He Ziran (1997) is recognized as the first scholar who introduced pragmatic failure in China。 He defines pragmatic failure as errors made in verbal communications when people fail to realize the perfect communication effects due to improper way of expression or inappropriate means of communicating (He Ziran, 1997: 36-38)。 Later, He Ziran (1997) further explained that pragmatic failure was not a general phrasing language-use error (also called performance error), but speaking with untimely mistakes, or speaking in wrong ways, when expressions were not adapted to a given situation, leading to communicating failures and failing to achieve the desired effect。 This concept is accepted by Chinese scholars。论文网
Therefore, from above information, it could be generally recognized that pragmatic failure usually refers to errors in people’s intercultural communication due to the unconscious use of improper words or nonverbal behavior。 It can be understood from both a broad concept and narrow concept (He Lei, 2013: 24-26)。 In a broad sense, it refers to any failure in communication, including spelling or pronunciation。 And, a number of scholars hold the narrow concept as well— the acceptability of how to use language, but not grammaticality。
2。2 The Types of Pragmatic Failure
The concept of pragmatic failure is proposed by English language scholar Thomas in 1983。 According to Thomas, pragmatic failure of English learners could be pided into two types, namely pragmalinguistic failure and sociopragmatic failure。
2。2。1 Pragmalinguistic Failure
Pragmalinguistic failure usually occurs when the non-native speakers do not know the language habits or appropriate means of expression in target language, and use the target language with pragmatic meanings which distinct from the native speakers’, or inappropriate speech act strategies transferred from the native language。 That is to say, pragmalinguistic failure means that the non-native speaker endows an utterance a different pragmatic meaning from what a native speaker does (Ungerer F& Schmid H。J, 2001: 36-41)。
There are a number of instances of pragmalinguistic failure in linguistic literature。 For example, a clerk did a good job one day, and his boss felt great to express his gratitude。
Boss: “Thanks a lot!”来.自^优+尔-论,文:网www.youerw.com +QQ752018766-
The clerk replied: “Never mind。 ”
Although the literal meaning of “Never mind” is the same as the Chinese expression “Mei guan xi”, the communicative conventions behind the two phrases are different。 Usually, “Mei guan xi” in Chinese communication is used to reply “thanks” or an “apology”。 However, in English communication, the phrase “Never mind” is merely used to reply an apology。 Consequently, the force of utterance would be lost and the clerk failed to make his meaning well understood (Li Enjin, 2013: 17-19)。
2。2。2 Sociopragmatic Failure
Sociopragmatic failure means that in communication, the speaker fails to understand the different social and cultural backgrounds between the target language and his mother tongue although he has learnt the target language。 As a result, he merely copies the principles and his own habits to express his thoughts and ideas。 For instance, in the following situation, a Chinese woman was praised for her beautiful dress in America (Deng Yanchang, Liu Runqing, 1989: 23-25), but she replied in an inappropriate way。
An American: It’s exquisite。 The colors are beautiful! 中国英语学习者语言交际中语用失误研究于中国英语学习者的口语语料库(3):http://www.youerw.com/yingyu/lunwen_129808.html