A Study Of White Lies From The Perspective Of Adaptation Theory

As a common linguistic phenomenon, white lies play a certain role in human verbalcommunication. The study of white lies belongs to the category of the study of lies. Sincemany scholars pay their attention to the study of lies from different perspectives in recentyears, some scholars also begin to study the phenomenon of white lies. Some researchers payclose attention to the definitions, features and classifications of white lies, and others doresearches by using pragmatic and cognitive theories. But the previous researchers only focuson the static description of white lies or partly explain this phenomenon through othertheories. They fail to give this language phenomenon a comprehensive and systematicexplanation from the general perspective. This thesis attempts to explain the phenomenon ofwhite lies from four aspects within the guidance of Adaptation Theory under Verschueren’spragmatic perspective.The use of white lies is closely related to the cognitive, social and mental factors, and itis a dynamic process which is influenced by the constantly changing communicative context.Verschueren’s Adaptation Theory is a theory of investigating the pragmatic issues from ageneral perspective of social, mental and cognitive factors, therefore, it can give a morepersuasive explanation to white lies. The present study can also help communicators usewhite lies correctly and properly in order to improve their communicative competence andmake sure the communication can be completed smoothly for special intentions. Theexamples of this thesis are mainly selected from three aspects: fragments of dailycommunication, literature works and TV programs.The use of white lies is a process of continuous choice-making and also a result ofadaptation so as to fulfill certain communicative intentions. In order to achieve thosecommunicative purposes, utterers choose white lies as their strategy to adapt to the specificcommunicative context, including the physical world, the social world and the mental world.Beyond the context, the language user should also make adaptation to the language structurein the process of organizing white lies. That is to say, people should make choices from different levels of structure in the communication. As communicative contexts change, theuse of white lies has the dynamic adaptability, which makes adaptation to the context andstructure, to flexibly arrange the structures of utterances. In the end, by analyzing therelationship between white lies and salience, this thesis holds that the employment of whitelies is a highly conscious choice-making which aims at fulfilling specific communicativeintentions.The present study reveals that the Adaptation Theory can provide a powerful theoreticalframework for the scientific explanation of white lies. Another conclusion is that the use ofwhite lies is a continuous and dynamic process of choice-making. It is a pragmaticphenomenon with high consciousness while dynamically making adaptation to the contextand structure. Meanwhile, by using white lies, people can create and maintain harmoniouspersonal relationship to some extent with others.