A Contrastive Study Of Ironic Languages In English And Chinese Versions Of The Great Gatsby

The previous pragmatic studies on irony are often approached from the perspectives of cooperative principle, politeness principle, speech act theory, etc. This thesis explores ironic languages in English and Chinese versions of The Great Gatsby still from the perspective of speech act theory. It is aimed to answer the following three research questions:(1) What differences of macro and micro ironic speech acts are there in English and Chinese versions?(2) What pragmatic factors contribute to the differences?(3) What features of the performance of macro and micro ironic speech acts are there in English and Chinese versions?We classify data according to Van Dijk’s and Haverkate’s classification of ironic speech acts and analyze them with pragmatic linguistics and social pragmatics. The following findings are concluded:(1) The difference of macro-ironic speech acts lies in where the profoundness of the theme in the fiction demonstrated by the description of Tom’s and Gatsby’s living environment and life styles in Chinese version is not as obvious as that in English version. Macro-ironic speech acts are acts by which the writer presents his narration of heroes’ living environment and life styles which are different from the real poor living environment and life style of most people who are influenced by the Great Depression, to his readers. The narration in Chinese version by Wu Ningkun is consistent with that in English version, but because of the different living environment and life styles, Chinese readers are influenced by the Chinese living environment and life styles when understanding the theme demonstrated in the narration of Tom’s and Gatsby’s living environment and life styles, making the profoundness of the theme a little different. Therefore, it is not easy to obviously present the profoundness of the theme of satirizing an inflated America and its value in Chinese environment.(2) The differences of micro-ironic speech acts lie in the ironic force of three kinds of speech acts by the characters, which can be seen from two points. One point is that in the Chinese version the ironic force becomes stronger than that in the English version as result of the different connotation of Chinese phrases, the change of the subject in translated utterances and the change of a directive irony into an assertive one. The second is that the ironic force in translated texts becomes weak as result of the addition of an adversative conjunction, the addition of a subject and the translator’s literal translating style. There are social pragmatic factors and cultural contextual factors influencing the differences of micro-ironic speech acts. They are as follows:the importance of face, status reflected in occupations, collectivism, altruism, Chinese people’s characteristic of being implicit and the tradition of being harmonious preciously in Chinese culture.(3) The performance of the macro-ironic speech act is similar in two versions. However, in terms of the performance of micro-ironic speech act, the assertive irony is more commonly performed to express the implication more effectively than directive and expressive irony in Chinese version, while in English version such difference among the three kinds is not obvious.The research is practical to the improvement of cross-cultural communication in English and Chinese and the awareness of the difference of performing ironic speech acts between two languages is helpful to reduce the block of interpersonal communication in cross-cultures, contributing to harmonious interpersonal relationship.