Mitigating Strategies Of Interviewees In Job Hunting TV Shows: An Adaptation-based Approach

This thesis is a pragmatic analysis of the mitigating strategies of interviewees injob-hunting TV shows. It is aimed at classifying the mitigating strategies, disclosingthe contextual correlates which constrain them, and exploring the major functions.The author adopts Caffi‘s taxonomy of mitigating strategies. It is discovered thatinterviewees tend to employ a) bushes (i.e. understaters and epistemic modals) toreduce the precision of the proposition, so as to mitigate negative effects, b) hedges(i.e. subjectivizers, truth claimers, deprecators and hesitators) to reduce theillocutionary force and the imposition on the hearers, c) shields (i.e. evidentials andconditionals) to conceal information source and shift topic, so as to shirk theirresponsibilities for the utterance and reduce face threat of hearers. Furthermore, it isfound that of all the strategies, understaters, epistemic modals and subjectivizers aremost frequently employed, and that mitigating strategies are more frequently used insuccessful cases than in unsuccessful cases.Meanwhile, based on Verschueren‘s adaptation theory, this thesis makes effortsto explore the contextual factors to which mitigating strategies are employed as anadaptation. To be specific, the analysis is conducted from three main aspects, namelymental factors, social factors and physical factors. The mental factors involveinterviewers‘intention, interviewers‘negative emotions, interviewee‘s wish ofself-protection. The social world concerns interviewers‘power and such social valuesas modesty and honesty. The physical world mainly involves temporal deixis andspatial deixis.Moreover, the author finds that it is the major functions of mitigating strategiesthat facilitate the interviewees‘success in finding a job. The functions involve threeaspects, namely interrelationship strengthening, self-protecting and persuading.To sum up, this study explores the frequently used mitigating strategies, the contextual factors constraining them and the pragmatic functions. It is hoped thatfurther research will be carried out at a deeper level.