| Empathy, which originated in German aesthetics with the meaning of "feeling into", has been studied in aesthetics, psychology, psychotherapy, linguistics and so on. Since Kuno first introduced the concept of empathy into the field of linguistics, empathy strategy in linguistic communication has been discussed and studied from diverse angles.This thesis chooses interpersonal meta-function of systemic functional linguistics as the research angle and tries to explore empathy strategy of language use in combination with interpersonal meanings conveyed by empathy. In terms of realization forms, empathy is expressed as choice from a potential system of linguistic options; in terms of role in communication, empathy strategy carries out interpersonal function and is used to facilitate the smooth progress of exchange.Empathy strategy lies essentially in the selection of the empathetic expressions on the basis of specific communicative context. To be specific, empathy strategy in linguistic communication can be viewed as a process in which the addressor deliberately makes linguistic choices to the addressee’s benefit by adapting to the interpersonal context, in order first to make himself/herself accepted by the addressee emotionally, then to make his/her ideas which may be different from the addressee’s more easily accepted by the addressee, and ultimately to achieve his/her own communicative goals.The corpus for analysis in the research is comprised of five English interviews conducted by American mainstream media. The interviewees involved, though all public figures, have their respective spheres of activity and differ in their social backgrounds. Analysis of empathy strategy employed in selected linguistic data is mainly conducted on the levels of linear order, lexical items, mood system, modality system and appraisal system. The idea of choice underlies the formal analysis of empathy strategy of language use.Based on the detailed analysis of linguistic materials, the thesis proceeds to look at the interpersonal context factors on which empathetic strategy-choosing is dependent. At the same time, it attempts to explain that linguistic empathy actually interacts with interpersonal context factors and their mutual relationship is a dynamic one. Afterwards, the Interpersonal nature of empathy choice is explored. Linguistic empathy is in essence a device that the speaker utilizes to adapt to interpersonal context factors in the process of communication; it is motivated by modification and promotion of interpersonal relationship, and accordingly conveys interpersonal meanings.On the whole, interpersonal meta-function developed by systemic functional linguistics provides a comparatively reasonable research angle for the exploration of linguistic empathy. |
