英语专业毕业论文On Cooperative Principle and Pragmatic Failure

1、 on cooperative principle and pragmatic failure language is the most important tool for humans to communicate. speech communication came into being with the starting of human society due to the needs of humansurviving and developing. at the same time, speech communication plays a very important role

2、 in the maintaining and developing of human society. with the development of society and advancement of science and technology, speech communication will play a more and more important role in the course of human communication. communication by language is our basic ability for living as well as soc

3、ial activity. in this thesis, i clarify my point of view based on cooperative principle, from the speech communication of daily life,i link these communication phenomena of oral or written language to the theories of linguists such as grice and leech and their relative theories. i discuss the applic

4、ation of these theories to the speech communication of daily life.cooperative principle theory proposed by grice is a very important theory in pragmatics. it has a powerful explanatory power on the speech communication. the cp can be widely used. it can explain various pragmatics phenomena in langua

5、ge understanding. from the cp perspective, i discuss the speech communication and its application in real speech communication. first, this thesis elaborates the main points of the theory: definition of the cp and its maxims. then the thesis deals with the application of cp in speech communication f

6、rom two aspects: successful speech communication and pragmatic failure. then it deals with the principles we must follow in successful communication and the violation of polite principle and tact principles that causes pragmatics failure. a further study of the nature and cause of pragmatic failure

7、will make us more aware of the importance of sensitivity to cross-culture pragmatics difference and urgency of developing pragmatic competence. thus this thesis can help us avoid the pragmatic failure and communicate successfully.1 cooperative principle cooperative principle theory proposed by grice

8、 is a very important theory in pragmatics. it has a powerful explanatory power on the speech communication. the cp can be widely used. it can explain various pragmatics phenomena in language understanding.obviously, language users must share certain rules and conventions which enable them to underst

9、and one another in the many instances where the meaning and the intent, i.e. the illocutionary force of utterances are not explicitly stated. in his text logic and conversation grice suggests four conversational maxims and the cooperative principle (cp) to explain the mechanisms through which people

10、 interpret implicature.1.1 cooperative principle and its maxims pragmatics is concerned with non-natural meaning,especially implicature. according to grice,meaning can be natrual or non-natural. people can understand the natrual meaning by the literal meaning.unlike the natural meaning,getting the n

11、on-natrual meaning needs people to calculate the real meaning by the literal meaning.a sentence may be conventionally used to mean something . grice proposed that speakers frequently and blatantly fail to observe any of above conversational maxims to prompt the hearer to look for a meaning which is

12、different from, or in addition to, the expressed meaning. however, a second language learner, even if s/he is quite fluent in english, may not necessarily arrive at the same conclusion. this conventional meaning is aiso what we may call the literal meaning or linguistic meaning of the sentence.howev

13、er,the sentence may be used to convey some special meaning which we term implicature.it is the type of meaning that deviates from the conventional or linguistic meaning of an utterance. securing the intention of the speaker behind the use of a sentence is of great importance. people talk with the in

14、tention of communicating something to someone else, this is the basis of all linguistic behavior. grice noticed that in daily conversation people do not usually say things directly but tend to imply them. in our daily conversation, we seem to follow some principles like the followingmake your conver

15、sational contribution such as is required;at the stage at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged.and this principle is known as the cooperative priciple or cp for short.to specify the cp futher,grice introduced four categories of maxims as

16、 follows.quantity:1.make your contribution as informative as is reqired(for the current purposed of the exchange.)2.do not make your contribution more informative than is required .quality:try to make your contribution one that is true.1.do not say what you believe to be false.2.do not say that for

17、which you lack adequate evidence.relation:be relavant.manner:be perspicuous.1.avoid obscurity of expression.2.avoid ambiguity3.be brief(avoid prolixity)4.be orderly. the use of term such as principleand maxim does not mean that the cp and its maxims will be followed by everyone all the time.people d

18、o violate them and tell lies.for example:a:where does c live?b:somewhere in the south of france.obviously,the answer of b does not offer adequate information for a.it shows that b does not know the exact address of c .if he does not answer ,it shows that he does not cooperate.if he speaks more,he wi

19、ll violate the quantity maxim.thus he will be confronted with the conflict of quantity and quality maxims.so he can only answer in this way.this example is like a joke in our daily life as follows:a:where is you home?b:it is in china.in fact,both a and b live in china.b violates the quantity maxim,b

20、ecause he did not offer the adequate information.the proper explain is that b does not want to tell a where his home is.another explain is that b violated the cp by design to create an unexpected effect and convey a sence of humor.in the conversation implicature theory,the hearer can realize that sp

21、eaker does not follow the cp by design.thus he need to calculate the real intention of the speaker. it is not easy for the hearer to calculate the real meaning of the speaker. because the real meaning hides behind the literal meaning. the hearer must consider all the factors such as information shar

22、ed by them and the specific context in this process.in nature, conversation implicature theory is about how people use lanuage.its starting point of study is the use of language in the context instead of language structure. it helps to explain the real meaning of the utterance from the specific cont

23、ext. for example:a:do you want to go to the cinema with me?b:oh,it is raining outside. maybe b does not want to go to the cinema with a .we should understand the real intention of the speaker by the literal meaning based on the context.grice divides the conversation implicature into two kinds:genera

24、l and specific implicature.the former refers to meaning calculated by no specific context,the latter needs specific context to be calculated.for example,the utteranceyou are so clever.in fact, the real meaning of the speaker is to scold the stupidity of the hearer.1.2 the importance of cooperative p

25、rinciple in speech communicationthe cp plays a very important role in study of language.as a principle in speech communication,it offers some principles to help the communication go on smoothly and effectively beyond the conventional language rules.the cp plays a very instructive role in the speech

26、communication.the four maxims and its component maxims have no strong restriction.violating these principles do not affect the result of speech communication.for example:father:how about your grade in the recent english exam?son:dad,my teacher told us that we were going out for a trip next sunday.th

27、e son may do poor in the exam, so he avoides answering the question of his father by design. instead he uses a new topic to avert the attention of his farther. he violates the relation maxim. speech communication is a very complex process.what we should make it clear is such a question as follows:wh

28、at is the use of cp,now that the principles can be violated?as cp itself,firstly it offers the conventional norms and pattern .that is to say the normal conversation should go on under these principles.secondly,it offers a standard to distinguish the conventional and non-convevtional communication.t

29、hose communication that violate cp are seen as non-convevtional communication.what is more,cp helps the hearer to calulate the real meaning of the speaker,which is the intention of indirect speech act.in our real speech communication,people do not follow the cp and its relative principles.these prin

30、ciples do not have strong restiction.they may be violated in speech communication.but it does not affect the real result of speech communication.instead it is very important .the utterance that violates the cp has a non-conventional meaning.this conversation implicature is the real intention of the

31、speaker,which hides behind the literal meaning.that is the intention of the indirect speech act. the theory of cp and conversation principles help people find the rules and principles in speech communication.following the thinking path of grice ,people offer more and more priciples in speech communi

32、cation.these principles can revise and complement the cp, which makes the principles of speech communication more perfect.2 principles in speech communication.speech is a process of conveying information by encoding and decoding .encoding is using language to express ideas. there are many factors th

33、at affect it, such as thought pattern , culture and moral background, values and so on. decoding is a process in which the hearer changes the sign of information into meaning.the hearer must have certain language competence to communicate with the speaker. speech communication is a complex process,

34、which includes both the objective and subjective factors such as thought pattern, emotion language habit, the context and so on. the same sentence may have different meaning in different context. successful speech communication is the ultimate goal of any communication. in fact, it is simple, becaus

35、e it is hearer who gives exact interpreting of the real meaning of speaker, but in real daily life, there is not always successful speech communication. because speech communication is affected by many factors. to achieve a successful communication, the speaker and the hearer need to agree with each

36、 other in expressing and interpreting.to reach the goal of communication, the speaker and the hearer need to follow some pragmatics principles in the conversation. of all the pragmatics principles, the cooperative principle and polite principle are the most important principles.2.1 politeness princi

37、plesin speech communication, the speaker and hearer hope to respect with each other to achieve the goal, the speaker will use some proper strategies to show the politeness. manner is a very common phenomenon in communication. it is a manifestation of modesty and respect in the speech and action when

38、 people communicate with each other. meanwhile, it can be seen as common social norms to be routinely followed by people. because of this, when people are talking, they should follow the politeness principle besides the cooperative principle. in 1983, british linguist geoffrey leech formerly came up

39、 with the politeness principle in his book pragmatics principles.leech points out that the polite principle is an essential complement to the cooperative principles, because it can solve the problem that cp can not solve. the central part of the politeness principle is context, relationship and mann

40、er. some certain context determines what we are going to say, some certain relationship determines who we decide to say, some certain manner determines how to say. generally speaking, the politeness principle is characterized by the benefits for others. the content consists of six categories of maxi

41、ms in the following: these maxims not only can explain how to do it politely but also why some utterances are polite and some are impolite.the pp includes six maxims as follows.1. tact maxim (in directives and commissives)a. minimize cost to otherb. maximize benefit to other2. generosity maxim (in d

42、irectives and commissives)a. minimize benefit to selfb. maximize cost to self3. approbation maxim (in expressives and representatives)a. minimize dispraise ofotherb. maximize praise ofother4. modesty maxim (in expressives and representatives)a. minimize praise ofothersb. maximize dispraise ofothers5

43、. agreement maxima. minimize disagreement between self and otherb. maximize agreement between self and other6. sympathy maxima. minimize antipathy between self and otherb maximize sympathy between self and otherthese maxims not only can explain how to do it politely but also why some utterances are

44、polite and some are impolite. in fact, we can conclude the six maxims into three aspects of requirement. to minimize cost to others, minimize dispraise of other and maximize praise of other. the first aspects not show your superiority by devaluing other. for example, we often use yes/no questions to

45、 offer a request so that the hearer can get the leeway to feel happy. for example,open the door.please open the door.would you please open the door?it is hot here in the room.for these sentences, the degrees of politeness are different. the first one is direct the last one is the most indirect. the

46、second maxim is not devaluing other and showing off yourself. because they violate the pp, on the contrary, when a person praises you, you need to devalue yourself. when scolding other, you should use a indirect way not to make him unhappy. for example,you are wrong.you should not do it.you should d

47、o it like this.do you think it is better to do it like this?from this group of sentences, the tone is moreand more indirect. it is easy for the hearer to receive because it uses the pp. the third aspect is when the speaker show his agreement with the hearer in most cases. in emotion, the speaker sho

48、uld do his best to show the sympathy and sincerity to make the atmosphere more harmony, enhance the emotion links and make sure the conversation go on smoothly .when the speaker and hearer differ in some problems ,he can first admit the reasonable part and show his sympathy. then he can show his own

49、 ideas and point out the defects of other. one person often says: yes, your request is not over the line, i can understand you. if i were you i will offer the same request, but.such an utterance is easier for the hearer to receive because it conforms to the pp.2.2 tact principles successful speech c

50、ommunication is the ultimate goal of any communication. while successful communication must be tact. the tact speech is the ideal pattern. tact speech communication is the effective communication when people use indirect ways to make utterance in order to cater for different needs of the contexts. f

51、or example, suppose the situation, the doctor suspect the patient has got a terminal disease. in such a context the doctor canuse many ways to express the degrees of tact varies from different expression ways.(1)patient: what about my disease? doctor: i suppose you have got a cancer and it reaches t

52、he terminal stage.(2)patient: what about my disease? doctor: there is a black shadow in your x-sheet, it is a tumor, but i think it is benign. but i suggest you go to the special hospital to do a further examine.obviously the second one is tact. the doctor uses a indirect way not to give the patient

53、 stress.tact principles and the cooperative principles are closely related. the former can explain the indirect speech communication. the latter can explain the direct speech act. tact principle can help us understand why and how we use indirect speech communication to comply with a certain context.

54、 we can use tact principle to make a reasonable explanation on the speech .the combination of these two principles can make the speech communication go on smoothly and achieve a ideal goal.3. pragmatic failure in speech communicationin cross-culture communication, people from different cultures spea

55、k the same language, but their communication may break down due to pragmatic difference in ways of thinking, rules of speaking, social values, lexical connotation and other factors. pragmatic failure was first proposed by thomas to refer to the inability to understand what is meant by what is said.

56、in china, heziran first started the research in this field. research this area is of importance for building up foreign language knowledge, pragmatic competence and competence of cross-culture communication. it is generally realized that for efficient communication and correct understanding, it is n

57、ot enough for language learners to know only the formal rules but the rules of use. that is the pragmatic principle and sociolpragmatic convention. pragmatic failure can falls into two kinds: pragmalinguistic failure and sociolpragmatic failure. pragmalinguistic failure is closely linked with langua

58、ge itself, referring to the case that learners unconsciously transfer native expression into english ignoring their pragmatic meaning, or use other inappropriate expression of the target language. sociolpragmatic failureinvolves lack of awareness of the conventions and the socio-cultural norms of th

59、e target language, such as not knowing the appropriate registers and topics or taboos governing the target language community. sociopragmatic failure refers to the expressive inappropriateness resulted from the misunderstanding or the ignorance of social or cultural differences. it falls into two main aspects: failures in culture