Pragmatic Analysis on White Lie

科技信息0外語(yǔ)論壇0SCTENCE & TECHNOLOGY NFORMATION2011年第23期Pragmatic Analysis on White Lie趙天毓(陜西省理工學(xué)院大學(xué)外語(yǔ)教學(xué)部陜西漢中723000)[摘要]善意的謊言是在 日常生活中常見(jiàn)的交際方法。本論文將對善意說(shuō)言作- -個(gè)大致的論述。在文中我將用語(yǔ)用學(xué)中常見(jiàn)的方法來(lái)分析它,有時(shí)還會(huì )遇到心理分析。我們還會(huì )遇到善意謊言發(fā)生的不同場(chǎng)景以及在達些場(chǎng)景中使用的善意謊言的特點(diǎn)。[Key words]White lie; Cooperntive principle (CP); Polite principle (PP); Adaptability; Contextual relate.All of us know to lie i bad and to white lie is ecesible. But thelisteners alwaye become angry beceuse they feel to be cheated. Why?Sometimes they appear for maintaining the social relationship or forJust because they think they have the right to know the fac. However, other purpoees, they need to do some preparing work to reach their aims:not all results are good to them. So, there is a tactful way to avoid“Good moming Mns. Creen, You always loo vigorous and never old, 1someone being affected by sad news- the using of white lie.really want to know where you've got this dreas, and I'm veryWhite lie takes an important role in our daily conversations. How appreciating of it. By the way I want to aalthe white lie happens and progresses, which interests me moet, will beht aleo can be used implicitly to imply there meaning for they don'tdiscused in this theis. The purpoee of writing this theis is for helping want to rise their request dretly:people to re establish their conception of lie (epecify the definition ofwhite lie) and to state more accessible lie when it is necesary, LieIt is obviously that the speaker's real aim of the words is ltting thesometimes is not 8s bad韶people always thinking, I promise most people listener to open the window. Participants need to make an effort tohave ever lied to others with diflerent aims. Now it is the time to change cooperate to satisfy the purpose of the conversation. The CP is adapted inthe atitude towards it. Then. to this useful and kind communicational most situations of conversations. The tllk which failed to suit thistactics, what should we pay attention to, how should we use it ia the principle is nol a Bucceas one.purpose of writing this thesis. Our aim is to speak more accessible lieTo discuse the Cooperative Principle more detailedly, Gricewhen it is necesar..subdivided it into 4 maxime:1 am glad to find that this ubjet has not been studied in linguisticQuality Maxim:way; I have got free space do this thesis. But many pecople have studied1)Make your contribution a informative 8 is required (for thelies in criminal paychology. So it is not a completely unfamiliar topic to curent purpose of the exchange).all ofus. What I have rerred is the theories on epplied paychology2)Do not make your contribution more informative than is requirod.(Applied peaychology, by Le Guo'an, Nankai University Prea). The exactQuantiy Maxim:white lie exarmples are used in many areas in which I would like toTry to make your contibution one that is true:discuss in separate sections all of which have their own features. As an1)Do not say what you believe to be false.important theoryADAPTABILTY will be drawn into the thesis to2)Do not ay that for which you lack adequale evidence.analyze the motivation of the epeaker for the reasons he/she uscea whiteBe relevant.The tools we need to analyze the white lie are abstract theories. It isManner Maxim:necessary to introduce them at first:Be perpicuous:I)Avoid obocurity of expression.1 Cooperative Principle2)Avoid ambiguity.3)Be brief (avoid uncesary prolixity).stage at tohich it oeeurs, by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk4)Be orderly.exchange in which you are enguged (Cole and Morgean, 1975:45).In this Thesis CP is used to analyue the rationality of utterances. ForGrice (1975) example,Above words is the definitin of CP (cooperative principle). The"To prevent latent danger, I have to lie lo othen."principle uncovers the main features and rules of the conversation.2 Politeness Principle and Face TheoryDuring the communication, all the sentences are clowely connected witheach other,llofthemshouldhem should have talked the same thing inPP (politeness principle) is rised by Lech (1983:132) which isspeaker's intention is not always clear to the listener. Sometimes these polieness principle may be formulated in a general way from too aspects:goals are explicily, for example:to minimite (other thing being equal) the expression of impolite beliefsA:I have a pet.and meaximite (other thing being equal) the epression of polite blif..."B: Oh what kind of a pe?(He Ziran, Notes on Pragmatics). So the six maxims appear in pain:A: It'sa dog,1) Tact Maxim (in impoitives and comissiwes)B: What kind of dog?a. Minimize coet to othen;A: It'sa Cocker Spaniel.b. Maximize beneft to othens.B: Crown up or■puppy?2) Generosity Maxim (in impoiives and comissives)A: It's full grown.a. Minimize benefit to self;B: What color is it?b. Mxinize co中國煤化工A: It's black and white.3) AprobaionB: Why didn't you say you had a full -gowrn black and whitea. Minimize dit:TYHCNMHGCocker Spaniel aa pet in the fimt place?b. Maximise prsise of othen.'2812011年第23期SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY INFORMATIONO外語(yǔ)論壇O科技信息4) Modesty Maxim (in epressives and asertives)The four studying angles are:ze praiseFirst, we must afim thcontexxtual relates of adaptability. Theb. Maximize dispraise of others.5) Agreement Maxim (in assertives)utterance choosing. It relates to every aspects of physical context (ex. The且Minimize disgeement between self and other;distance afect the volume of the voice), the social relationships of theb. Maximize gcement betwen self and others.speaker and the listener, and the feeling and atitude of the partieipants.6) Sympathy Maxim (in assertives)Second, in the procedure of conversation, we must go to the discourse bya Minimize antipathy between self and other,consulting diferent structural objects of adaptaility. As theb. Maximize sympathy between self and other.communicative choosing always outspread on all kinds of varied layers ofparicipants in a comnunicaive event. This concept is familiar to Asian. phenomenon can relatces to any structural layer.We call it“mianzi" in Chinese, and it bears the connotation of "honor".Third, any kind of pragmatic description or pragmatic explanationThere are three main facors involved which bring such a face must explain the dynamics of adaptablity which appears in the studyingsystem in to being; power, distance and the weight of the imposition.phenomenon, in other words, the development of adaptability on the timeHere, “power” refers to the rertical disparity between the axis. Essentially, the mission could not complete if there are lack of theparticipants in the hierarchical structune. In a hierarchical structuralvigor which Was infused by choosing negotiation. The mission must refercommunication, if someone hato the explanation of the actual operation of adapting courses. That is tohe/she has plus powernication, if someone has special prilege over otherprticipants,equestionmmust been answered is: how is the principle and tacticame as power. Itcan be seen say, thmost easily in egalitarian relationships. Two cloe friends has leae of communication works during the process of procedure and explanation?relationships, so they have close distance; on the other hand, twoFourth, we must consider about the difference in the aspect ofgovemment oficialsa of dfferent nations are likely to be of equal power salience of the adaplation procese. Not all choosing (including outputingbut more distance. The weight of imposition is the hird factor ffect face choosing and explaining choosing) have the same consciousnes andstrategy. Even if two participants in a speech event have a very fixed motivation. As we referred, some choices were done nearly spontaneously,relationship, the face strategies will be quit predictable. We will knowbut other choices have high rationality.what is the speaker's intention and all his eforts are only made for oneThe four missions are essences of white lie analyzing. but they don'tim. White lie is the moet ueful straley to reech commnication have the equal satus. Their functions are complementary.purposes. I will discuss it in details in part three.First, the combination of contextual correlates of adaptability and thestructural objects of adaptability can be used to define the locus of3 Adaptabilityadapting phenomenon.It is a very important conception to analyze while lie. To understandThen, explaining the dynamics of adaptability and considering thehy language communication is sucesful (hough there are lots of shockwave of the variation and negoiation are definitely the centralge) west assume thmission of mainly pragmatic researches, because the fundamentalquestion here is the definition of the courses of adaptability.language which provides a possibility to let people choose utterancequesusnegotiatory from a series of uncertain range, and it is a feature of each other. It more or less makes the language user has the salience oflanguage which has the efer that the communication can be cloed in the adepaion process.upon the max satisfying degree. But there are four point needs to be paidPragmatic analyzing of white lieattention to:First, the 'communicative requirement' does not mean that theIn this section we are going to discuss the motivation of the liar.using of language must have the deinite significance of communication. From the linguistic way, the white lie is sometimes eaay to be understoodAlthough we have the attitude that every language using (even if there are according to the context of the situation at that time.only one paricipant) generally has communicativeness but we shouldFirst, we are sure that white lie nearly violated every maxim of theconsider it as a belief and a basis which should be relied on by the Cooperative Principle. For Quality Maxim, the utterance of the liar is notfollowing opinions. We should think about this kind of language using At informnative 8s is required, what he told is always more infomnative than isleast they are close to the pure simple expresiveness without anyrequired.communicative intentions or efects.For quantity maxim, the liar never contributes his worde that areSecond, the * communicative requirement' seems refeming to the true, and worse, he/she knows that what he/ she says is false. He/sherequirement' mainly must make efots to let you believe what he/ she said has adequateoccurs in context, s0 it can be used to refer to certain idiographic evidence.requirement.For relation maxim, luckily, liar's words always are relevant to whatThird, the asatisfly' in definitin is only to 'be clooed in upon'- the listener want to know.this kind of approach varies in dfferent degree. Morover, this definitionFor manner maxim, the white lie is always brief and orderly.cannot be excluded of the communication failure we defined before. Ithtis not eay of hin/her to be perspicuous, bu the liar will try his!has the possibility to occur in Do communication σr wrongber best to avoid obscurity and ambiguity of expression.communication.The Politeness Principle is well obeyed by he lar. H/she tries his/At last, adaptability cannot be aplained 韶monomial courses. her best to let the listener get the max benefit, minimize dispraise of theexisted already. In fact, it is also not caay. From another aspect, theAdaptability can well explain the questions: why the white lies arecontext for choosing od the languege can be changed during the coursces of used, and how white lies happen. The four aspects o the adaptability areutterance choosing. In other words, the context can adapt to the choice.the most important hings in this thesis. The contextual relates ofhe adaptability provides 嶼four explicit missions to pragmatic sdaptability have中國煤化工he teis. And hedeacripion and pragmatic explnation. The‘four missions' σ four remains spects 1，studying angles' are not separnste researching problems. They should be5 Summary:MYHCNMH G(下轉第260頁(yè))considered as universal and coherent key points of praygmatics research.- 2522011年第23 期SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY NFORMATIONO外語(yǔ)論壇O科技信息ome homework. But before they do such a deed, they will rack their("Transformative Trave!", New College English, Book 1)brains trying to hink of something else to do.-天中的時(shí)間moming與ofiermoon屬于同一個(gè)序列.在段落中構("Sudy Habits", New Cllgr Engish. Book 2)成共現,銜接 上下文。如果把順序改為afenoon, moming,人們就會(huì )認⑤中用概括詞instrument來(lái)代替a fairly good mind,在構成接應為錯誤或是極 為異常。的同時(shí)，表達出作者對自己有幸擁有聰明的頭腦的自豪與珍惜之情。(4)局部_整體關(guān)系⑥中的概括詞do such a deed回指do some homework，兩者構成銜接上下義關(guān)系區別的是命名上的內酒，而局部-整體關(guān)系岡別的是關(guān)系,從中我們也不難體會(huì )出他們不喜歡做家務(wù)。實(shí)體的“內包"。如英語(yǔ)中的body與arm a, legp, feet, hands等就構成局2.5同現關(guān)系 ，部整體關(guān)系。如:(1)反義關(guān)系⑥On the aftemoon of that evenful day, I stood on the porch,反義關(guān)系指詞項之間意義相反,相對或互補關(guān)系。具體來(lái)說(shuō)指語(yǔ)dumb,義可分等的有程度差別的詞類(lèi)關(guān)系,兩極之間體現對立的層次性。反hurrying to and fro in the house that something unusual was about to義詞出現在同-句子不同小句內或不同的句子之間或整個(gè)語(yǔ)篇中,其happen, 8o I went to the door and waited on the stepes.基本功能是使兩個(gè)不同的語(yǔ)言成分在意義上形成明顯對照.從正反兩("How I discovered worda", New College English, Book 2)方面對某個(gè)或某此事物或現象進(jìn)行描寫(xiě),從而使所在的句子或語(yǔ)篇上由于porch. door與sep都是house的組成部分,壘局部詞關(guān)系，下銜接，同時(shí)增強講言的表現能力,使聽(tīng)者或讀者得到全面而生動(dòng)的與 houe又構成局部-整體 關(guān)系，故事情節非常緊湊,也讓讀者更好地感知當時(shí)的情況，整個(gè)語(yǔ)篇取得極為連貫的效果。⑦M(jìn)usic may sthe the savage breast. But it can also damage your 3結束語(yǔ)health when you are at the wheel.("Music to your Cears", New Colle English, Book 2)本文討論了語(yǔ)篇分析中的-一個(gè)重要概念一詞匯銜接。 通過(guò)分在該例中,oothe與damage是互為反義關(guān)系詞項,二者之間形成析, 我們可以看出,詞匯銜接是作者提供的有形線(xiàn)索.為判斷語(yǔ)篇的銜鮮明的對比,反映了音樂(lè )的不同功能,它可以平息人的怒氣,但是開(kāi)車(chē)接性 連貫性提供了衡量的標準。詞匯的問(wèn)現和復現作為銜接手段,能時(shí)聽(tīng)音樂(lè )會(huì )對人體健康造成傷害,在對照中將語(yǔ)篇的前后意義銜接起突 出語(yǔ)篇中的主題,有利于創(chuàng )造形象,還往往使語(yǔ)言生動(dòng)活潑,從而加來(lái)，達到語(yǔ)篇連貫的目的，以這種方式來(lái)介紹主題可以給人留下深刻深讀 者的印象。的印象,突出并強化了主題。目前, 語(yǔ)篇教學(xué)已受到人們普遍的重視,詞匯銜接模式理論對英(2)互補關(guān)系語(yǔ)教學(xué)具有明顯的指導作用。大學(xué)英語(yǔ)教師應教導學(xué)生掌握詞匯銜接互補只有兩個(gè)對立項組成就是非彼即此或非此即彼,因而對- -個(gè)手段， 更好地理解語(yǔ)篇結構以及作者的寫(xiě)作意用,從而提高閱讀速度。詞項的否定就意味著(zhù)對另一詞項的肯定,雙方形成對立統-體。 互補此外， 詞匯銜接手段還可以應用于詞匯教學(xué)，閱讀教學(xué)聽(tīng)力教學(xué).翻詞與反義詞有明顯的區別反義詞的兩極之間可插進(jìn)表示不同程度性譯教學(xué)以及寫(xiě)作教學(xué)等一 系列領(lǐng)城。 只有這樣,才能提高學(xué)生語(yǔ)篇層質(zhì)的詞語(yǔ),體現層次可分性(gadbilty);互補詞在意義上是互相排斥面 上的能力。同的,一方的存在以另- -方的存 在為前提,如:⑧How do youthe apend their incomnes? Both female and male[參考文獻]teenagens epend moet of their money on eclothes, CDs, stereo equipment,1 ]劉辰誕教學(xué)篇章語(yǔ)言學(xué)(M].上海:上海外語(yǔ)教育出版社, 1999.中國店的特控上RI海海外進(jìn)教省出版社19entertainment, and travel. Young women spend moet on coemetics, [2]朝壯 ，語(yǔ)算的銜接與連貫[M.上海:上海外語(yǔ)教育出版社,1994.folowed by clothes and jewely. Young men spend the mot on sporting [3)楚樹(shù)文 講篇分析概要M:8炒塑南數有1版科19海外迅能grod, cnere, CDs, sero qupen, bigele, soon jean, muica 4)米水生 ,那立信，鹵興偉英漢語(yǔ)篇街接手段對比研究有出版社.200.instruments, and electronic games.[5]徐雪甲賂論英語(yǔ)語(yǔ)篇的詞匯銜接手段刀常熟高專(zhuān)學(xué)報, 20(1).)("Consumer Behavior of Young People", New College EnglishBook 1)[6]王宇明英語(yǔ)語(yǔ)篇的詞匯銜接手段初探]牡丹江師范學(xué)院學(xué)報:哲社版,該例中, young women與young men呈互補關(guān)系,語(yǔ)句之間的銜接主要依靠這對互補詞的對照,句與句之間銜接緊密。[7]應惠蘭新編大學(xué)英語(yǔ)2版.浙江大學(xué),編著(zhù)北京:外語(yǔ)教學(xué)與研究出版社,(3)序列關(guān)系2004.在語(yǔ)言實(shí)踐中,有些詞項的排列有一-定的規律 .如次序的排列第一.二, ....方.向的排列東南西北,星期的排列等,這些位于同-序作者簡(jiǎn)介;韓驥(1979- -),女,漢族, 山東曹縣人,山東政法學(xué)院外語(yǔ)系救列的詞匯項同樣可起到銜接作用。如:師,助教,碩士.主要從事英語(yǔ)語(yǔ)言學(xué)與教學(xué)研究。⑨1 spent the momings going for long walks on the beach, theaftermoons siting under my favorite tree, reading books and listening to[責任編輯:王靜]●(上接第252頁(yè))I would like to stop my thesis here and make abrief conclusion. In this theis. we discussed wheat a white lie is and for [3]He Ziran. Notes on pragmatic. Nanjin Normal School Presediscus this ieresting language ussge. And we sudied the white lie Culures Forign Languge Teching snd Rearchig Phreusing in diferent language seting. And we find that there are diferent[5]Ron Scollon & Suzanne Wong Sollon. Inerculturalcharacteristics of the white lie using in different settingo. Then, I hope[6]}Zhang Maizeng language & Comounication: An Introduction 0 Lnguisticstbe readers wil get a more clear conception of the white lie, underslandthe white lie pragmatically, and clear up the efots of the liaur, moreover,the liar who wants to belp you indeed. And I bope this thesis will be作者簡(jiǎn)介:趙天中國煤化工5really helpful. ( P大學(xué),獲文學(xué)學(xué)士部任教,研究方向英:MHCNMHG[Refereonces] .[1]Le Gwo'sn Applicd Poybokoy. NanKai University Prom[責任編輯:常鵬飛]- 260