A Relevance-adaptative Approach To Deliberate Misinterpretation In Verbal Communication

In verbal communication, misunderstanding occurs when the second speaker (S2) makes a misinterpretation without "prior intentionality", and it is usually regarded as unsuccessful communication and results from S2's inability to grasp the first speaker (S1)'s intended meaning. However, deliberate misinterpretation occurs when S2 correctly understands S1's intended meaning and deliberately chooses the interpretation diverging from the intended meaning of S1. It is considered as a kind of successful communicative strategy to achieve certain communicative purpose.The present study offers a comprehensive and convincing account of deliberate misinterpretation under the framework of the relevance- adaptation model. In light of the previous research, it is noticed that neither the relevance theory nor the linguistic adaptation theory can give a profound description of deliberate misinterpretation from the perspective of both utterance production and interpretation. Thus, the new relevance-adaptation model is put forward and the analysis of deliberate misinterpretation under the framework of the relevance- adaptation model can provide a special insight from the pointview of both utterance production and interpretation. This thesis provides analysis from the perspective of both S1 and S2 in verbal communication. On the one hand, it analyzes S2's motivations of deliberate misinterpretation in the process of verbal communication. On the other hand, it probes into S1's responses to S2's utilization of deliberate misinterpretation and the effects of deliberate misinterpretation.Besides, this thesis also explores the phenomenon of deliberate misinterpretation in terms of its triggers and conversational strategies to create deliberate misinterpretation. The triggers make it possible to provide the potential interpretations that might be deliberately diverging from the intended meaning of S1. Specifically speaking, the factors that can trigger deliberate misinterpretation can be summarized as follows:homonyms, homophones, deictic expressions, structural ambiguity, minimal information and conversational implicature. In terms of conversational strategies, two major categories are investigated in this thesis, namely topic management strategies, and turn-taking strategies. Its proper use of these conversational strategies can provide more opportunities to create deliberate misinterpretation and then achieve special communicative effects.The present research can not only offer us a better understanding of deliberate misinterpretation, but also shed light on other fields such as English classroom teaching.