Chapter 1 Introduction
1.4. Research Questions and Hypotheses
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linguistic studies, which investigated the political talk shows, chiefly did discourse analyses on the written text in the mass media, and sociopragmatic analyses (especially those concerning the ideological influence on illocutionary acts) has been neglected. Third, although there are some studies investigating the political-ideologies revealed in political talk shows and considered political bias as an important factor to determine the organization of information in the shows, none of them concerns syntactic structure or pragmatic strategies in their research. In a word, studies on political talk shows with a linguistic-orientation are needed.
1.4. Research Questions and Hypotheses
To bridge the research gaps mentioned above, this study focuses on the pragmatic strategies (directness and indirectness), illocutionary purposes, and the political ideology.
Three research questions are determined to answer.
A. How are strategies of directness and indirectness applied in political talk shows?
B. What illocutionary purposes are sought in political talk shows?
C. How does political ideology affect choices of strategies of directness and indirectness applied in political talk shows?
Hypotheses of the research questions are stated below.
A. Choices of directness and indirectness strategies
In political talk shows, indirect speech acts are more frequently used than direct speech act in order to avoid impoliteness which may cause lawsuits.
B. Choice of illocutionary acts
B-1. In political talk shows, the priority order of the types of illocutionary acts is: expressive > assertive > directive > commissive > declarative.
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To be specific, based on the commentary nature of political talk shows, expressive is more frequently used than the other four types of illocutionary act. Also, since offering factual information for commentary is necessary, assertive is the second important category of speech act.
B-2. Due to the commentary nature of political talk shows, the major illocutionary act used is condemnation. Moreover, in order to build the background knowledge for the commentary, informing is bound to be performed in political talk shows, and that makes informing the second important illocutionary act.
C. Influences of political ideology
C-1. Political inclination will determine choices between direct and indirect speech acts. The talk shows inclining to the ruling party (i.e. pan-blue clique) tend to use indirect speech acts more to reduce the threats to the government‘s face, while the opposition political party (i.e. pan-green clique) uses more direct speech acts in order to show their intensive opposition to the government and condemnation to the governmental polices.
C-2. Political inclination will determine choices of speech act category. To weaken comments against the government, the show of the pan-blue clique uses assertives more frequently, especially informing, to lead the audience to focus on experiential facts. On the contrary, the show of pan-green clique, in order to convey comments against the government, uses expressives more frequently, especially condemnation, to describe their role to supervise and to evaluate the government‘s performance.
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Chapter 2 Literature Review
This chapter reviews key notions about pragmatic strategies driven by ideologies, especially those in the political field. The theoretical basis of this thesis is found of the previous studies on ideology and news bias, speech acts, and politeness theory. The organization of this chapter is as follows. The first section introduces the theoretical background of ideology. The second section focuses on speech act theory. The third section reviews politeness theories.
2.1. Ideology
In this section, there are three approaches to the concepts of ideology in different knowledge backgrounds, namely epistemology, sociology, and politics. Among these approaches, this study would specifically focus on the political ideological influence on the use of speech act. Moreover, the linguistic association with political ideology is also introduced
2.1.1. Epistemological Approach
The term ‗ideology‘ is coined by the French philosopher Destutt de Tracy in the end of eighteenth century (Thompson, 1990:29; Roucek, 1944:482) to refer to his project of ‗science of ideas‘ which concerns with the systematic analysis of ideas and sensations. Such ‗science‘ was inherited from the faith of Enlightenment which regarded all knowledge as transformed sensations (Thompson, 1990:30). The epistemologists from the Enlightenment to the French Revolution believed that human ideas were driven from sensations rather than from some innate or transcendental source; these ‗sensations‘ determined its ‗reflections‘ and all ideas thus had their sources from material experience. (Hawkes, 2003:51) In other words, by observing
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the movement by which sensations are transformed into ideas, it is possible to understand the ways in which patterns of ideas come into being. In sum, the epistemological meaning of ideology is to study the origin and boundaries of knowledge, and the basic quest is the possibility and reliability of knowledge.
Nonetheless, this neutral conception of ideology later became a pejorative expression in the early nineteenth century. During the degeneration of Bonaparte, Napoleon had ridiculed ideology as ‗an abstract speculative doctrine which was divorced from the political power‘ and condemned ideology as the obverse of astute statecraft so that to silence his intellectual opponents and excused for the collapse of his regime (Thompson, 1990:31-2). After the collapse of the Napoleonic regime, the term ‗ideology‘ ceased to refer to ‗the science of ideas‘ and began to also refer to the
‗ideas themselves,‘ that is, to ‗a body of ideas which alleged to be erroneous and divorced from the practical realities of political life (Thompson, 1990:32).‘ The opposition between the neutral/positive and the negative meaning becomes the very nature of the concept of ‗ideology.‘ Accordingly, subsequent scholars applied the notion of ideology differently in different fields.
2.1.2. Sociological Approach
When characterizing the content and function of ‗ideology,‘ sociologists emphasize its social meaning rather than the scientific content. Marx and Engels, who took the critical edge popularized by Napoleon‘s scorn of ‗cloudy metaphysics‘
(McLellan, 1995:9; Thompson, 1990: 30-1), pejoratively criticized ‗ideology‘ as ‗a theoretical doctrine and activity which erroneously regards ideas as autonomous and efficacious and which fails to grasp the real conditions and characteristics of social-historical life‘ (Thompson, 1990: 35). Contrary to epistemologists‘ viewpoint, Marx and Engels regarded ideology as abstract and illusory. Especially in the social
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structure, Marx considered that ideology is ‗a system of ideas which expresses the interests of the dominant class but which represents class relations in an illusory form,‘
(Thompson, 1990: 37) and with these ideas, the dominant class therefore falsely legitimates its political power. To Marx, ideology exists for sustaining the existing relations of class domination.
In contrast to Marx‘s negative sense of ideology, Mannheim (1936) examined the concept of ideology in a neutral way. Mannheim categorized two perceptives of ideology: particular conception and total conception of ideology (Thompson, 1990:
48). Particular conception of ideology refers to the ideas and views advanced by the opponents and regard them as misinterpretations of the real nature of the situation;
total conception of ideology refers to a mode of thinking owned by certain social-historical group. Mannheim‘s particular concept of ideology is close to Marx‘s view, while his total concept of ideology is a concept of ‗world-view‘ which shows that ideas do not exist in vacuity but are always to be understood in terms of the relation of the possessor of knowledge to the particular social and historical factors (Roucek, 1944:487). Therefore, in Mannheim‘s terms, ideology must be a ‗sociology of knowledge‘ (Thompson, 1990:51; Eagleton, 1991:109).
In all, the sociological discussion of ideology includes the opposition between the neutral/positive sense and the negative sense. Marx took the negative sense and regarded ideology as an instrument of social reproduction. Whereas, Mannheim neutrally/positively regarded ideology as a non-evaluative conception that explains the course of the social-historical world.
2.1.3. Political Approach
In social studies, political ideology, in its simplest formulation, is a set of ideas that focuses on the political regime and its institutions (Sargent, 2006:3; Macridis &
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Hulliung, 1996:2), and that about people and their position and role in it (Macridis &
Hulliung, 1996). Discussions of political ideology cover topics from human, the origin of government/state, to the structural characteristics of government/state.
Generally, the building block of political ideology are, (1) a set of comprehensive explanations and principles dealing with the world, (2) a program of political and social action in general terms, and (3) an idea of struggle to carry out the program;
and finally, adherents who commit to the ideology. (Leach, 1993:5) Based on the variation of the composition, contemporary political ideologies can be outlined as the political spectrum in Figure 1.
Left Center Right
6 5 4 3 2 1
Anarchism Communism Democratic Socialism
Liberalism Conservatism Fascism
Figure 1. Political spectrum model (Leach, 1993:13)
According to the current situation in most countries, various political ideologies may coexist in the same national culture. Nonetheless, it is a compromise made by political parties; in fact, the competition of different ideologies never disappears.
Initially, a political ideology may have been imposed by force by a dominant group;
then new ideology slowly becomes acceptable after generations and forms the contending situation of political ideologies. However, according to Leach (1993:5), to avoid possible polarization between competing ideologies, a dominant ideology tends to be held by the majority of the citizens. Even so, the coexisting political groups in the society still plant the seed of change in the seemingly stable situation, as implied in the political spectrum model in Figure 1.
In all, this thesis inherits Mannheim‘s total conception of ideology and has narrowed it down to the political field. In this study, The representative political
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ideology in Taiwan‘s political spectrum—the blue-green opposition (藍綠對立)—is taken as the social factor. It is hypothesized in this study that speakers favoring different political groups would perform their speech acts differently.
2.1.4. Linguistic Association with Political Ideology
Discussions about the ideological representation in language usage can be traced back to Ferdinand Saussure‘s distinction between language and speech a century ago.
By Saussure, language is a formal structure which underlies all speech, and the actual discourse of individuals can be viewed as a screen hiding the underlying ideological structure of their words and actions. (McLellan,1995:59; Hawkes, 2003:142) Such structuralism subdivides utterances into their surface structure and underlying structures. Sharing the similar concept, Barthes (1973) expresses this discrepancy as a distinction between what a statement denotes and what it connotes. Likewise, van Dijk (2007) specifically points out that linguistic representations are not ideologically biased; it is the use of them that contains the ideological meanings. In other words, in analyzing the ideological content in language, it is not the linguistic features that are needed to be seized on, but the intended pragmatic function. The theory of speech act offers a linguistic methodology to the ideology issue. Detailed introduction of speech act is represented in the next section.
2.2. Speech Acts Theory
It is assumed in speech act theory that speakers perform their speech with certain goals to achieve, and speech acts in political talk shows are no exception. As demonstrated in the example ‗ 我 要 說 他 馬 英 九 說 謊 ‘ the speaker states the President‘s dishonesty as well as condemns the President at the same time. That is, by saying something, a speaker is doing some acts. Previous studies of language philosophers (Austin, 1962; Searle, 1969) have pointed out such core notion—the
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basic unit of communication is the performance of certain act, and succeeding researchers generally termed this notion as speech acts. The following sections review two leading scholars‘ works on the theory of speech act, including Austin‘s prime notions of speech acts and Searle‘s systematization of speech acts.
2.2.1. Austin’s Account
In Austin‘s theory of speech act, there are two phases of discussion, namely, the primitive idea of performative verbs and the extended discussion of illocutionary acts.
Firstly, Austin (1962:12) analyzed performative verbs and defined speech acts in the following terms ‗by saying something, speakers are doing something.‘ For instance, by saying ‗I promise to come tomorrow,‘ the speaker is doing the act—making a promise. Austin categorized sentences of this particular type as performatives, in contrast to statements and assertions, which he called constatives. Further, Austin pointed out that performatives, unlike constatives, are incompatible with the quality of true/false but the condition of felicitous/infelicitous. As indicated in the example of
‗promise,‘ when the utterance ‗I promise to come tomorrow‘ fails, the action that the utterance attempts to perform is simply null and void, not false. To construct the validity of speech act, Austin proposed that there are some necessary conditions in which performatives must meet if they are to be successful. This primitive scheme of felicity conditions, as outlined in (1).
(1) Austin‘s Account to Necessary Conditions of Performatives (1962:14-5) A. (i) There must exist an accepted conventional procedure having a certain
effect; (ii) The particular persons and circumstances in a given case must be appropriate.
B. The procedure must be executed by all participants both (i) correctly and (ii) completely.
C. Where, as often, (i) certain requisite thoughts and feelings are designed
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in the procedure, held by people participating in and so invoking the procedure, and intended to be conducted by the participants; (ii) further, they must actually so conduct themselves subsequently.
However, this performative-constative dichotomy of speech acts is rudimentary.
As Austin himself noticed, the fundamental problem of the initial definition is that utterances can be performatives without being the formal form of explicit performatives. For example, in conversation (2), although the mother‘s utterance seems to be a constative because of its applicability of the true-false verification, it performs the action of ordering the child to go to sleep indeed. In short, non-explicit performatives, like example (2), does not fit into the primitive definition of speech acts.
(2) 母親：已經十二點了。
兒子：再看一下就好，節目要演完了。
To solve the problem in theory, Austin furthered his doing-by-saying definition with a trichotomous taxonomy in the sense of speech acts. In Austin‘s latter scheme, utterances are examined from the aspects of speakers, hearers, and the utterances themselves, as represented below.
(3) Austin‘s Taxonomy of Speech Acts (1962:108)
A. LOCUTIONARY ACT: the utterance of a sentence with determinate sense and reference. [utterance aspect]
B. ILLOCUTIONARY ACT: the making of a statement, offer, promise, etc.
in uttering a sentence, by virtue of the conventional force associated with it. [speaker aspect]
C. PERLOCUTIONARY ACT: the bringing about of effects on the audience by means of uttering the sentence, such effects being special to the circumstances of utterance. [hearer aspect]
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It is the second type ‗illocutionary act‘ which is the focus in Austin‘s discussion, and subsequent researchers also committed most of their interest in this type and referred illocutionary acts to the specific sense of speech acts.
In addition to discussing the felicity conditions and the three-dimension analysis of speech acts, Austin also proposed a preliminary classification of illocutionary acts, as represent in (4). Although this classification, as Austin himself stated, contains certain problems2, Austin (1962) has narrowed the list of performatives into a grid of illocutionary acts.
(4) Austin‘s Grid of Illocutionary Acts (1962:150-62)
A. VERDICTIVES: the exercise of judgment, e.g. estimate, reckoning, appraisal.
B. EXERCITIVES: the assertion of influence or exercise of power, e.g.
voting, ordering, advising, warning.
C. COMMISSIVES: an assuming of an obligation or declaring of an intention, e.g. promising
D. BEHABITIVES: the adopting of an attitude, e.g. apologizing, condoling, congratulating.
E. EXPOSITIVES: the clarifying of communications, e.g. ‗I reply,‘ ‗I argue,‘ ‗I concede,‘ ‗I illustrate.‘
Overall, Austin‘s work contributes mainly on the initiation of the notion ‗speech act‘ as well as the division of ‗illocutionary act.‘ Subsequent researchers had paid much attention on speech act ever since Austin, and Searle is one of the influential scholars. The next section introduces Seale‘s systemization of Austin‘s work.
2 Austin (1962) stated that behabitives are too miscellaneous as a group.
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Basing on Austin‘s work, Searle has popularized the theory of speech act with his own systematization on two parts: the felicity conditions and the categorization of speech acts. First, in terms of felicity conditions, Searle standardized a set of necessary and sufficient conditions of speech acts. As he noted, ―to perform an illocutionary acts is to engage in a rule-governed form of behavior‖ (Searle 1965:
255). In Searle‘s rule-governed categorization, there are four categories of felicity conditions in speech acts, namely, the preparatory condition, the sincerity condition, the propositional content condition, and the essential condition (Searle, 1969). Table 1 demonstrates Searle‘s sortation of the felicity conditions on two examples: requesting and greeting.
Table 1. Felicity conditions of request and greet (Searle, 1969:66) [S = speaker, H = hearer, A = action]
In addition to elaborating Austin‘s felicity conditions, Searle also advanced the categorization of illocutionary acts. In Searle‘s viewpoint (Searle, 1979: 9), Austin‘s
Request Greet in the normal course of events of his own accord.
S has just encountered (or been introduced to, etc.) H.
sincerity condition S wants H to do A. None.
propositional content condition
Future act A of H. None.
essential condition Counts as an attempt to get H to do A.
Counts as courteous recognition of H by S.
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work is a classification of illocutionary verbs, not illocutionary acts. Moreover, the vagueness and the lack of principles in the primary categorization are also unfavorable for analysis. To solve these problems, Searle brought up the taxonomy of illocutionary acts based on the relationship between ‗the word‘ and ‗the world.‘ His taxonomy consists of five basic kinds of illocutionary acts that can be performed in speaking, namely, assertives, expressive, directives, commissives, and declaratives.
Definitions of each category of speech acts are listed below.
(5) Searle‘s Categorization of Speech Acts (1969: 12-20)
A. ASSERTIVES: speakers represent external reality by making their words fit the world as they believe it to be, e.g. stating, describing, affirming.
B. EXPRESSIVES: speakers express their feelings by making their words fit their psychological worlds, e.g. thanking, apologizing, congratulating, condoling.
C. DIRECTIVES: speakers direct hearers to perform some future acts which will make the world fit the speakers‘ words, e.g. commanding, ordering, warning, requesting, suggesting.
D. COMMISSIVES: speakers commit themselves to future acts which make the world fit their words, e.g. promising, offering.
E. DECLARATIVES: speakers utter worlds that in themselves change the world, e.g. naming(a ship), pronouncing (husband and wife), sentence (someone to death)
In Searle‘s categorization, speech acts are classified according to the relation between ‗the word‘ and ‗the world,‘ the world field that they are related to, and the executor of the change that the speech act leads to, as illustrated in Table 2.
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Table 2.Distinction among speech act categories (Ø = no change needed)
Moreover, Searle also pointed out that certain syntactic structures of the utterances are recognized as typical for certain speech acts. To name some, imperatives sentences are the representative structures of directives, and declarative structures with speaker subject and future time expressed are typical for commissives.
However, such typical structure does not always perform the function for which it is typical. Take the mother‘s utterance in (2) on page 12 for example. It looks like an assertive, but it serves the function of directive in the context. In terms of the fresh contribution to the speech act theory, Searle has noticed the unrepresentative forms of speech acts and conceived the idea of indirect speech act. In the next section, the
However, such typical structure does not always perform the function for which it is typical. Take the mother‘s utterance in (2) on page 12 for example. It looks like an assertive, but it serves the function of directive in the context. In terms of the fresh contribution to the speech act theory, Searle has noticed the unrepresentative forms of speech acts and conceived the idea of indirect speech act. In the next section, the