A Study Of The Application Of Pragmatic Presupposition In Business Conference Speeches

The concept of presupposition was first set forth by Frege, and it was originally an important issue in philosophy. Later it was introduced to the field of linguistics and became the focus of linguistic research. As presupposition relied on specific language structures, many linguists studied it as a semantic phenomenon in their previous research. While, with the rise of pragmatics and deep research into presupposition, presupposition was also elaborated by pragmatic theories and researchers have found that pragmatic presupposition has its unique function in communication, that is, it can be used as a strategy to convey information.Successful business English speeches are particularly important in promoting the development of China’s foreign trade and it is necessary to have a thorough study of business English speeches. While previous studies are mainly conducted from its stylistics, translation and writing. Few studies have been done from the perspective of pragmatic presupposition with business conference speeches as their research objects.Based on Zhi Yongbi’s relevant theoretical research in presupposition triggers, nominalization presupposition and evaluation of language, this thesis conducts a theoretical framework of analyzing the use of pragmatic presuppositions in business conference speeches from the perspectives of explicitly triggered pragmatic presuppositions and implicitly evaluative pragmatic presuppositions. Explicitly triggered pragmatic presuppositions are presuppositions triggered by presupposition triggers and those triggered by nominalization. Implicitly evaluative pragmatic presuppositions refer to those triggered by evaluative language resources and by pragmatic and cognitive factors such as discourse, context, speaker, and listener.The research data in this thesis are selected from the official websites of World Trade Organization (WTO), United Nations Conference on Trade and Development(UNCTAD) and Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation(APEC). And a corpus of business conference speeches of30pieces ranging from2009to2013is built. Qualitative and quantitative analysis are conducted to study the explicitly triggered pragmatic presuppositions and implicitly evaluative pragmatic presuppositions in business conference speeches mainly from lexical and syntactic level by the statistical tool AntConc.The research findings are as follows:First, Pragmatic presupposition are widely used in business conference speeches and they can be divided into explicitly triggered pragmatic presupposition and implicitly evaluative pragmatic presupposition.Second, at lexical levels, explicitly triggered pragmatic presuppositions are studied from presupposition triggers and nominalization presuppositions. Restrictive expressions and nominalization presuppositions are most frequently used compared with others to explicitly trigger pragmatic presupposition in business conference speeches. Speakers tend to use more change-of-state verbs than other kinds of verbs in business conference speeches. Within the scope of syntactical-based explicit pragmatic presupposition, comparative structures and temporal clauses are frequently used in business conference speeches.Third, at lexical levels, delivers choose evaluative nouns, verbs and adjectives to give voice to their thought or attitude to something. When it comes to the syntactical level of implicitly evaluative pragmatic presuppositions, subjects with no definite reference and negative structures are used by delivers to transmit evaluative meanings implicitly in business conference speeches.Theoretically, the research can extend the research range of pragmatic presupposition; the research perspective of business conference speeches can be diversified. Practically, feasible suggestions can be put forward for business speeches writers and speakers; translators and business conference participants can get inspirations to have a better understanding of business conference speeches.