An Analysis Of Innuendo From The Perspective Of Speech Act Theory

In daily communication, people express their thoughts and exchange feelings by utterance. When we utter a sentence, we not only make a true or false statement, but also perform an action, that is, “saying is doing”. While everyday conversation is not always expressed in positive or direct ways. One illocutionary act can be performed indirectly by way of performing another. People may make all kinds of indirect speech act to convey a special conversational implicature or achieve a special communicative purpose. Innuendo is one of such speech acts. Innuendo is a hint or sly, usually derogatory remark or an insinuation, which is widely used in literary works or daily communication.Recently, films and TV programs reflecting palace intrigues become more and more popular, whose dialogues are full of innuendoes. To appreciate such kind of programs, we have to perceive the implied meaning by combining the plot with its background information. This thesis makes a tentative study of the innuendo speech act in Empresses in the Palace under the guidance of Austin-Searle’s speech act theory. This study mainly analyzes the manifestation of innuendo, the The Illocutionary Force of Innuendo, felicitous conditions to understand innuendo and the perlocutionary acts to it.Innuendo is regarded as an indirect speech act, in which the speaker may perform one illocutionary force by performing another. In the process of communication, innuendo can avoid being censured or causing verbal dueling by conveying negative information through positive utterance. By innuendo, the speaker may use some rhetorical devices and idiomatic patterns, such as antiphrasis, analogy or pointing at one but abusing another to convey another illocutionary force of warning, mocking, satirizing, offending, and enraging.Indirectness and elusiveness are the prominent characteristics of innuendo. Therefore, the understanding of innuendo requires some premises. The hearer can not comprehend the implied meaning unless he has some shared background information with the speaker and is able to make inferences to the situations. Different understanding and different communicative purposes may lead to different responses to the innuendo speech act. The addressee may give expected responses by commenting on the topic given by the speaker or using another innuendo, or give unexpected responses for failing to recognize the implied meaning, even refuse to respond by changing the topic or keeping silence.