A Conversational Analysis Of Fictions: A Perspective Of Speech Act Theory

Fictional conversation is a dispensable element in the forms of literature. It is simplyappreciated and comprehended as part of the literary forms in the prior researches. With theadvancing of pragmatics, its application is expanding the scope. Linguists make constantattempts to combine pragmatic theories with literary analysis. They break the literary textsinto utterances. The author of the thesis tries to interpret the utterance samples extracted fromthree classic short stories written by Hemingway from the perspective of Speech Act Theory.Furthermore, the functions of Speech Act Theory on the fictional conversation analysis arediscussed in detail.The creation of the fictional conversation is closely connected with the conversation inreal life. The fictional conversation is highly concentrated from its raw materials. It alsofollows verbal rules and communicative strategies. Both Austin and Searle regard utterancesas speech acts in their theories. In other words, to say something is to do something. Thefictional characters are also performing speech acts to imply their real purposes when theydeliver speeches. Samples for the study object in this thesis are selected from A Clean,Well-Lighted Place, Hills Like White Elephants as well as The Killers. The author makes aspecific analysis on some typical conversations in the works to reveal the real intention of thecharacters. The study in the thesis is an attempt to apply Speech Act Theory to fictionalconversation. Besides, its functions and significance on fictional conversation analysis areincluded as well. It functions as characterization, character relationship revelation and the plotdevelopment motivation.The fictional conversation is analyzed from the perspective of Speech Act Theory in thethesis, which may provide some theoretical and practical significance. It not only offers a newpragmatic perspective for the fictional conversation analysis, but also does a detailedcategorization on the functions of the Speech Act Theory. It can be concluded that this is anew attempt to study beyond the obvious.