| Deception, as a common pragmatic phenomenon, is frequently used in verbal communication. No one can ensure that he or she never deceives or is never deceived by others. Deception has long been a focus of interdisciplinary studies both at home and abroad, including psychology, sociology, rhetoric, and pragmatics and so on. However, a majority of scholars regard deception as an undesirable communication strategy, which is harmful to both speakers and receivers and should be prohibited. Thus, most research on deception focuses on uncovering the behavioral indicators to detect deception. Few studies pay attention to its actual use:its operating process, the motivation behind it and even its pragmatic value in daily communication. Therefore, the present thesis makes a study of deception in view of Adaptation Theory (1999) proposed by Jef Verschueren to explore its operating process, motivation and values in verbal communication.In his book Understanding Pragmatics, Jef Verschueren explains pragmatics from a fresh angle, which takes society, culture and cognition into account. As the core theory of Verschueren’s pragmatic perspective, Adaptation Theory holds the view that language use is a dynamic process of making different choices and language has three properties: variability, negotiability and adaptability. Four angles of investigation can be adopted to study language phenomenon from the perspective of adaptability:contextual correlates, structural objects, dynamics, and the salience of the adaptation processes.In the present thesis, the researcher chooses one popular TV play Modern Family as the source of data. The research questions concern how deception is realized in the process of communication, the motivations behind deception selection and the pragmatic values of using deception as a pragmatic strategy in verbal communication.Based on the qualitative analysis of dialogues collected from Modern Family, the researcher finds that deception, as a pragmatic strategy, is the outcome of dynamic linguistic choice made by language users with various degrees of salience, which is realized mainly in three ways:intentionally misrepresenting the true information which the speaker believes in; purposely withholding the pertinent information; and deliberately shifting the focus of the topic, thus creating the following pragmatic values: to avoid some awkward and unhappy situations, to maintain others’face and self-esteem, and to improve interpersonal relationships.This thesis has both theoretical and practical values. Theoretically, this thesis can further prove the applicability of Adaptation Theory for the study of deception in verbal communication on the one hand and, on the other hand, it helps people better understand the ways deception is realized in communication, motivations behind deception selection and the pragmatic values of deception in verbal communication, which will help communicators to gain better and comprehensive understanding of deception. What is more, the thesis provides a new perspective for future researchers engaged in the study of deception. Practically, this thesis arouses people’s interest in deception and deepens people’s awareness of the strategies employed in verbal communication, and guide people to achieve perfect communication and improve their communicative competence. |
