A Pragmatic Study Of Repetitions In Shi Hua Shi Shuo

Repetition refers that a word or linguistic units are repeated twice or more in a sentence or a paragraph. From the perspective of the surface structure, a repetition apparently does not offer any new information. However, from the perspective of deep structure, it can convey more implied meanings than other linguistic patterns. It is a kind of speech act with sufficient conversational implicatures and pragmatic functions. It is intentionally created to achieve the addresser's communicative intention.Talk Show (hereinafter shortened as TS) programs contain an abundance of repetitions. It is more meaningful and representative to do analyses of repetitions in this particular context. The data employed in the present study is collected from CCTV's Shi Hua Shi Shuo (hereinafter shortened as SHSS). In this thesis, the author attempts to make an analysis of repetition from the pragmatic approach, such as probing into its classifications, pragmatic functions, and deep reasons of its generation.Based on the study of repetitions in TS conversations, we have found that repetitions can be classified from four perspectives: at the level of its structure, the object, the location in the discourse and the purpose. From the perspective of its structure, repetitions can be divided into full repetition and partial repetition; with the object considered, it can be fell into two categories: self-repetition and allo-repetition (repeating others'utterance); with the location determined, it can also be classified into immediate repetition and intermittent repetition; and from the perspective of purpose, repetitions are sorted into sub-unconscious repetition and conscious one. So far as conscious repetitions are concerned, all of them in different forms are produced to achieve some contextual effects and accomplish the addresser's communicative intentions. Based on the study, we have found that pragmatic functions of repetitions can be split up into four parts: to enhance the illocutionary force of illocutionary act to make the utterance perform well; to enhance the stimulative intensity of important items to attract the addressee's attention; to highlight the linguistic pattern which is full of emotions to express the addresser's complex feelings; and to add new communicative information to trigger the addressee's thoughts and assessments.Repetition widely occurs in TS conversations. It is an ostensive action generated as an adaptation to the context (including physical world, social environment and psychological structure) and is generally considered as an effective pragmatic strategy because it can convey some communicative intentions and achieve some contextual effects in an effective way. According to the Relevance Theory (hereinafter shortened as RT), the essence of communication is ostension -inferential. In a communication, the addresser represents an utterance with a repetition (i.e. a verbal work as ostension) which offers the addressee an evidence to confirm the meaning of the utterance. On the side of the addressee, he/she makes an inference of the repetitive pattern with the principle of relevance and finally makes an implicative conclusion. The communication thus finishes. But implicatures of repetitions vary with the context. So it is safe to say that comprehension of repetitions goes along within the bonds of the context. In the process of repetition comprehension, a pragmatic inference of implicatures with the context is the key to achieve a successful communication.