Abstract：The definition of self repair is a phenomena which when meet inappropriate words, misuse linguistic form or occur misunderstandings in conversation, the speaker complete repair and correct errors. Self repair plays a very important and necessary role in communication. This study adopts a way which combines quantitative and qualitative to investigate the play-script of Friends, and analyzes the phenomena of self repair in teleplay conversation, including the classification and function of self repair. The conclusion indicates that recycling is more frequently occurred than other self repairs in Friends, and self repair can reflect the emotion and characteristic of characters in teleplays. The research finds that the function of self repair conducted by characters is various, including relieving one’s nerve and embarrassment, distracting attention, expressing oneself much better. This study aims to extend the application of self repair through analyzing self repair in the teleplays. Meanwhile, it helps to  enhance the usage of self repair as a communicative strategy in daily conversation and make smooth conversations.

Key words: self repair; classification; function

CONTENTS

ABSTRACT

中文摘要

Chapter One  INTRODUCTION-1

1.1 Objective of the Study-1

1.2 Need for the Study-2

1.3 Structure of the Thesis-2

Chapter Two  LITERATURE REVIEW-4

2.1 The Concept of Self Repair-4

2.1.1 Definition of self repair-4

2.1.2 Classifications of self repair-5

2.2 Characteristic of Self Repair-7

2.3 The Perspectives of Previous Studies on Self Repair-7

Chapter Three  METHODOLOGY-9

3.1 Research Question-9

3.2 Corpus Description-10

3.3 Data Collection and Analysis-10

Chapter Four  RESULTS AND DISCUSSION-12

4.1 The Overall Distribution of Self Repairs in Friends-12

4.1.1 Distribution between self repairs and other repairs-12

4.1.2 Distribution of the four subtypes of self repairs-13

4.2 The Function of Self Repairs in Friends-14

4.3 Summary-15

Chapter Five  CONCLUSION-17

REFERENCES-19