| The Homecoming is the most successful and most popular play by Harold Pinter, the distinguished figure in Britain in the twentieth century. Indeed, sociological, stylistic, aesthetic, realistic, modernist, postmodernist and postcolonist views all prove to be applicable approaches in interpreting the play for the past century. As one of the most famous comedies, the play enjoyed most revivals for its conversations, or verbal texts. However there were few researches which apply pragma-stylistics to the play, which should be of significance and enlightening.The thesis, based on pragmatics, applies conversation analysis and cooperative principle (CA and CP) to the dramatic dialogue in The Homecoming. The breaking of CP in the conversation does not create any obstacle in the process of the communication, and, in fact, the breaking, in some way, means to cooperate, for the purpose of appealing to readers. By means of cooperative principle, the thesis reveals that respective status of Max, Lenny and Ruth in the family and finally concludes that Ruth is the kernel of family. Max, Lenny and Ruth's power in the conversation and their roles in creating dramatic conflicts are illustrated by analyzing turn-taking, adjacency pair, preferred option and silence in CA. By means of conversational strategy analysis on The Homecoming by Pinter, the present thesis concludes that pragma-stylstics, from a new prospective, helps to reveal the characterization as well as the theme the play conveys.Besides these, because of the similarities between dramatic dialogue and ordinary conversation, the study has enlightened English teaching. The concepts and application of turn number, turn length, adjacency pairs and silence help English learners efficiently communicate with each other in English. The understanding and mastery of cooperative principles could help us understand the exact meanings expressed by speakers and make real daily conversation carry out smoothly. |
