Abstract

 English idioms are the essence of the language for English nations. They are a traditional, short saying in common use. The studies of English idioms at home and abroad mainly focus on the syntactic and semantic features of idioms, the relations between idioms and culture, idiom translations and their classroom teaching. But little has studied idioms in accordance with Speech act theory. To study the English idioms with the Speech act theory can provide us with more detailed knowledge of the usage and comprehension of idioms. This dissertation focuses on the functions of idiom in terms of illocutionary force in linguistic communication from the contextualized aspect. 

Speech act theory studies language in a new way. Instead of focusing on the grammatical structure of speech, it pays attention to how people perform some actions by speech and the consequence of the speech. And this dissertation presented the study of the Speech act theory by Austin and Searle and their classification of the illocutionary acts. And the study of the idioms in this dissertation is mainly based on the classification by Searle.

     This dissertation studies the idioms from the perspective of the illocutionary acts. And it takes the sentence idioms as the object of study. The idioms are mainly classified into the categories of assertives, directives, and expressives. In each category, different illocutionary acts are used, like advising, requesting, wishing and so on. The methodology used in this dissertation is qualitative analysis, by which a great deal of sentence idioms are adopted and analyzed. Drawing on examples from literary works and spontaneous conversations, this paper will discuss idioms in pragmatic terms.

Keywords: English idioms, Speech act theory, illocutionary acts

Contents

Abstract

摘  要

1. Introduction-1

    1.1 Definition of Idioms-1

    1.2 The Aim-2

    1.3 Significance-2

    1.4 Organization-3

2. Literature Review-4

2.1 Traditional Studies of Idioms-4

2.2 Relevant Theories-5

        2.2.1 Speech Act Theory by Austin-5

        2.2.2 Speech Act Theory by Searle-6

        2.2.3 Classifications of Illocutionary Acts by Austin-7

    2.2.4 Classifications of Illocutionary Acts by Searle-8

3. Interpretations of English Idioms Based on Illocutionary Acts-10

    3.1 Assertives-10

    3.2 Directives-11

    3.2.1 Advising-11

    3.2.2 Requesting-12

    3.3 Expressives-13

    3.3.1 Blame-13

    3.3.2 Wishing-14

    3.3.3 Believing-14

    3.3.4 Phatic Communion-15

4. Conclusion-17

    4.1 Major Findings and Implication-17

    4.2 Limitations and Suggestions for Future Researches-17

Reference-18