Analysis On The Conversations In Emma From The Perspective Of Adaptation Theory

According to Belgian linguist Jef. Verschueren's new masterpiece Understanding Pragmatics, language use can be defined as the continuous making of linguistics choices by adapting to various communicative contexts. Emma Woodhouse, a heroine in famous English novelist Jane Austen's representative work—Emma. Based on Verschueren's theory, the present study mainly analyzes the speech strategy of Emma from the perspective of communicative context of Verschueren's Adaptation Theory. This study indicates that Emma makes a dynamic contextual adaptive choice to realize her communication purpose. Theoretically, the study enlarges the vision of linguistic studies and further broadens and deepens the studies on the character's utterances in foreign literary works. Practically, it enable us have a better understanding of Emma and enhance our communication capabilities.