A Pragmatic Approach To Questioning In TV Interview Programs-From The Perspective Of Linguistic Adaptation

These years have seen a growing increase in TV interview programs in China media, which provides a practical foundation for the current study. The research subject of the current study is the host's dynamic questing in Chinese TV interview programs. Based on the detailed analysis on the dynamic questioning in TV interview programs, the paper intends to throw light on the adaptation process and various pragmatic functions of such a special speech act. The focus of the present study is three representative TV interview programs-Duihua, Yang Lan One on One and Lu Yu You Yue. Interviewees of these three TV interview programs are political and business figures of critical importance as well as social celebrities.Based on the previous studies, the paper makes Verschueren (1999)'s Theory of Linguistic Adaptation as its theoretical foundation to construct its basic theoretical framework, which is supported by other three related theories:Speech Act Theory, Cooperative Principle and Politeness Principles. In accordance with these theories and its basic theoretic framework, the paper analyzes, describes and illustrates pragmatic functions and the adaptation process realized in the host's questing in TV interview programs.The analysis of the paper includes four aspects:the classification of questioning forms, pragmatic functions realized in the host's questioning, variability, negotiability and adaptability of the host's questioning as well as the dynamic adaptation process of questioning, which aims to answer the following questions:1.As a special speech act, can the host's questioning in TV interview programs realize related pragmatic functions? If it can, what pragmatic functions are realized? 2. As a special kind of language use, is the host's questioning in TV interview programs characteristic of variability, negotiability and adaptability? 3. Is the host's questioning in TV interview programs a dynamic adaptation process? If it is, how is it realized?Based on the above questions, the paper chooses the qualitative method with support of the quantitative method to carry out its analysis. After classifying and analyzing 747 pieces of questioning utterances from 24 episodes of TV interview programs, the paper summarizes four question forms and pragmatic functions of the host's questioning in TV interview programs. And then, based on this result, the paper continues to discuss variability, negotiability and adaptability of questioning, especially its dynamic adaptation process. Through the above detailed analysis, the study finds that the host's questioning can realize various pragmatic functions. Besides, it is also a dynamic adaptation process. That is, the host's questioning is made based on his/her conscious or unconscious adaptation to the interview setting, social conventions and his/her own psychological motivations. Based on these contextual constraints, the host chooses different adaptation strategies to utter his/her questioning to satisfy communicative needs as well as accomplish satisfactory communicative goals.Finally, in the part of conclusion, the paper makes some conclusions on its advantages and limitations as well as provides some suggestions for the further research.