A Relevance-Theoretic Study of Offensive Utterance in Film Dialogues

摘要

The present study probes into the nature of offensive utterance in film dialogues in terms of its generating mechanism and responding strategy. Methodologically, the study adopts the way of qualitative analysis and description of the data which are mainly extracted from classic film dialogues of China and the United States. Under the guidance of Sperber & Wilson's relevance theory, this study generalizes the generating mechanism - loss of ostension in the speaker's utterance and different cognitive environments between speaker and hearer; two major responding strategies - conflicting response and moderating response. The research may be significant in providing guidelines for people on how to avoid offensive utterances to communicate smoothly. Besides, the screenwriters can be inspired to create more classic dialogues and thus to better achieve the communicative function of the film.