A Sociolinguistic Study On Wulitou In Zhou Xing's Films

If we look closely at all the researches which are done by researchers abroad and at home from a sociolinguistic perspective, most of researches concentrate on conventional linguistic phenomena. However, unconventional linguistic behaviors do really exist in reality. The study on unconventional linguistic behaviors can also enrich our researches, too. Furthermore, those irregular or unconventional linguistic variations can reveal the close impact of a variety of social factors. Wulitou(hereafter WLT) is one of those conventional linguistic behaviors. WLT refers to a particular language phenomenon existent in the films starring Zhou Xingchi which is characterized by the deconstruction of some Chinese traditions culturally, the propaganda of anti-heroism psychologically, irrational and nonstandard thoughts logically. It is quite popular with some people and imitated by them. So it is quite necessary to conduct some research on WLT. This thesis only focuses on WLT in Zhou Xingchi's films. Starting from a sociolinguistic approach, the research aims to investigate the patterns of prototypical deviations in WLT and analyze the reasons for WLT's emergence and popularity and discuss special communicative effects as well as its weaknesses. This thesis uses the dialogues from some influential films of Zhou Xingchi as data tomake a qualitative study of WLT.As far as WLT's prototypical deviation patterns are concerned, Prototype Theory developed by Eleanor Rosch in the 1970s is adopted as theoretical framework. Combined with the fact that prototype is shaped by social and cultural factors and dependent on context, this thesis summarizes six prototypical deviation patterns. They are social role prototype deviation, classic prototype deviation, general prototype deviation, social convention prototype deviation, register prototype deviation and thought pattern prototype deviation.Various social factors underlie WLT's existence and popularity. This thesis finds that the reasons for WLT's existence derive from special cultural characteristics and political background, post modernism's influence and broad transmission of mass culture. And the reasons for WLT's popularity with youngsters include peculiar psychological feature, their specific birth and growth background, their troubles, and easy success pattern propagated by WLT filmsNow people have different evaluations on WLT. How to evaluate WLT objectively is also a question to answer. This research makes a brief summary of WLT's charms and weak points. As regards WLT's charms, WLT can express rich social meanings and produce effective communicative effects such as preventing face from being threatened, expressing subtle emotions and being sagacious. Thus WLT is not as badas some people criticize and not as perfect as some youngsters say. Whether WLT can finally be accepted by the society still needs some time to test.