A Study Of Dialogues In The Kite Runner From The Perspective Of Adaptation Theory

Jef Verschueren’s Adaptation Theory claims that language use is a process of continuous making of linguistic choices. There are three properties of language: variability, negotiability and adaptability which help language users make appropriate choices in the process of communication. On the basis of Adaptation Theory, this thesis makes an elaborate investigation of the dialogues in The Kite Runner and explores the characters’personality, belief, and social relationship, and so on from the perspective of adaptation to the mental world, the social world and the physical world.The thesis is composed of five Chapters. Chapter One is an introduction to the research significance, research questions, research data, as well as the structure of the thesis. Chapter Two summarizes the functions of novel dialogues and reviews the previous studies on The Kite Runner. Chapter Three is the theoretical framework of the study. Chapter Four is an analysis of the dialogues in The Kite Runner in the framework of Adaptation Theory.In summary, there are two questions answered in the thesis. First, can Adaptation Theory interpret the literary characters’utterances effectively? Second, how do the literary characters’ utterances adapt to the mental world, social world and physical world? Therefore, the writer intends to conduct a qualitative case analysis in this thesis. With some dialogues in The Kite Runner as the data basis and Adaptation Theory as theoretical basis, this thesis chiefly gets involved with the adaptable analysis of dialogues in The Kite Runner, which gets a conclusion that the characters’utterances in the novel are the processes of intentional linguistic choice-making in order to meet their communicative needs.