摘 要

合作原则是语用学的核心理论之一，对话语交际研究具有重要指导意义。以外交部新闻发言人例行记者会为例，本文旨在从合作原则的角度来详细分析中国政府记者招待会中的会话含义。首先，本文将分别探讨记者招待会和合作原则；然后再结合合作原则对外交部新闻发言人例行记者会中的部分对话节选进行分析，探究外交部例行记者会中合作原则的违反及由此产生的会话含义；最后进行总结。这种深度分析能使人们更加理解外交语言的技巧和含义，加深对语用原则的理解，也揭露了将语用学理论运用于政府新闻事件的实用性和益处。

关键词：中国政府记者招待会；合作原则；会话含义

Abstract

Cooperative Principle (CP) is one of the major theories in pragmatics and it has great significance in guiding studies of communication. Taking regular press conferences of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China for example, this paper aims to give a detailed analysis of the Conversational Implicature (CI) in Chinese government press conferences from the perspective of CP in pragmatics. First, it will discuss press conference and Crice’s CP respectively. Then, based on the CP, it will study various excerpts from regular press conferences of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China, and analyze the violation of CP maxims and clarify the CI generated. Finally, the conclusion will be provided. This kind of deep analysis can make the public better understand skills and meaning of the diplomatic language, deepen the understanding of pragmatic principles, as well as reveal the availability and benefits of applying pragmatic principles to government news events.

Key Words: Chinese government press conferences; Cooperative Principle; Conversational Implicature

Contents

1 Introduction 1

1.1 Press Conference 1

1.2 Purpose and Significance of the Study 3

2 Literature Review 5

2.1 Theoretical Framework 5

2.1.1 Grice’s Cooperative Principle 5

2.1.2 Four Maxims of Cooperative Principle 5

2.1.3 Violating Cooperative Principle and Producing Conversational Implicature 6

2.2 Studies on Cooperative Principle 9

2.3 Studies on Press Conferences 11

3 Research Methods 14

3.1 Research Questions 14

3.2 Data Collection and Selection 14

4 Analysis of Conversational Implicature in Regular Press Conferences 16

4.1 Violation of Quantity Maxim 16

4.1.1 Providing Less Information than Is Required 16

4.1.2 Providing More Information than Is Required 19

4.2 Violation of Quality Maxim 21

4.2.1 Irony 21

4.2.2 Rhetorical Questions 22

4.3 Violation of Relevance Maxim 22

4.3.1 Making Associations 23

4.3.2 Giving Hints 24

4.4 Violation of Manner Maxim 27

4.4.1 Incomplete or Elliptical Sentences 27

4.4.2 Ambiguous or Vague Sentences 27

5 Conclusions 31

References 33

Acknowledgements 35

Analysis of Conversational Implicature in Chinese Government Press Conferences

1 Introduction

1.1 Press Conference

This paper is an analysis of Conversational Implicature in the Chinese government press conference which belongs to the category of press conferences. Thus, it is going to focus on the general introduction of press conferences first.

The press conference is usually called news conference in daily life. It is a special media event with a certain scale held by social community, government departments or individuals where a bunch of journalists are invited. And the government press conference is the most formal and influential kind of press conference. The press conference has functions as follows.

First of all, it serves as an effective channel for the host to publicize its important information to the public. This is the basic function of a press conference and the basis of its existence. If a press conference can not perform this function, it means the failure of this conference (Gao, 2009). Thus, a press conference is a kind of flow of information, which is filled with information release and information acquisition.