Man Lives Within Formulaic Speech Events A Pragmatic Probe Into Basic Forms Of Human Life

Researchers from the fields of linguistics, pragmatics, anthropology, sociology,etc. have long noted that the emphasis of the creativity of human language andlanguage use in the Chomskyan tradition can by no means deny repetition inlanguage use. Noticeably, in recurring communicative situations, similar andsometimes identical expressions are used to perform repetitive tasks. Existing studieson repetitive language use fail to make a real pragmatic account for it, due to theiremphasis on the so-called holistically retrieved linguistic expressions and/or theirisolating the repeated expressions from the actual situations within which they areembedded. The present research blazes a trail in the study of repetitive language useby identifying a new category of pragmatic phenomena, formulaic speech event(FSE for short), so as 1) to provide a more comprehensive pragmatic perspective, i.e.,the event-oriented perspective, into repetitive language use than the previous studies,and 2), more significantly, to unveil the inclination of recurrent speech events tobecome formulaic, offering insight into the nature of language use and particularlyhow language functions in the basic ways of man's being in the world. The project isconducted around the four questions: 1) What are FSEs? 2) What are the causes ofthe emergence and maintenance of FSEs? 3) What functions do FSEs have in man'ssocio-cultural being? and 4) What is the mechanism of language use in FSEs?The first question is addressed in Chapter Three. In line with Wittgenstein'stheory of family resemblance, formulaic speech events are categorized as thosespeech events embedded within recurring communicative situations, which resembleeach other in that they are all characterized by a certain degree of formulaicity whichis embodied by: 1) a relatively fixed set of recurrent phrasings, 2) a relatively fixedset of actions in relatively fixed move orders, and 3) relatively fixed co-occurrenceof the two. There are various degrees of formulaicity and hence a continuum offormulaicity along which all FSEs are located. FSEs are either the speech events thatare of great social-cultural significance (such as weddings, funerals, courtroominteractions, etc.) or the ones that constitute the essential aspects of human everyday life (such as greetings, birthday parties, bargaining events, doctor-patient interactions,etc.). They are the direct embodiment of the basic forms of life of a community orculture, and the principal means through which people attain various goals in life.The second and third questions are tackled in Chapter Four. As to the emergenceand maintenance of FSEs, there are both cognitive foundations, i.e., the ability andtendency to consider the prior experiences in deciding the present reaction inrepetitive situations, and socio-cultural impetuses, namely, the conventionalizationand the institutionalization of human social behavior, with human pursuit forefficient participation in life being the root one. The general functions of FSEs areintegrated under three categories: 1) facilitating communication, 2) establishing orpreserving socio-cultural identity, and 3) reinforcing cultural stability.Chapter Five is dedicated to the exploration of the pragmatic mechanism of FSEs.That both the production and the interpretation of each utterance in FSEs are the resultof interactive choice-making by the participants leads us to the development of agame-theoretic framework to account for the language use in FSEs. An FSE is arepeated positive-sum game of perfect information, in which agents make rationallinguistic choices (both in production and interpretation) on the basis of theirperception of the situation they are involved in, derived from a combination of setting,background knowledge, personal beliefs, goals, expectation and other contextualfactors. Among all the contextual factors, the constraint of goals and the guidance ofexpectation are of most prominent importance, for an FSE depends on the agents'collaboration oriented towards the dominant goal(s) pre-established by the respectivesituation and a commonality of expectations about the on-going game for its smoothprogress and completion. To reach their goals efficiently in a particular repeated game,the rational agents will naturally take the time-tested formulaic strategies. Deviationsfrom the formulaic elements of the event, either in utterance production or inutterance interpretation, may arise 1) when the agent believes his deviant choices canhelp attain the shared communicative goal of the event with higher efficiency, and 2)when the agents have different perceptions of the on-going game or the currentsituation, as a result of the individual differences in their bounded rationality. In either case, deviations from the formulaicity of an FSE will not necessarily lead to itsbreakdown.In addition to identifying a new category of pragmatic phenomena, i.e. FSE, andthus broadening the horizon of the study of repetition in language use, the presentstudy also contributes to the pragmatic field in the following aspects. First, withoutusing the formal or mathematical tools that characterize game theory as well as theexisting studies applying game theory to pragmatic issues, our way of applying gametheory to account for the pragmatic mechanism of FSEs may yield some insights intohow it can be applied to the study of language use in general. Second, considering thatthere are cultural discrepancies embedded in language use, the present study,primarily based on reflections on the real-life FSEs embedded within the recurringcommunicative situations rooted in Chinese culture, may hopefully complement thepragmatic studies that are based ethnocentrically on Western languages and cultures.Besides, the present study may also yield some insights into foreign language teachingand learning. Now that FSEs, characterized by repetitive language use, are the basicforms of life of a community or culture, by incorporating FSEs in the foreignlanguage into curriculum design, classes, and students' everyday practices, teachersmay efficiently help the students increase their communicative competence in thetarget language and culture.