The Pragmatic study of the Means of Deliberate Misinterpretation in Verbal communication

Abstract：Verbal Communicative Strategies is one of the most important issues of Pragmatics. Strategy can be described from different perspectives. But in the actual verbal communicative process， the occurrence of some unexpected circumstances can lead to misunderstanding. The research of deliberate misinterpretation can help us better and more successfully complete communication activities and facilitate utterances.

Key words：deliberate misinterpretation； verbal communication； context

1. Introduction

Language is an important approach to communicate with each other. Also there are many different methods and ways in perspective of Pragmatics. A deliberate misinterpretation happens when the hearer or the second speaker correctly understands the three processes which the first speaker conveys. The hearer subsequently produces an utterance which in some purposely employed to convey the mismatch between the first speaker and hearer. Through doing so， the hearer satisfies certain communicative needs of his own. Thus， the strategy adopted by the second speaker as a whole is called a deliberate misinterpretation.

2. Means of Deliberate Misinterpretation

Language use entails the continuous making of linguistic choices， consciously or unconsciously， for language-internal and language-external reasons. These linguistic choices can be situated at any level of linguistic structuring （ Verschueren， 1999）.

2.1 Deliberate violation of the law of identity

Generally， as a human being， everyone wants to keep his language rationally and logically.

One way of violating the law of identity in concept ，it could distort the meaning of some words， because some words have different meanings and connotations in different situations. If you in line with the law of identity， you must conform to the same meaning during the whole conversation no matter when thinking and speaking. By distortion， speaker may use the different meaning of the word in the same conversation to confuse the hearer， this is the deliberate misinterpretation. Distortion lies in changing the explanation of the original form. The other way is violating the law of identity in judgment. In this way， you can use different means to achieve the specific intention. Such as， shifting the point； change the topic. When the first speaker wants to know something， he would ask a question and then the hearer would answer the question， but actually the second speaker or the hearer would not answer directly， he would tell the answer from the other perspectives.

2.2 Deliberate violation of the context

Language is closely related to the situation， because the context can help determining the meaning of the utterance. Actually an utterance includes not only the settled part but also the non-linguistic knowledge.

One way of violating the context is to ignore the speech situation. A successful communication is achieved when the communicator understand the utterance and produce a communicative act or speech act in a concrete situation. However， in some conversation， the second speaker can correctly catch the illocutionary force of the first one， but he gives a response as if he ignores the situation so that he can achieve his communicative needs. Another way of violating the context is to be overliteral. Most of the utterances in daily conversation are loose talks which are full of pragmatic vagueness of approximation， fuzziness， generality， ambiguity， ambivalence， and which are full of metaphorical use， with vague concepts of metaphor， meiosis， irony， hyperbole， etc.（He Ziran，2003）.

3. Conclusion

When one chooses deliberate misinterpretation as his communicative strategies， he is supposed to believe that his decision is effective， efficient and proper in the situation. These are the prerequisites to deliberate misinterpretation， including mutuality of beliefs or assumptions， the consistency of searching for relevance and triggers in utterance. Language is a dynamic process of adaption between linguistic forms and context. Deliberate misinterpretation is a contextual strategy and affected by the social settings， social norms， and power relationships， emotions， motivations， etc.. The function of deliberate misinterpretation is especially reveal by the discrepancy and implicitness that result from its negotiation with the context.

【References】

[1] He， Z， R. （2003）. Notes on pragmatics. Nanjing Normal University Press.

[2] Leech， G. （1983）. Principles of pragmatics， Longman： London.

[3] Sperber， D. & Wilson， D. （1986/1995）. Relevance： Communication and cognition. Oxford； Blackwell.

【作者簡介】

庞佳佳（1992—），女，汉族，山西大同人，贵州师范大学外国语学院外国语言学及应用语言学专业硕士研究生。