A Pragmtic Study On Power-Relation

The primary objective of the study is to have a better understanding of the role of power-relation in communication, especially its influential role in the expression of affective meaning, by analyzing power-relation from the perspective of pragmatic principles: speech act theory, cooperative principle, politeness principle, and face theory, in order to communicate effectively with others and to achieve a maximum effect.In real society, everyone has his own social status and social relation with other people. Corresponding to solidarity, power-relation is a relationship that is almost embodied in every aspect of daily life. By making discourse analysis, the author analyzes power-relation from pragmatic perspective and gets some pragmatic functions: power-relation is an essential source of influence on speech acts and the focus of explanation of the reason why cooperative principle is violated. In power-relation context, people observe the politeness principle and face theory in order to maintain good and harmonious relation. In addition, this study makes further investigations into the implication of highlighting power-relation. On the one hand, emotionalized power-relation builds affective context and catalyze the production of affection. On the other hand, power-relation restrains the expression of affective meaning.