英语反事实虚拟语气语用功能的实证研究

An Empirical Study to the Pragmatic Functions of English Counterfactual Subjunctives

英语反事实虚拟语气是英语语言中的一种重要语法形式,被用来表达建议、愿望或说话人的某种情感。本研究使用多模态分析法,对三部热播美剧台词中英语反事实虚拟语气的语用功能进行实证调查,发现英语反事实虚拟语气在交际中的基本语用功能是语用缓和,是一种缓和言语行为面子威胁性的礼貌资源;同时,在某些语境的刺激下其功能会发生偏离与变异,出现与缓和用法力量相反的非缓和用法。英语反事实虚拟语气的语用功能能够在语言顺应论的框架下得到统一的理论诠释。

Subjunctive mood is an important English grammatical form,among which English counterfactual subjunctives are employed by the speaker to suggest,to wish or to convey emotions. This study is an empirical research,based on the data collected from three popular American TV dramas. Multi- modal analysis reveals that,as a politeness resource,the basic pragmatic function of English counterfactual subjunctives is mitigation of face threat to the interlocutors. Meanwhile it has other non- mitigating functions derived from its basic mitigating function upon the stimuli of certain contexts. These opposing functions can be explained within the framework of linguistic adaptation theory.