An Analysis Of Pragmatic Ambiguity In The Sitcom Friends

Ambiguity is an inherent property of language and can not be avoided in every language. As a universal linguistic phenomenon, it has received wide attention and has been studies for many years at home and abroad, especially at the levels of phonology, lexis and syntax. However, the pragmatic ambiguity has not been attached great importance yet by the researchers.In view of the current study on pragmatic ambiguity which focuses on what pragmatic ambiguity is, this dissertation makes an attentive study on analysis of the production and the effects of pragmatic ambiguity in Friends which has been regarded as one of the best American sitcoms even since. The theories which are applied to analyze the pragmatic ambiguity in the study are deixis, co-operative principle, speech act theory, politeness theory and presupposition. From the perspective of these theories, language learners are given a clear picture of how pragmatic ambiguity in Friends is produced. And the methods of analysis, synthesis and comparison are applied to help analyze the instances of pragmatic ambiguity. With the detailed analysis of pragmatic ambiguity, it can be found that in the process of communication, pragmatic ambiguity is also unavoidable when there are unclear deictic words, violation of the co-operative principle, illocutionary force, purpose of politeness and different presuppositions etc.The dissertation is written for the purpose that language users can have a better understanding of pragmatic theories and pragmatic ambiguity, and can use language more smoothly and effectively. The research carried out in this dissertation is expected to offer some implications for English learning. It is also hoped to be inspiration to draw attention to more detailed and comprehensive study on pragmatic ambiguity.