On The Deviation Of Cooperative Principle In Regular Press Conferences Of The Ministry Of Foreign Affairs Of China

The regular press conferences of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs play a vital part inexpounding China‘s view and stance on international hot-spot issues and propagatingChina‘s foreign policies. With the application of Grice‘s Cooperative Principle (CP), theauthor of this thesis has conducted a qualitative and quantitative analysis on thespokesperson‘s remarks so as to explore the effects to be achieved and what maxim isflouted to achieve each effect. All the data of this thesis stems from the official website ofChina‘s Ministry of Foreign Affairs from January1,2010to July1,2010at regular pressconferences, including49press conferences and706questions and answers.The research results show that in most cases, the spokesperson does not violate theCP.(accounting for47.8%of the total). However, there are normally four effects that thespokesperson wants to achieve by deviating from CP:1. The spokesperson wants to thoroughly avoid answering the question because thequestion is too sensitive to answer, the spokesperson has not learned relevant information,or it is beyond the spokesperson‘s duty to answer them;(accounting for18.7%of thetotal)2. The spokesperson wants to be polite so that he or she chooses the PolitenessPrinciple over CP;(accounting for2.7%of the total)3. The spokesperson flouts the maxim of quantity after a complete observation of CP,so as to further clarify China‘s position on relevant issues.(accounting for1.2%of thetotal)4. The spokesperson wants to indirectly respond to the question or state China‘sposition by violating CP and producing conversational implicature.(accounting for29.6%of the total)Therefore, in most cases, due to the complexity and sensitivity of the questions, thespokesperson has no choice but to violate the CP in their answers. Besides, one noticeablediscovery is that there are three types of flouting the maxim of quantity:1. merelyflouting the maxim of quantity;2. flouting the maxim of quantity after announcing theviolation of CP;3. flouting the maxim of quantity after a complete observation of CP. Itcan be seen that during China‘s course of peaceful development, her most frequentcompanions would be doubts, suspicions and misunderstandings. Because of that, thespokesperson often has to elaborate China‘s views and positions with the violation of themaxim of quantity for the purpose of avoiding misleading news and slanders. Therefore this research paper proves the availability of and also expands theapplication of pragmatics in studying the governmental news events.The pragmatic analysis of the questions and answers in the press conferences alsoenables us to gain more insight into the volatile international affairs, and to have a clearerpicture of China‘s independent foreign policy. At the mean time, it is also conducive inproviding advice and reference to all levels of government to improve their news releasesystems.