A Study On The Negative Evaluative Utterances Of Contemporary Chinese

By means of conversational analysis,qualitative,descriptive and inductive studies and etc.,this paper makes a detailed research on the modern Chinese negative evaluative utterances collected from various dialogic settings.To be precise,based on the theories of Speech Acts,Communication Relevance and ect.,subjects like definition,features,classifications,expressive strategies and responsive techniques of negative evaluative utterances are explicitly discussed,aiming at discovering an integral frame of the Chinese negative evaluative interlocution which may guide the future studies on specific communication strategies.As to the structure of this dissertation,five chapters are included:The first chapter serves as an introduction.After a brief explanation of the research reason and value,it gives a detailed literature review on the study of(negative)evaluative utterances at home and abroad.Based on these aforementioned,the research methods and theoretical foundations are briefly introduced.Finally,the research frame and corpus are illustrated.The second chapter discusses some basic concepts of negative evaluative utterances,which cover the definition,features and classifications.To begin with,it explains the relationship between illocutionary points and communicative intentions in the light of the Speech Acts theory.Besides,the elements and felicity conditions of the Chinese negative evaluative communication are summarized.In view of all these factors,this chapter makes a brand new definition of negative evaluative speech acts and their communicative products from the perspective of pragmatic study.In the second place,the features of negative evaluative utterances include flexibility in their semantic contents,gradability in their pragmatic functions and interdependence in their conversational structures.In the last place,classifications can be done from four perspectives:negative evaluative utterances respectively pointed to the speaker,the hearer and other participants are included,if we take semantics into consideration;emotional,informative and intentional types are included if we consider pragmatic functions;the structural types are based on adjacency pairs,which contain double turns,triple or more turns,mixed adjacency pairs and non-adjacent embedded turns;explicit and implicit negative evaluative utterances are covered if we take account of expressive strategies.The third chapter explores the expressive strategies of negative evaluative utterances,which can be analysed from three perspectives.Firstly,based on the theory of Communication Relevance,there are three semantic strategies which can be divided according to the indirectness of negative information.Specificly speaking,they are explicature,presupposition and implicature strategies,the indirectness of which enhance progressively and as a result,it becomes increasingly difficult for hearers to identify the negative meaning.Besides,all of them include several sub-strategies.Secondly,according to the theory of Speech Acts,there are three functional strategies.To be more specific,the first type is descriptive approaches applied to reflecting causes and effects of the negative events,which roughly equals to the speech act of assertives.The second type is intentional approaches analogous to the speech acts of directives,commisives and expressives,most of which are related to the secondary communicative intentions for turning around the negative situation,except for emotional expressive ones directly corresponding to the first-level intentions.The third type is emphathy approaches used for regulating the strength of negative illocutionary points.Taken the hearers' knowledge,emotional,psychological states and cultural backgrounds into full consideration,speakers expect such strategies can intensify the acceptability of negative evaluative utterances.Thirdly,structural approaches include syntactic elements and illocutionary force regulators.For the syntactic ones based on the clause constituents of negative expressions,there are nucleus,modifier and other non-pairing elements,while for the regulating ones,we have associative relation and syntagmatic relation strategies.The former are reserved to be employed while the latter are already shown as different clause constituents.However,no clear cuts exist between them.The fourth chapter studies the responsive mode and strategies for the hearers.Apparently,an integral negative evaluative interlocution should include expressions and responses summarized in diagram 4.1.In accordance with this mode,chapter four makes a detailed analysis on the semantic types and approaches by responders.To begin with the affirmative responses,three types are included,namely,willing,win-win and aggressive affirmatives.Furthermore,there are seven responsive strategies,in which only the approvals and apologies can actually function as affirmative markers.In the second place,fuzzy responses can be divided into neutrality,delayed stance expression and approval or disapproval partiality.Moreover,there are six pragmatic strategies,in which only the feedbacks can practically applied as fuzzy responsive markers.In the last place,negative responses include harmonious,behavior intervening and radical types.As to the four negation strategies,only the refutations and rhetorical questions can be used as negation markers.The fifth chapter is the conclusive part,which sums up all innovative findings of this study.Besides,the deficiencies and research prospects are pointed out as a finale.