The Meaning Predictability Of Interlocutors’Responding Utterances In Conversation

It has been observed that we can generally predict what will come next in a logical sequence. In a conversational turn, we may also predict more or less what the next utterance might be like. The prediction of subsequence seems, if not is, irresistibly inviting in the mind of interlocutors. In response to these observations, we come to wonder whether or not verbal communication is predictable. In other words, we intend to inquire whether or not the meaning in verbal communication is predictable. The present study is directed on the meaning measurement in conversation and attempts to disclose the mechanism of meaning predictability through a study of a civil case.Generally speaking, the research on meaning prediction in the present study involves the following four aspects:the prediction for forms of discourse, the prediction for meaning inference, the prediction for relevance in discourse and the prediction for coherence lines.After a comprehensive review on the existing studies on meaning measurement and courtroom discourse, the mechanism of meaning-predictability is disclosed in three dimensions:a detailed description of meaning prediction process, a varied scale of meaning predictability rate and a suggested model of meaning prediction. Besides, the present study is an empirical one with practical implication. Consequently, the meaning-predictability mechanism will be testified in a civil case in the United Kingdom. This application is represented in the following three methods: inference and predictability, question forms and predictability as well as presupposition and predictability. In addition, three relevant elements in meaning prediction, namely logic sequencing, prefabricated chunks and common intelligibility, are testified and illustrated in the presupposition and predictability section.The thesis consists of five chapters and the main contents are as follows. Chapter one briefly presents the thesis statement, the background, the purposes as well as the significance of making this research so as to define what the present study is intended for. Chapter two reviews the existing studies both on meaning measurement and courtroom discourse. The purpose of this chapter is to clarify what has been done and what has to be done in measuring conversational meaning. Chapter three discloses the mechanism of meaning-predictability in the following three dimensions:a detailed description of meaning prediction process,a varied scale of meaning predictability rate and a suggested model of meaning prediction. Chapter four applies the meaning-predictability mechanism to a civil case in which three methods have been adopted in the meaning-prediction process, namely inference and predictability, question forms and predictability as well as presupposition and predictability. Chapter five draws the conclusion and presents the findings and implications of present research. In addition, limitations and suggestions for further study are also proposed.