Abstract

With the development of globalization, the distance between the world becomes short and communication between countries becomes more frequent. But misunderstanding, conflict often makes communication break down, which becomes the biggest obstacle to communication. The misunderstanding and conflict between communication are often caused by various reasons, but one of the greatest reasons is the pragmatic failure. And scholars at home and abroad have done numerous researches from different aspects about reasons which cause pragmatic failure. And among many reasons, the influence of negative transfer of mother tongue on pragmatics is obvious. So the author mainly explain the influence of negative transfer of mother tongue on pragmatic failure in the following 5 parts. Part one is the introduction which briefly introduces the significance of this study. Part two is the literature review which introduces the previous theories and researches on the pragmatic failure. Part three is the theoretical basis which introduces the definition, classification and the development of language transfer. Part four is the data analysis in which the author will use some examples to explain the implications of negative transfer on the pragmatic failure from aspects of lexical, syntactic, discourse and intercultural level. And part five is the conclusion of this paper based on previous parts and gives some suggestions on English teaching to reduce the pragmatic failure. 

Key Words: Pragmatic Failure; Language Transfer; Negative Transfer of Mother Tongue

Contents

Abstract

摘要

1  Introduction1

2  Literature Review3

2.1 Definition of Pragmatic Failure3

2.2 Researches on Pragmatic Failure4

2.3 Causes of Pragmatic Failure 5

2.3.1 The Lack of Linguistic Knowledge5

2.3.2 The Lack of Cultural Knowledge6

2.3.3 The Influence of Negative Transfer of Mother Tongue7

2.4 Summary8

3  Theoretical Basis9

3.1 Definition of Language Transfer9

3.2 Classifications of Language Transfer9

3.3 Development of Language Transfer10

3.4 Summary11

4  Data Analysis12

4.1 Lexical Level12

4.2 Syntactic Level13

4.3 Discourse Level14

4.4 Intercultural Level14

5  Conclusion16

Bibliography18

Acknowledgements20