Investigating Pragmatics of Complaint Speech Acts in English and Chinese

The speech act of complaint is an important research subject of pragmatics,which is worthy of research among speech acts.With the development of research into speech acts,some scholars have performed investigations of complaints,but they have done little work on Chinese language complaints.Therefore,it is necessary to make a further study on complaint as a speech act in Chinese.This thesis is based on speech act theory and the politeness principle as an empirical study of the speech act of com plaint in Chinese.It aims to provide a more complete and comprehensive result of participant production of the speech act of complaint.     

Refusal Speech Acts in Chinese and American English

Refusals are frequently performed in our daily lives.Based on the speech act theory of Austin and Searle,with the theoretical frame of the politeness theory put forward by Brown and Levinson,It presents a comparative study of speech acts of refusal in Chinese and American English.The results show that refusals vary in directness with situations and cultures;On the one hand,both languages employ the three directness types,namely the direct refusal speech act,ability of negation and indirect refusal speech act,and prefer indirect refusals.The situational variability of directness in both languages follows a similar trend.On the other hand,Americans are more direct than Chinese.Furthermore,Chinese shows the lower degree of situational variation in the use of the three directness types.People’ s choices of refusal strategies are influenced by social power and social distance.From all these evidence,we maintain that the cross-linguistic differences are due to basic differences in cultural values.     

A Pragmatic Study of Business English Advertisement from the Perspective of Cooperative Principle

Business English advertisement is a special form of speech act.It is very different from literary language and scientific language.This paper focuses on the analysis of the use of cooperation principle in business English advertisements,and explores how advertisers inspire potential customers to have psychological resonance,so as to urge them to buy products or services.     

A Stylistic Analysis of Michelle Obama’s Speech at the Democratic National Convention

Delivering a public speech is to produce a work of verbal art.As other kinds of art,the intelligent use of techniques along with rich and true feelings makes public speech attractive.On September 4th,Michelle Obama addressed a speech at the Democratic National Party Convention for his husband-Barack Obama’s re-election.In the speech,many stylistic techniques are employed that deserve a specific analysis to exhibit what they are,and how they help the speech win an active reaction from the audience.The analysis will be carried out from four perspectives,namely,phonological,lexical,syntactical and semantic analy ses.     

Is Hamlet Contemplating Suicide?

Does the question to be or not to be for Hamlet is whether to continue to exist or not?Is Hamlet contemplating suicide?The meaning of this famous speech in Shakespeare’s Hamlet has been given numerous interpretations.This essay focuses on the paradoxical emotion of Hamlet and intends to make a comprehensive analysis of this soliloquy.     

Metaphor in Advertising Language from Systemic Functional Grammar Perspective

Metaphor is a common phenomenon in real life.It refers to a figure of speech in which an implied comparison is made between two unlike things that actually have something in common.As for advertising,foreign studies focus on the analysis of ap plication and effects of metaphor.Based on the historical and current studies on metaphor,this paper aims at analyzing metaphor and its functions in advertising from systemic functional grammar perspective.It pointed out that metaphor,a rhetoric method in advertising language,has many functions,namely,politeness,imagination,subjectivity,objectivity,and textual cohesion,etc.Thus,metaphor can be seen as an important sales strategy,helping the advertisers to establish a good interpersonal relationship with the target audience so as to reach their business aims.In addition,it is also of great importance in that it can stimulate our in terest to learn English,and help us to improve English reading,understanding and writing.     

The Farther Image of the Hotel Keeper in Cat in the Rain—Analyze with Speech Act Theory

It analyzes the father image of the hotel keeper in Hemingway’s short story Cat in the Rain from the perspective of Speech Act Theoy.Firstly,it presents the frame work of Speech Act Theory.According to Austin,there are two types of sentences: performatives and constatives.Yule further presents the action performed by producing an utterance will consist of three related acts: locutionary act,illocutionary act,and perlocutionary act.Then it analyzes respectively the speech act of the husband,the hotel keeper,and the wife.Through the analysis,the daughter image of the wife and the coldness of the husband the reveal and accentuate the father image of the hotel keeper who is considerate to his daughter and gives his daughter selfless love.Furthermore,it unfolds a broader horizon for readers to understand and appreciate the story.     

The Characteristics of Speech Act Theory and TEFL

In this presentation, a brief introduction sgiren to the speech act theory through examples.Lights are thrown on the importance of speech act theory in TEFL to develop the students communicative competence.     

An Analysis of the Ballad of the Sad Café from the Perspective of Grei mas’Semiotic Square

Greimas’s Semiotic Square is a new approach in analyzing literary works.Based on Sassure and Jacnson’s claim on binary opposition,Gereimas extends it to four actants and adds contradictory relationships.By assign meanings to the four actants,an analysis of the complicated relationship between the roles in a text can be made and a revelation of the theme of the text can be realized.Previous studies of this novel take it as an excellent work revealing loneliness and isolation is thought to be the basic condition of human existence.Other study covers the effects of the unrequited love.Quiet differently,this paper tries to interpret this novel by Greimas’semiotic square and thereby revealing the widely accepted theme of this novel that isolation and loneliness is the final destiny of human being in modern society.     

The criminal act as means of lust： The will and the death in culture

Crime, which is an intriguing aspect of the human condition, has been the object of great concern amongst many modalities of knowledge. Even when dealing with the so-called ＂primal crime＂, dissolution is what always results. If people understand the primal crime of the mythical father as the necessary condition to cross from a horde to a clan state, eventually reaching a fraternal group state, then they should also understand that the social bond, which results from this action, brings in its kernel the scars of irreversible destruction. Freud＇s tyrannical father was murdered because he kept absolute enjoyment for himself, yet this crime did not set free the authors of the crime from their own enjoyment. The dynamics of the criminal act as a means of lust has been studied with the intent of articulating both perverse subjectivation and the pervert act, as well as considering the convict＇s standing in social relationships. Symbolization of reality and temporality are significantly altered by imprisonment, due mainly to lack of scopes and systematic conveying references which reflect reality. The study related to the temporal being of detainees is inferred as to better portray questionings on temporal subjection. The analysis of the discourse production lead to conclude： （1） When it is destined to penal institutions, the condemned lose pace with time （time halts）; （2） Interns must render time objective （produce time）. Rebellion and fights may be endeavors to create rhythm to register time, wherein, the desire to live time is, desperately, externalized; （3） Penal work is a time-reducing factor of imprisonment, therefore, time acquires objective and exchangeable value for the interns; and （4） Three worlds unfold and introduce themselves from the very moment when the imprisoned take place within a penal institution. The internal scope of the penal unit is propagated by the interns as being the inside world, exterior social context and relationships thereof are known as the outside world and the world of crime abides essentially different temporality notions. Within the inside world time halts, in the outside world time escapes and the crime world dimensions time is as time itself.