2。2 Relevant Theories 5

        2。2。1 Speech Act Theory by Austin 5

        2。2。2 Speech Act Theory by Searle 6

        2。2。3 Classifications of Illocutionary Acts by Austin 7

    2。2。4 Classifications of Illocutionary Acts by Searle 8

3。 Interpretations of English Idioms Based on Illocutionary Acts 10

    3。1 Assertives 10

    3。2 Directives 11

    3。2。1 Advising 11

    3。2。2 Requesting 12

    3。3 Expressives 13

    3。3。1 Blame 13

    3。3。2 Wishing 14

    3。3。3 Believing 14

    3。3。4 Phatic Communion 15

4。 Conclusion 17

    4。1 Major Findings and Implication 17

    4。2 Limitations and Suggestions for Future Researches 17

Reference 18

1。 Introduction

    Idioms are a special phenomenon in English。 They are frequently used in communicative activities, serving as the indication of social relations and cultural epitome。 And using idioms can help the participants of a conversation to tell the intention of the opposite side in a short time, making the communication very effective, smooth and labor-saving。 The study of humor has gone through different periods。 To enrich the linguistic study of idioms, this paper will discuss idioms from the perspective of pragmatics。

1。1 Definition of Idioms

    As many studies of idioms from the syntactic and semantic approaches have been made, it takes the Speech act theory as its theory base。 This dissertation aims to study the idioms from a new perspective: the Speech act theory and tries to present some pragmatic functions of English idioms。 

    However, how to define idioms is an old topic in idiom research although the researches of idioms have been carried out for over a half century。 Throughout time, idiom has been defined differently by different scholars。 Thus, it is necessary to begin our discussion with an understanding of idioms。 According to the definition given in the Oxford English Dictionary (Murray, 1989), an idiom is:

    A form of expression, grammatical construction, phrase, etc。, peculiar to a language; a peculiarity of phraseology approved by the usage of the language, and often having a significance other than its grammatical or logical one (p。624)。

    A more precise one is provided by Tim Ifill in his paper Seeking the Nature of Idioms: A Study in Idiomatic Structure: “Put as simply as possible, an idiom is a fixed expression whose meaning cannot be taken as a combination of the meanings of its component parts。”论文网

Closely mirroring the definition above is that given in Webster’s Third New World International Dictionary:

    A phrase, construction, or expression that is recognized as a unit in the usage of a given language and either differs from the usual syntactic patterns or has a meaning that differs from the literal meaning of its parts taken together (p。536)。