内外学者对具体言语行为抱怨、请求、称赞、致谢、反讽、拒绝、道歉以及委婉语等都进行了较为详尽的研究，但仍有很多其他言语行为尚待研究，安慰言语行为就是其中之一。到目前为止，虽然对安慰语也有一些研究，但这些研究所选取的角度也大都是对比分析、社会语言学或语用学视角。因此，本文旨在从顺应论视角对安慰语进行较系统的考察，以期从不同角度完善对这一言语的研究。 根据顺应理论，语言使用的过程就是选择语言的过程。人类之所以能够在语言使用过程中不断作出选择 ,是因为语言具有变异性、商讨性和顺应性等特征。交际者要达到交际目的就需不断地对语言内部、外部各种因素进行顺应，只有这样才能作出恰当的选择。这一过程因人们顺应的意识程度不同而影响着语境和语言结构间关系的变化。本文通过搜集日常交际和电视作品中的安慰语作为语料，研究安慰语是如何顺应语境融合下的语言结构语境、心理世界、社交世界和物理世界，从而实现这一动态过程的。具体分析了人们实施安慰言语行为的原因及不同策略，以及如何顺应各种语境因素进行安慰，以实现他们的交际目的。通过研究我们发现人们不仅会选择各种语言策略来顺应语境，而且还会积极地利用各种语境因素来实现自己的交际目的，获得交际成功。 关键词：关键词：安慰语; 顺应论; 语言选择; 语境 iabstract as a way of communication, comforting is widely used in daily communication. comforting can be manifested in the way of non-speech acts as well as speech acts. this study will focus on comforting as a speech act. comforting speech is a common language phenomenon, and it is to make someone in the negative emotional state (sad, anger, disappointed, pain or others) feel better by giving comfort to them, which can strengthen relationship. in recent years, the scholars at home and abroad have been seriously researching the speech acts such as complaining, request, compliment, expressing thanks, irony, refusing, apologizing as well as euphemism. however, there still remain many other speech acts to be studied. the study of comforting speech belongs to one of these. so far, although some researches on comforting speech have already been conducted, these ones mainly focus on the perspectives of contrastive analysis, social linguistics or pragmatics. therefore, this research is devoted to the study of comforting speech within the framework of verschuerens adaptation theory, in order to enrich the research on the understanding of comforting speech from a different angle and shed light on the study of chinese language. from the perspective of adaptation theory, language use is a process of continuous making of linguistic choices. in order to achieve communicative goals communicators have to continuously adapt to relevant contextual elements to make appropriate choices. this study is mainly centered on daily life and tv series for data collection, we hope to find out the reasons why they choose comforting as the strategy and the ways comforting speech adapt to the mental, social and physical worlds of the utterer and the interpreter to realize such a dynamic adaptation process. it is shown that communicators not only choose a variety of linguistic strategies to adapt to different contexts, but also apply contextual factors to reach goals of communication success. key words : comforting; the adaptation theory; linguistic choice; context chapter one introduction 1chapter one introduction as the most important communicative tool for human, language has a close relationship with the social life. for language study, it is insufficient only to depend on the analysis of the superficial sentence meaning to get a real and good understanding of the speech. in 1955, the oxford philosopher john langshaw austin originally brought up the theory of speech act which is an important theory in the pragmatic study of language. later, john searle developed and perfected the theory. speech act theory indicated that we can achieve some goals by choosing different speech under different circumstances. when we are uttering some words, we are performing certain acts. comforting, one of the speech acts, is a common phenomenon in our daily life. according to speech act theory, people perform the act by uttering consoling words. the existing studies did the research from the perspectives of contrastive analysis, social linguistics or pragmatics. based on the linguistic adaptation theory, this study aims at giving a relatively detailed account of comforting as linguistic choice to enrich the study of the comforting speech. 1.1 the rationale of the present study comforting, an universally existing linguistic phenomenon, plays a important role in daily communication. the selection of this research topic is based on following considerations: first, since speech act theory was put forward by austin, a great many scholars have studied the production and realization of some specific speech acts, such as irony, refusing, praising, inviting, apologizing, complaining, euphemism, expressing thanks, requesting as well as threatening, and made enormous contributions to language study from linguistic, social, and cultural perspectives. however, up to now, as to the study on comforting, especially in chinese, a few have been conducted. and these existing studies are limited to social and cultural perspectives. therefore, it is fairly necessary for us to explore such a common language phenomenon to enrich the research coverage and the adaptation approach to verbal comforting in chinese contexts 2deepen our comprehension of it. secondly, it is considered from academic perspective. pragmatics does not confine itself to merely describing how people use language, but also concerns itself with how to help them become better users ( mey, 1994). the adaptation theory, proposed by jef verschueren, will be applied as the theoretical framework to analyze comforting as a result of making choice, which will help people to better understand comforting and use it in a proper way. in view of the points all above, we attempt to offer a more dynamic and comprehensive analysis. 1.2 the objectives of the research the present study aims to present a detailed analysis of comforting under the framework of verschuerens adaptation theory. from the adaptive perspective, we hope to find a more functional explanation of comforting as a result of linguistic choice in order that we can understand each other more appropriately and gain more successful communication. in addition, the present study is mostly based on chinese examples, we hope by this way to find whether there are some special features of comforting in chinese. the objectives of the present research can be summarized as follows: firstly, to find the reason why people intentionally choose comforting as a communicative strategy. secondly, to develop a theoretical model of comforting that can integrates the physical, mental and social elements comprehensively. thirdly, to explore the dynamic adaptation process of comforting with instances of daily life. with these objectives in mind, this research will present a dynamic and systematic analysis in order to guide the use and understanding of comforting. 1.3 the significance of the research up to now, there have not been many studies on comforting. and these previous studies mainly paid attention to this speech act from a social and cultural perspectives. chapter one introduction 3therefore we are doing the research to explore a more systematic analysis under the framework of adaptation theory. comforting is a necessity in social life, and it is the direct embodiment of goodwill, affection or friendship and the most effective way to support the soul. by this research, we hope people can better comprehend comforting speech, and use it more effectively and appropriately. in this way, it will help to improve the interpersonal relationship, and advance the level of social culture to promote social harmony and stability. last but not least, the study on comforting will definitely benefit the establishment and improvement of the linguistic functional system. 1.4 methodology and data collection researchers usually take different methods to do analysis of different speech acts. there are mainly two kinds of research methods: qualitative analysis and quantitative analysis. qualitative data deals with meaning while quantitative data deals with numbers (dey 1993). the present study is a qualitative analysis with natural data-driven and scientific theory-driven methods. this thesis is based on the data chiefly collected from the tv serial of “who decides my youth”. then such a question may come to our mind: whether the data from tv serial is reliable for us to research. salmon (1987) claims that the aim of dramatists is to present the normal life of their time. language, an essential element in the drama, should be considered as contemporary speech. as a matter of fact, the data from tv serial is the same as naturally occurring speech data, for the speech in tv serial are situated in contexts and reflects current social situation. in order to cover the features of comforting as much as possible, the characters in the tv drama we select have different age, sex, occupation, educational background. these speeches can provide genuine and vivid dialogues. therefore, it is valid and reliable for us to explore linguistic performance of specific speech act. 1.5 outline of the thesis the thesis is composed of six chapters. the following are the main content of each the adaptation approach to verbal comforting in chinese contexts 4chapter. chapter one is a general introduction to the whole research. it covers the rationale, objective, methodology & data collection, and also introduces the layout of the thesis. chapter two is an overview of the previous researches on comforting speech. in this part the author will give the definition and classification of comforting at first, and then distinguish comforting from related concepts. after that, it discusses the previous approaches and the limitations of them, and presents the specialty of the present study as well. chapter three presents an introduction to the theoretical framework of the study linguistic adaptation theory proposed by verschueren, and then apply the relevant components of adaptation theory to the research of comforting. chapter four is the core part of the thesis. in terms of adaptation theory, this part is devoted to a detailed analysis of the dynamic process of adaptation. it mainly discusses how comforting realizes the process of adaptation in actual context. the last chapter of the thesis summarizes the major findings of the study. in addition, it also points out the limitations of the present study and makes some suggestions for further study. chapter two literature review 5chapter two literature review 2.1 introduction this chapter mainly gives an overview of the previous researches on comforting speech. it first gives some basic concepts of comforting including the definition, the classification, the modes of discourse of comforting, and then distinguish comforting from related concepts. after that, it discusses the previous approaches and the limitations of them, and presents the specialty of the present study as well. 2.2 basic concepts of comforting 2.2.1 definitions of comforting before studying the speech act of comforting, we attempt to give different definitions of comforting extracted from the dictionary. in cambridge international dictionary of english (1995), comforting is to make (someone who is sad or disappointed) feel better by giving them comfort or sympathy. in random house websters dictionary of american english (1997)，comforting is to lessen the grief, sorrow, or disappointment of ; give comfort to. in addition to the definitions in dictionary, some scholars give their own definitions for comforting. burleson defined comforting as “messages having the goal of alleviating or lessening the emotional distress experienced by others” (1994a: 136). in wen yunshuis paper of a pilot study on comforting messages (1999), he defined comforting like this: messages making those who are anxious, anguished or suffering feel better and comfortable. based on the definitions of comforting all above, we may define it like this: comforting refers to the speech act conducted to dispel the negative state of those who suffer misfortune or frustration and in negative moods of sadness, anger, disappointed and sorrow. how can we distinguish comforting from other speech acts? how to identify the adaptation approach to verbal comforting in chinese contexts 6utterance as comforting? for the speech act of comforting, the following prerequisites should be fulfilled. 1) the hearer feels disappointed, frustrated, regretful, sad, sorrowful, anguished; 2) the utterer thinks that he should comfort the hearer under that situation 3) the utterance of the speaker relates directly or indirectly to the hearers negative moods, thus having the illocutionary force of comforting. 4) the utterer comforts the hearer for the social relationship, hence he will chooses to express his comfort or sympathy; the main goal of comforting is to save the hearers face as a result of comforting. with the prerequisites above, how to make comforting effectively, the following two conditions have to be met (suppose a as the speaker and b as the hearer): 1) b is in low spirit (usually disappointment, frustration, regret, sorrow, anguish, sadness despair, etc.) caused by setbacks, failures and other negative events. 2) after a utters consoling words to b, bs negative mood is lessened or dispelled. only if these two conditions are met simultaneously, can we realize the comforting effectively. otherwise it is invalid. for example, only if the first condition is met, the proverb failure is the mother of success has a comforting effect and can be considered as comforting. otherwise, its just a judgment of uncovering a sort of objective law. 2.2.2 classification of comforting in the pragmatic analysis of comforting by zhao qing in 2009, she studied the categorization of comforting from different angles and concluded the following two different kinds of classification: according to whether comforting speech directly referred to passive event and passive emotion, we can divide it into two types: chapter two literature review 7(1) explicit comforting messages are those in which comforting is directly related to passive event and passive emotion. for example: a) now stop fretting and give me a big smile. b) dont worry! everything will be ok! c) dont cry because it is over, smile because it happened. (2) implicit comforting messages are those in which the words avoids touching on the passive event and emotion in order not to make people feel worse. for example: a: i really cannot imagine he said break up to me. b: really? i bring a piece of good news for you that you win the top scholarship. obviously, instead of going on the original topic to distract as attention, b switches the conversation from one subject to another which interests a and can make a feel better, and thus achieve comforting effect. according to the strategies of comforting, comforting can be divided into the following six types: (1) general pattern, in the form of imperative sentence. for example: a. stop fretting! b. dont worry! c. dont be sad. (2) to meet as emotional needs: when people are in negative state, they need others understanding and care. if other people, for example b could understand and sympathize with a, and this will achieve the optimum state. for instance: 小样：姐 青楚：小样，你声音不对啊，怎么了 小样：我每天都在努力，以为使劲使劲照顾我爸就行，可是没想到，无论怎么努力，还是有那么多那么多的地方没办法，做不到，我觉着自己的力量特别特别渺小，这回非常非常无助，我好想好想在北京，跟你们在一起的日子，我想你，想霹雳，想姥姥，大姨二姨，还有高齐 青楚：小样，你想回来就回来吧，大家在一起，天大的困难几个人扛，就不算什么事了 小样：我就是，我就是跟你发泄发泄，说完我就没事了 青楚：小样，你记着，你永远都不孤单。 the adaptation approach to verbal comforting in chinese contexts 8qingchu and xiaoyang have close relationship for they are cousins. in this instance, xiaoyang tells qingchu she is hopeless. qing knows all the things that occur to xiaoyang, so she can understand xiaoyang well and sympathize with her. for this reason, what qing says to xiaoyang can well comfort xiaoyang. (3) help a analyze the reason causing negative emotions: when people are in negative state, they usually cannot see the situation and reasons. and just at that moment, b could help a to rid himself (herself) of the condition of embarrassment by saying some words which can explain for a. for example: a: he must think that i have no manners. b: no, everyone could tell that you were in a hurry. (4) make an apology to b：as negative emotion is aroused by objective events and b apologizes without doing anything wrong in order to help a relieve from the negative emotion. for example: sorry for not reminding you of that. (5) provide advice and assistance：b provides advice and assistance in order to comfort b. for example: take it easy! try it again, and you will find it. (6) use proverb or old saying a. men have sorrow and joy; they part and meet again. the moon dims or shines; it waxes or wanes. this has been going on since the beginning of time. （人有悲欢离合，月有阴晴圆缺） b. misfortune might be a blessing in disguise。 (塞翁失马， 焉知非福) c. to err is human. (人非圣贤孰能无过) sentence a is a type of classical chinese writing by a famous poet su shi; and sentence b and c are proverbs. when these words are said to those who have negative emotion, the words are considered as comforting speech, otherwise, they have no comforting effect. 2.2.3 modes of discourse chapter two literature review 9in 2003, wang yongna and li jun published analyses on the conversational pattern and rhetoric strategies of comforting message (2003).this paper referred to the modes of discourse of comforting. according to it, there exist some fixed modes being used to express comforting directly, they are: a. negative words + negative state of mind. negative words include: do not, do not have to, do not need to, cannot and so on. negative states of mind include: crying, sadness, anger, fear, anxiety, tension, worry, boredom, pessimism, complaint, discouragement. for example: dont be sad. you do not have to worry about that. b. please + positive mental attitude. for example: please think positively. please take it easy. c. why + negative state of mind? this type is always put at the end of the whole comforting speech. for example: there must be a good way to solve this, why are you so worried? 2.3 the distinctions among comforting, persuasion and encouragement as we mentio