文学作品《纠正》的人物对话分析-礼貌原则和合作原则角度_英语论文

Analyzing the Dialogues in The Corrections: A Politeness and Cooperative Principle Perspective

摘要

《纠正》是乔纳森·弗兰岑的杰作，曾在2001年获得美国全国图书奖。小说通过圣诞节一家团聚过程中发生的种种情况，讲述了一个美国家庭中父母与孩子之间的冲突。在小说中，父母与孩子都认为对方的行为需要得到纠正。由于缺乏有效的沟通方式，他们之间的冲突愈演愈烈，而这些冲突往往体现在父母与孩子之间的对话之中。因此，本研究以《纠正》中的人物对话为研究对象，从礼貌原则和合作原则视角出发，分析冲突产生的原因，并为有效的言语交际提供建议。

言语交际是一种双边或多边的言语行为。为保证交际顺利进行，语言使用者必须共同遵守一些基本的语用原则，如格赖斯（H. P. Grice）提出的“合作原则”和利奇（G. N. Leech）等提出的“礼貌原则”。在对话中，人们常常为了保持礼貌而没有表达出本应传达的信息，即通过违反合作原则来遵守礼貌原则。本研究使用这两个原则下的各种次则，对《纠正》中的父亲阿尔弗雷德与儿子奇普之间的节选对话进行了分析。通过对话中合作原则与礼貌原则的违反与遵守，揭示对话的真正会话含义，本研究尝试从新的角度帮助读者更好地理解小说中的人物性格及人物关系，同时也对父母与儿女之间有效的言语交际提供一些参考与建议。

通过分析发现，《纠正》中父子之间的关系较为疏远，父亲固执，儿子虽然表面顺从但实际反叛，双方都缺乏有效的沟通方式，最终造成了父亲与儿子之间的矛盾。结果表明，在家庭言语交流中，合作原则和礼貌原则都有着重要的作用；但当遇到重大决策时，父母和孩子应当尽量坦白各自的想法，建立起有效的沟通才有利于问题的解决。

关键词：人物关系；合作原则；礼貌原则；有效沟通

Abstract 

The Corrections, which has once won the American National Book Award in 2001, is a masterpiece of Jonathan Franzen. The novel shows conflicts between parents and children through several troubles which happen during the process of their Christmas’ reunion. Both parents and children feel that the behavior of each other needs to be corrected. On account to the lack of effective communication, conflicts between them become increasingly intensified, which are often shown in dialogues. Therefore, the present study chose dialogues in The Corrections as the object to analyze the causes of conflicts from the perspective of Politeness Principle and Cooperative Principle, trying to provide advices for effective verbal communication.

Verbal communication is a kind of bilateral or multilateral speech act. In order to ensure the smooth progress of communication, language users must abide by some basic pragmatic principles, such as Cooperative Principle proposed by H. P. Grice and Politeness Principle proposed by G. N. Leech et al. In conversation, people often don’t express whole message that they need to convey in order to be polite, that is, to comply with Politeness Principle by violating Cooperative Principle. The study analyzed the selected dialogues between Alfred (the father) and Chip (the son) by using several Maxims under Cooperative Principle and Politeness Principle. Through the violation of Cooperative Principle and the observance of Politeness Principle, the analysis revealed the real implicature in the dialogues between Alfred and Chip, trying to help readers to have better understanding on their characters and relationship from a new aspect and provide some advice for effective verbal communication between parents and children. 

It can be found in the analysis that the relationship between Alfred and Chip in The Corrections is relatively estranged. Alfred is a stubborn father while Chip is relatively rebellious with superficial obedience when facing Alfred. Eventually the lack of effective communication causes increasing conflicts between them. Results of the analysis show that both Cooperative Principle and Politeness Principle play important roles in the verbal communication among families; however, it’s better to express real thoughts directly between parents and children when facing important decision, which helps to achieve effective communication and solve problems.

Keywords: character relationship, Cooperative Principle, Politeness Principle, effective communication

Contents

摘 要

Abstract

Acknowledgements

Chapter One  Introduction 1

1.1 Background of the study 1

1.2 Objectives of the study 1

1.3 Method of the study 2

1.4 Organization of the writing 2

Chapter Two  Literature Review 4

2.1 Introduction 4

2.2 Studies on stylistics 4

2.2.1 Development abroad 4

2.2.2 Studies at home 5

2.3 Pragmatic principles 6

2.3.1 Cooperative Principle 6

2.3.2 Politeness Principle 7

2.4 The Corrections 8

2.4.1 Introducing The Corrections 8

2.4.2 Studies on The Corrections 8

Chapter Three  Data Collection and Analysis 10

3.1 Data collection 10

3.2 The background of the selected dialogue 10

3.3 Analysis from the perspective of Alfred 11

3.3.1 The violation of Quality Maxim 11

3.3.2 The violation of Manner Maxim 13

3.4 Analysis from the perspective of Chip 14

3.4.1 The violation of Quantity Maxim 14

3.5 The relationship and characters 16

Chapter Four  Conclusion 18

4.1 Findings 18

4.2 Some advices based on the analysis of the ineffective communication 18

4.3 Significance of the present study 18

4.4 Limitations 19

References 20

Appendix 21