Pragma-rhetoric Interpretation Of Syllepsis

Figures of speech are conventional language structures.Owing to their particularity and productivity,they have attracted the most attention from lots of researchers in the field of rhetoric.For their forms and functions,figures of speech are not singly particular in structure,but they are also particular approaches to modify language expressions.Syllepsis,as a kind of“simple form with long meaning”speech figures,in a sense,a kind of pragma-rhetoric device,has achieved much great pragmatic effects via quite simple forms so that they are popular among the language users.Syllepsis has been widely applied in the fields of advertising,press circles and some language TV programs.For example,an old news in May 16th,2014,titled“měi-nǚtīe shàng nǐ,búwèi tōu-xīn zhǐwèi tōu-qián”(“美女贴上你,不为偷.钱”,a beauty targets you not to steal your heart but your money),an advertisement about sports drink called“jiěkǒu-kě,gèng jiětǐ-kě,jiā-dé-lè”(“解口渴.,更解体渴.”, Jia Dele not only quenches mouth thirsty but also bodthirsty).Researches on syllepsis have been developed in the fields of rhetoric,cognitive linguistics, pragmatics and the philosophy of mind, such as, Yang Xingyi(1983) introduced syllepsis’ rhetorical features, Wei Zaijiang(2012) analyzed the syllepsis construction from the presupposition viewpoint, Xu Shenghuan(2007)discussed the “interrelating mechanism” based on syllepsis. The concrete discussion will be given in the second section of chapter two. Most studies reveal the academic research values of this particular figure. Nevertheless, the previous studies are quite far from a comprehensive analysis and there lies four main problems: it lacks a systematic and integrated study of syllepsis; study viewpoints are quite single, by and large, either from rhetoric viewpoint or semantic viewpoint; research scope is narrow because East-West differences are often overemphasized; prejudiced significant points of the study exist, expressed as just discussing the surface structure features or its rhetoric effects but not the internal operation mechanism underlyingtheir deep structures.The process of syllepsis’ production to its acceptance is also a communication process. This thesis first analyzes syllepsis’ production in the framework of RT, from the angle of relevance acquisition and relevance degree. In this process, syllepsis’ pragma-rhetoric characteristics will appear. Besides, emphasis also is laid on syllepsis’ understanding process through some relevance-inference strategies. This thesis consists of five chapters: Chapter One is the general introduction including research objective, rationale, methodology and layout of the study. The second chapter is literature review, beginning with syllepsis’ definition and classification,and followed by the current research. Then syllepsis’ grammatical, semantical and pragmatic characteristics are summarized. Finally the previous research limitations about syllepsis’ regonition are listed. The third chapter is the theoretical foundation,which mainly introduces RT. This chapter stresses the integration of RT, which is applied into the syllepsis study. The fourth chapter is the theory application,including the analysis of syllepsis’ production mechanis, recognition process and its pragma-rhetoric characteristics. The last chapter is the conclusion of the study which consists of the major findings, research limitations and future suggestions.There are four major findings: 1) the syllepsis expressions will be relevant at different degrees in terms of the grammatical structure, meaning, cognition or use..The degree is closely related to the cognitive environment of the interlocutors, their cognitive ability, context and some other factors; 2) syllepsis’ production goes along with its relevance realization, and its production is a process of searching relevance;3) during the process of relevance acquisition, syllepsis’ pragma-rhetoric characteristics appear in the form of its PMV; 4) through some relevanc-inference strategies, the hearer can obtain speaker’s intention to understand syllepsis.