ABSTRACT：In daily communication, we often hear people talking about various kinds of excuses. However, seldom people know that the process of excuse making is in fact a process of a speech act making. Consequently, the producing of this thesis is to let people, from a pragmatic angle, have a better command over the following aspects: the nature of an excuse, what kinds of speech acts are involved in an excuse, and the factors that affect the force of an excuse. And, from the analysis, we can find that, excuse making is a particular kind of speech act. Usually, there’re 3 kinds of speech acts involved in an excuse. The force of an excuse is usually influenced by factors like ASC (Accessory Sign Cluster), context and the application of maxim of approbation and sympathy.

Key Words: excuse; pragmatics; speech act; FTA; ASC

摘要：在日常交际中，我们经常听到人们讨论各种各样的借口。但是，很少人知道，借口产生的过程，其实就是一种语言行为产生的过程。因此，本文的产生，就是从语用的角度出发，能让大家更好的理解下列几方面的问题：借口的本质,最常出现在借口里的具体语言行为,还有影响借口力量的几个因素。然后可以得知,借口的产生是一种涉及到另一种更深层次的语言行为。涉及在借口里的语言行为有拒绝,要求,和责任转移等。借口的效力通常受随着符号束,上下文,还有认可和同情原则的运用等因素的影响。

关键词:借口;语用学;语言行为;面部威胁;附着符号束

　　　In daily life, excuses are widely used by people, either in oral and written form. Apparently, excuses are not only a social phenomenon, but also a linguistic one. When discussing the thesis mainly pragmatically, the thesis will also be discussed from a generalized viewpoint. During the analysis, J Austin’s Speech Act Theory and the Politeness Principle will be cited as supporting evidence.

　　　According to the theories mentioned above, this paper is going to handle the following questions:

　　　1)What is the nature of an excuse?

　　　2)What are the most frequently used excuses?

　　　3)What are the elements that affect the force of an excuse?

　　　Because the excuses that this paper is going to analyze are mainly used by the Chinese people, the examples shown may be in Chinese language. Besides, some examples are in relation with campus.

　　　In order to study the nature of an excuse well, let’s make clear what pragmatics is first. Pragmatics is defined as the study of language in use and linguistic communication (Wang Dongbo 2007: 218). Pragmatics deals with the intended meaning or purpose of an utterance.