An Analysis Of Verbal Offence Among Neighbors Within The Framework Of The Relevance Theory

Verbal offence, which disadvantages listeners or causes psychological hurts by using language to conduct offence to listeners or those closely related to listeners(such as relatives), is a common speech act in human communication. Though quite common, it does not have enough exploration, because researchers have for a long time regarded verbal offence as a negative speech act which is quite different from what they proposed-the politeness. While, the author of the thesis suggests that as a widely-accepted speech act, verbal offence is vital and necessary and the studies of verbal offence are expected to get positive effects.This thesis aims to explore verbal offence, the less investigated subject within the framework of the Relevance Theory that is proposed by Sperber and Wilson. Based on the data that are collected from TV series Country Love, language devices of verbal offence among neighbors will be found out. The production and the interpretation of verbal offence will be illustrated within the framework of the Relevance Theory. At the same time, several methods to counter verbal offence among neighbors will be proposed in expecting to get positive effects. Based on the research objects, the thesis adopts qualitative research methods. All the data that are recorded down come from TV series Country Love.According to the Relevance Theory, communication is ostensive. The thesis first explores the two language devices that may trigger verbal offence-dirty languages and aggressive languages. The author of the thesis holds that cursing and insulting words belong to dirty words, and sarcasm and irony belong to aggressive languages. The Relevance Theory believes that what the speaker says is relevant to his intentions. The author of the thesis believes that self-boasting, criticism may trigger indirect verbal offence. In specific contexts, utterances that express intimacy and politeness may be misunderstood as verbal offence. Communication is an inferential activity. The thesis explores the cognitive contexts of verbal offence among neighbors from lexical information, encyclopedia entries and instant surroundings. The interpretation of verbal offence among neighbors is illustrated based on the previous classification of verbal offence. The author holds that the understanding of Speaker-Intentional Listener-Received verbal offence depends on the mutual manifestness of the cognitive contexts, that is, the speaker and the listener have the same cognitive contexts when understanding the sentence. While, Speaker-Intentional Listener-Unreceived verbal offence occurs because the listener does not have the same cognitive contexts with the speaker. Speaker-Unintentional Listener-Interpreted verbal offence occurs because the listener put more assumptions that are not relevant into sentence understanding. At the end, the ways to counter offence, such as interrogate sentences, countering offence by conducting offence and topic-shifting and silence, are put forwarded. These ways are expected to be significant in countering offence.Theoretically, the thesis enriches the studies of the Relevance Theory by involving verbal offence into discussion. Practically, the thesis discusses the practical issues:verbal offence among neighbors. The analysis is expected to provide positive methods to maintain harmonious relationships among neighbors.