《傲慢与偏见》对话中的言语行为 英文

1、毕 业 论 文傲慢与偏见对话中的言语行为姓 名： 李 烁 学 号： 39 学 院： 应用文理学院 专 业： 英语语言文化 指 导 教 师： 都宁 2010 年 4 月 25 日Speech Act in the conversations of Pride and Prejudice A Thesis Submitted ToThe Department of Foreign Languages and CultureIn Partial Fulfillment of the Requirementsfor the Degree of Bachelor of Arts in the Subje

2、ct ofEnglish Language and LiteratureByLi Shuo Directed By Du NingCollege of Arts and Sciences, Beijing Union UniversityBeijingApril 2010摘 要言语行为理论，最早由牛津大学语言学家John L. Austin所创建，后来美国语言学家John R. Searle在其基础上将言语行为理论发展壮大。它作为语用学的一类，近年来被广泛应用到文学分析中。之所以可以将言语行为理论与文学作品相结合，一方面是因为文学作品可以为理论分析提供丰富的语料，另一方面从该角度对文学作品进行

3、分析也可以帮我们更好地理解文学作品。随着语用学的发展壮大，这种文学与语言学的结合形式必将迈入一个新的纪元。本文将以语言学家塞尔的言语行为理论为框架，以英国著名作家简.奥斯丁的代表作之一傲慢与偏见为文本，着重从言外作用角度即：阐述类、指令类、承诺类、表达类和宣告类这五种基本言语行为对小说主人公伊丽莎白与达西的对话进行分析和解读，从而反应出小说人物之间的矛盾冲突，并进一步验证了用言语行为理论对文学作品进行赏析的可行性。关键词：言语行为，言外作用，偏见 AbstractSpeech Act Theory is the first major theory in the study of langua

4、ge in use, which was originated with the Oxford philosopher John Langshaw Austin and then developed by the American philosopher John R. Searle. As one of the means in pragmatics, it can deal with particular utterances in literature works because on one hand, literature works offer resourceful raw ma

5、terials for linguistic study; one the other hand, the use of linguistic theory in the literature gives us a better understanding of the works. With the development of pragmatics especially the speech act theory, its combination with literature leads us into a new era. Accordingly, the present resear

6、ch, on the basis of Searles speech act theory will analyze the illocutionary force in the conversation between Elizabeth and Darcy under various settings in Pride and Prejudice to interpret Elizabeths prejudice against Darcy. Key words: speech act theory, illocutionary forces, prejudice ContentsIntr

7、oduction11 Classification of Speech Acts.21.1 Three Levels of Speech Acts.21.2 Classification of Illocutionary Acts.32 Analysis of Illocutionary Acts in Pride and Prejudice.42.1 Elizabeth and Darcys Conversation in Pride and Prejudice as Assertives.52.2 Elizabeth and Darcys Conversation in Pride and

8、 Prejudice as Directives.62.3 Elizabeth and Darcys Conversation in Pride and Prejudice as Commissives72.4 Elizabeth and Darcys Conversation in Pride and Prejudice as Expressives.92.5 Elizabeth and Darcys Conversation in Pride and Prejudice as Declarations.9Conclusion.9Works Cited10Bibliography.11Ack

9、nowledgements.11IntroductionSpeech Act Theory is the first major theory in the study of language in use, which was originated with the Oxford philosopher John Langshaw Austin (胡, 186), and then developed by the American philosopher John R. Searle. It is under Searles influence that the study of perf

10、ormatives becomes the study of “speech acts”. Most of the major terminology of the subject today comes from Searle. According to Vanhoozers delightful characterization, “If Austin is the Luther of speech act philosophy, John Searle may be considered its Melanchthonits systematic theologian” (Briggs,

11、 qtd.in Vanhoozer 209) Speech act theory, as one of the means in Pragmatics, can deal with particular utterances in literature works because on one hand, literature works offer resourceful raw materials for linguistic study; one the other hand, the use of linguistic theory in the literature gives us

12、 a better understanding of the works. With the development of pragmatics especially the speech act theory, its combination with literature creates a new era. Marry Louise Pratt, in her book Toward a Speech Act Theory of Literary Discourse demonstrates that “There is no valid reason to assume that la

13、nguage stops being itself when it enters a literary workit is both possible and necessary to develop a unified theory of discourse which allows us to talk about literature in the same terms we use to talk about all the other things people do with language” (朱小舟, qtd.in Patt 14 ). Pride and Prejudice

14、, one of the well-known English novels, offers an excellent literature raw material for people to analyze Speech Act Theory which has been studied by many predecessors through the combination of other linguistic theories, such as irony theory and conversational theory. In an essay called THE PRAGMAT

15、ICAL PENETRATION IN PRIDE AND PREJUDICEThe Reflection of Speech Act Theory and Violations of Cooperative Principle in Pride and Prejudice, the author pays attention to the illocutionary meaning in the novel based on Searles Speech Act Theory and Grices Cooperative Principle to analyze its characters

16、 conversations and behaviors to show the novels artistic charm. Moreover the author also focuses on how these theories are used in the novel to reflect the personality and theme. (吕,113)According to the former studies, this paper will take Jane Austins masterpiece Pride and Prejudice as the target t

17、ext in which the storys overall meaning resides to a large extent in the particular speech acts performed by the two protagonists in their communication with each other, in which these individual speech acts are sequenced in the story, and in the way the figural speech acts are contextualized with s

18、peech acts on the level of narrative transmission. 1 Classification of Speech Acts1.1 Three Levels of Speech ActsThere are three levels of a speech act, i.e. locutionary act, illocutionary act, and perlocutionary act, according to Searle. The first level means when we speak we produce a sound, word,

19、 or sentence. The act performed in this sense is called locutionary act. The second one is the real action which is performed by the utterance where saying equals doing, and the act performed here is known as an illocutionary act. The third one is the effects of the utterance on the hearer who accep

20、ts the utterance. The act performed in this sense is called a perlocutionary act (胡, 447). The relationship of the three levels can be illustrated by Darcys utterance to Elizabeth: I love you.Locution: Darcy uttered the words I love you which can be semantically paraphrased as: I have already fallen

21、 in love with you.Illocution: Darcy performed the act of expressing his adoration to Elizabeth or we can say that Darcy was performing the act of proposing in Pride and Prejudice.We need to distinguish between the illocution and the locution because different locutions can have the same illocutionar

22、y force. Similarly, the same locution can have different illocutionary forces in terms of the context. For example, it is cold here could either be a request to close the window or an offer to close the window.Perlocution is the actual result of the locution. It may or may not be what the speaker wa

23、nts to happen but it is caused by the locution. For example, Darcys utterance could have any of the following perlocutions: Darcy persuaded Elizabeth to marry him; Elizabeth refused to marry him; Elizabeth was offended, etc. However, according to the epitasis, Jane Austin chose the most reasonable o

24、ne to unfold the story. So the perlocution is defined by the hearers reaction. 1.2 Classification of Illocutionary ActsThere are two versions about the classification of illocutionary acts-John Austins and John Searles. According to Austins theory, he distinguished and classified speech acts into th

25、e following types: Verdictives, Exercitives, Commissives, Behabitives, Expositives. In his book How to Do Things with Words, Austin gave a brief summary of the five definitions: To sum up, we may say that the verdictive is an exercise of judgement, the verdicitive is an assertion of influence of jud

26、gment, the exercitive is an assertion of influence or exercising of power, the commissive is an assuming of an obligation or declaring of an intention, the behabitive is the adopting of an attitude, and the expositive is the clarifying of reasons, arguments, and communications.(p163) Although Austin

27、 first put forward the classification, Searles improvement is the best-known. As he said “I think they form an excellent basis for discussion but I also think that the taxonomy needs to be seriously revised because it contains several weaknesses.” (P8) Compared to his predecessor，Searles subsequent

28、classification shows some improvement. In his book Speech Acts, Searle defined speech act as “the production or issuance of a sentence taken under certain conditions”.(Searle Speech Acts 16) He also set out to combine all of the former research on this area to give an account of so-called illocution

29、ary acts of which he gave a specific classification in his book Expression and Meaning, namely, Assertives, Directives, Commissives, Expressive and Declarations (Searle Expression and Meaning 38). With the emergence of Searles classification of illocutionary force, speech act theory no longer simply

30、 concerned itself as Austins theory, and language became more flexible and practical. In Searles view, there are a rather limited number of basic things we do with language: we tell people how things are, we try to get them to do things, we commit ourselves to doing things, We bring about changes in

31、 the world through our utterances (Searle Expression and Meaning 29), from which we can see speech-act theory has obvious potential for assisting in the interpretation of texts. 2 Analysis of Illocutionary Acts in Pride and Prejudice2.1 Elizabeth and Darcys Conversation in Pride and Prejudice as Ass

32、ertivesThe point or purpose of the member of the assertive class is to commit the speaker (in varying degree) to something being the case, to the truth of the expressed proposition. All the members of the assertive class are assessable on the dimension of assessment which includes truth and falsenes

33、s. The direction of fit is words to the world; the psychological state expressed is Belief. (Searle Expression and Meaning 12).In the novel Pride and Prejudice, when Elizabeth went to Mr. Bingley house to see her ill sister, there was a discussion about Darcys character. Elizabeth once commented: “I

34、 am perfectly convinced by it that Mr. Darcy has no defect. He owns it himself without disguise.” Judging from the surface, these words are not assertives, but everyone knows that nobody is perfect so why Elizabeth was convinced that Darcy had no defect? Obviously, she held the opposite meaning. The

35、 simplest test to see whether it is an assertive or not is to seek out the true condition of the statement “everyone has defect”; and surly the answer here is: “It is true”. Sarcasm, as the illocutionary point of this speech act, plays an important role here. The direction of fit is words to the wor

36、ld, knowing the reality that Darcy cannot be perfect, and our heroine smartly expressed her dissatisfaction in an indirect way. This expression shows Elizabeths impression of Darcy and her prejudice against this “arrogant” gentleman. Another expression played as a speech act with the illocutionary f

37、orce of assertive occurred when Elizabeth refused to dance with Darcy at Lucas ball. -“Mr. Darcy is all politeness” (Austin,18)It seems to be a compliment to the gentleman, and however, it is inappropriate to be used as a girls resistance, so this is another trap set by Elizabeth. By overhearing the

38、 conversation between Darcy and Bingley, she was irritated by Darcys remark on her-only tolerable. Standing in our heroines view, Darcys behavior was indeed less polite; therefore the direction of fit is words to the world. For the illocutionary point of this speech act, Elizabeth tells us a fact th

39、at Darcy offended her, and the psychological state expressed is belief because it represents Elizabeths willingness to criticize the rude gentleman, so that she could reach the purpose of embarrassing the hero and achieving a sense of complacency herself. In this expression, Elizabeth performed the

40、speech act adversely in order to satire the arrogant wealthy man, which fulfills its function as assertive and also reveals that Elizabeths prejudice against Darcy is getting deeper and deeper. 2.2 Elizabeth and Darcys Conversation in Pride and Prejudice as Directives The illocutionary point of thes

41、e consists in the fact that they are attempts (of varying degrees, and hence, more precisely, they are determinates of the determinable which includes attempting) by the speaker to get the hearer to do something. The direction of fit is world-to-words and the sincerity condition is want (or wish or

42、desire). The propositional content is always that the hearer does some future action.( Searle Expression and Meaning 14). In the ball held at Mr. Bingleys house, Darcy and Elizabeth had their first dance, worrying their silence was to last through the two dances, Elizabeth addressed Darcy:-“It is yo

43、ur turn to say something now, Mr Darcy.I talked about the dance, and you ought to make some kind of remark on the size of the room, or the number of couples.”(Austin, 63) This is a typical directive in this novel. At that time, it would look odd to be entirely silent when people were dancing togethe

44、r; Elizabeth had already tried to oblige his partner to talk, but in vain, so she had to direct him to take some action. We know that the direction of fit is world-to-words, so Elizabeth made the request and Darcy followed in order to break the embarrassing atmosphere. Although Elizabeth succeeded i

45、n making Darcy talk, his silence left a bad impression on her. The illocutionary point of her expression is not simply to find some subjects to communicate with him but to tease him with some boring questions as well. Obviously, prejudice was impregnated with Elizabeths mind; she wanted to make fun

46、of his arrogant partner.Apart from that, there is another conversation showing the illocutionary force as directive. -Darcy: “This walk is not wide enough for our party. We had better go into the avenue.” -Elizabeth: “No, no; stay where you are,-You are charmingly grouped, and appear to uncommon adv

47、antage. The picturesque would be spoilt by admitting a four. Goodbye.” (Austin, 37)In the dialogue, Elizabeth misunderstood Darcys good intention. When Miss Bingley left Elizabeth to join the other two, Darcy suggested walking into the avenue so that they four could walk together. However, Elizabeth

48、 could not accurately grasp Darcy kindness and made an offer to leave alone. Although Elizabeth had not the least inclination to remain with them, she still felt humiliated by Darcys words. “Stay where you are” is a speech act with the illocutionary force of a directive. Because of the difference of

49、 their status, Elizabeth was very sensitive; she didnt want to be looked down upon by those wealthy people, so she directed Darcy to be grouped charmingly without her. Its illocutionary point is to express that she doesnt belong to them and she is unwilling to associate with those self-righteous wea

50、lthy people. She followed the direction of fit from world to words, making the propositional order with sarcasm to get herself distinguished from those people she disliked. This clause achieves its illocutionary force to show Elizabeths misunderstanding and prejudice against Darcy. In that case, the

51、ir conversation fulfills its function as a speech act with the illocutionary force of directive.2.3 Elizabeth and Darcys Conversation in Pride and Prejudice as CommissiveCommissives are those illocutionary acts whose point is to commit the speaker (again in varying degree) to some future course of a

52、ction. The direction of fit is world-to-word and the sincerity condition is Intention. The propositional content is always that the speaker does some future action.( Searle Expression and Meaning 15)The most representative commissives in Pride and Prejudice comes from Darcys proposing marriage to El

53、izabeth. -D: “In vain have I struggled. It will not do. My feeling will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.” (Austin, 128)-E: “I felt that you were the last man in the world whom I could ever be prevailed on to marry” (Austin, 131) Both of them can be

54、considered the illocutionary act of commissives. When Darcy promised Elizabeth that he loved her, he was under great pressure; the feeling of superiority made him difficult to make self-revealing to a girl of bourgeoisie. However, he made it. The illocutionary point of this promise is to commit the

55、speaker to pursuing happiness of his own. The direction of fit between words and the world is the world to the words. There are words first and Darcy follows the words with his actions to ask Elizabeth to marry him. The psychological state expressed here is intention. Darcy expressed a kind of attit

56、ude and his determination to love her. However, Elizabeth was not moved by Darcys promise. As the prejudice accumulated, Elizabeth regarded the illocutionary point as a kind of joke. His sense of her inferiority, and the sense of being a degradation of his family further convinced her that Darcys lo

57、ve was opposed to inclination. She seemed to have every reason in the world to think ill of him and she never believed Darcys promise and even was triggered by the gentlemans explanation to announce: she promised never to marry Darcy. Elizabeths refusal to Darcys proposal is another illocutionary of commissives. In the refusal, it showed her attitude to Darcy; she owed every fault to Darcy: Janes separation with Mr. Bingley; Mr. Wickhmans misfortune and his farouche character. The illocutionary point in this speech act is that