Evasion As A Pragmatic Strategy In Chinese TV Talk Show

This thesis aims at conducting a comprehensive study on the deliberate use of evasion in Chinese TV interview, which is regarded as a communicative strategy and termed as "Pragmatic Evasion" (PE). In terms of methodology, this study belongs to a qualitative study based on the data collected from a popular Chinese talk show program "to tell like it is", which is considered authentic and natural. Concerning the conceptual framework, Verschueren's (2000) Linguistic Adaptation Theory is adopted as a basis and a new theoretical framework is constructed so as to analyze the adaptation realized in the evasion regarding the contextual correlates of topic and power and investigates the functions of PE with the help of politeness principle and face theory. In all, the investigation focuses on the variability, adaptability, and functionality of PE.As a communicative strategy, PE depends on various linguistic structures to realize its functions. Therefore, the speakers need to manipulate their language so as to choose a proper linguistic manner that can fulfill the strategy. Through careful observation of the data collected, the variability of pragmatic evasion is demonstrated, which falls into two big category, namely, the overt evasion and covert evasion based on the manifestation of the speaker's willingness to evade answering questions. In these two camps of evasion, there are still some subdivisions.If the revelation of linguistic variability provides the answer to the question of how responders evade the question, the discussion of the adaptive process deals with the driving force or reasons for this strategy, which answers the question of why responders choose to evade the question. It is found that pragmatic evasion is employed to adapt to various contextual factors which is mainly related to the social world in this paper. In the TV talk show, topic plays a crucial role as the responders keep restraining the information connected to certain topics such as money, assessment, etc. Another important element is power, which decides what kind of linguistic structures the responders adopt while evading the questions. From the analysis of contextual correlates, two significant conclusions are drawn.Having had a clear idea of how and why PE is exploited in verbal interaction, we want to know the pragmatic functions produced by it. If the effects are in the speaker's favor, we group the strategy as self-orientation; while when they are in others' favor, we label it as other-orientation. As for self-oriented function, PE can enhance the positive self-image, help the speaker maintain a harmonious relationship with others as well as mask negative information. On the other hand, the other-oriented effects mainly include the mitigation of face-threatening effects on others. Based on the findings of these pragmatic effects, a Evasion Principle which is composed of four maxims is generated.