A Study On Verbal Mock Impoliteness From The Perspective Of Rapport Management Theory

Mock impoliteness is a common phenomenon in daily social communication,and it is also a particular object of study in the field of pragmatics.Based on Haugh & Bousfield’s theory of Mock Impoliteness and Spencer-Oatey’s theory of Rapport Management,this thesis explores the verbal mock impoliteness of Wang from multi-dimensions in the 1987 TV drama A Dream in Red Mansions.Few studies have been done about A Dream in Red Mansions with mock impoliteness,most of them are text analyses.Using a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods and with the help of the software Praat,this thesis collects 25 samples about Wang that are considered verbal mock impoliteness,from which 23 verbal of mock impoliteness and 23 utterances of verbal non-mock impoliteness are extracted.This thesis tries to answer three questions: What are the social status of the participants? How does Wang communicate with participants reflected from the pitch and speed values? What are the components of rapport management violated and how are they violated? The research finds that:(1)Wang’s mock impolite language mostly appeared in conversations with lower social status people.(2)The pitch characteristics of Wang’s mock impolite words vary according to different social status.In conversations with people of the same social status or lower social status,the mock impolite pitch is higher than that of non-mock impolite words.In comparison,there is no expression of this characteristic in the mock impolite dialogue with people of higher social status.(3)Based on data analysis and Rapport Management Theory,the author finds that additional information,direct and strong language are the mostly used Rapport Management Strategies in Wang’s mock impoliteness language.The strategies used varies according to the interactional goals and context.The thesis can serve as a new completion in the discourse analysis of both mock impoliteness and Rapport Management Theory.The usage of the research tool Praat can also be seen as a supplement for mock impoliteness researching method.