Verbal communication has a certain purpose and always takes place in a specific context. Context refers to the language environment. Broadly speaking, context includes all the factors related to communicative activities. Specifically, in addition to the context, it also includes the communication object, communication background, communication scene, style and other factors. The communicative purpose and these contextual factors restrict people's discourse expression and understanding.
(A) the purpose of communication
The purpose of communication is varied. Or state one thing, I hope the other party knows; Or ask a question in the hope of getting an answer; Or express a request and hope that the other party will do it; Or express an emotion, hoping to cause * * *. Different communicative purposes restrict people's communicative behavior, and people always try to choose the right words to achieve specific communicative purposes. For example:
(1) "Sir, farmers are very poor. Please be kind and earn less. "
Another gentleman was bored, threw cigarette butts into the street, opened his eyes wide and said, "You think the price is low, so you won't cut rice." You came by yourselves and were not invited. Just tell me what to do! We have a large amount of foreign currency. We don't buy yours, others buy easily. Look, there are still two ships parked at the dock. "
Because the farmers asked the boss of Mihang to buy Gu Mi, their words were sincere, almost pleading; The boss of Mihang refused to buy it, so his speech was blunt and even a little arrogant. The two sides have different purposes and obviously show differences in terms of words.
(2) The target audience
Verbal communication is inseparable from the communicative object. The communication object has many personality characteristics, such as gender, age, status, living environment, professional experience, ideological character, cultivation hobby, education level, social psychology, situation and mood. These personality characteristics will restrict verbal communication to varying degrees.
As far as the speaker is concerned, whether he is a man or a woman, whether he is a city dweller or a countryman, whether he is a teacher or a doctor, whether his social status is respected or inferior, whether his moral cultivation is high or low, whether his temperament is gentle or irritable, whether he is sincere or hypocritical, whether he is happy or depressed, all these will affect the speaker's speech expression and make him make different choices about language forms. The formation of a writer's personal discourse style is the result of his various personality characteristics restricting his creation. For example, Zhao Shuli, who has lived in the northern countryside for a long time, is familiar with farmers' cultural customs and artistic hobbies and advocates the popularization of literature and art. Therefore, in his creation, he wrote entirely in the spoken language of northern farmers, thus forming his simple and lively speaking style. Bing Xin has read a lot of China classical literature since she was a child, and studying in the United States has made her widely exposed to European and American literature. Therefore, the language of her works not only plays a fluent role in vernacular Chinese, but also inherits the advantages of concise classical Chinese and absorbs the advantages of lively and fresh European and American literature, forming her natural and elegant speaking style. On the other hand, after the writer's personal speech style is formed, it will become an important restrictive factor in his literary creation.
From the receiver's point of view. Similarly, because different recipients have different personality characteristics, their understanding and tolerance of speech will inevitably be different, which requires the speaker to choose the language form that he can understand and accept according to different recipients when expressing. If you speak to the upper-class intellectuals with higher education, you may wish to use more written language, and you can choose some elegant words and written sentences in classical Chinese; When speaking to ordinary people who have little or no school education, we should use ordinary oral style and choose oral sentence patterns and popular vocabulary, otherwise we may be aimless and fail to achieve the purpose of communication.
Judging from the relationship between communication objects. The two parties involved in communication play different roles in communication, so they will form different relationships. Different relations between the two sides will also restrict people's choice of speech forms. If the communication between the two sides is a power relationship (such as a superior-subordinate relationship), the status of the two sides is very different, and the relationship seems distant, it is easy to adopt a more formal style; If the two sides are equal (such as friendship), there is no difference in status and close relationship, they may adopt a more casual style. For example, in many languages, singular second person pronouns have two forms: generic and honorific, such as tu and vous in French, du and Sie in German, tu and Lei in Italian, and you and you in Chinese. Generally speaking, when the two sides are in a power relationship, the one with lower power refers to the one with higher power, and often chooses the honorific form, and vice versa. Chinese follows the usage rules of this pronoun. Even the use of address forms is restricted by the relationship between the two parties. Peers, classmates and friends can call each other by their first names; However, the younger generation should address their elders, and the lower level should address their superiors with relatives, or use "surname+official name".
(3) Communication background
Communicative background refers to the cultural background, social background and times background of verbal communication.
Different nationalities have different cultural traditions, which will inevitably have a profound impact on the verbal communication of different nationalities, and regulate people to consciously or unconsciously adopt discourse forms suitable for their own cultural traditions. For example, the Chinese nation is humble and courteous, and it is a lofty virtue to take "being humble to others and being open-minded" as the creed of life. Reflected in verbal communication, people take politeness and modesty as the principle, and show the greatest courtesy and respect to others by "harming others and benefiting themselves". For example, even if your handwriting is beautiful, when others praise you, you will humbly say "you flatter me because your handwriting is not good"; Even if a friend's calligraphy is average, he will praise "good writing"; Obviously, I am very dissatisfied with each other's rudeness, but I can talk about "it's nothing" and show some generosity and tolerance. Unlike China people who admire modesty, Westerners are confident and frank, and they are realistic. If an English female student is praised by the teacher: "Your handwriting is really beautiful!" Or an American nurse is praised by her employer: "You did a great job!" " Then they will happily echo "thank you!" "rudely accept the appreciation of the teacher and the praise of the employer. Because in their minds, since they have made achievements, they should be proud.
Verbal communication is a social activity, which is carried out in a specific social and times background. Therefore, a specific society and era will inevitably restrict people's communication behavior, and people will consciously or unconsciously adapt to the social environment and background of the times when communicating. For example, during the Cultural Revolution, the use of language was deeply influenced by social politics at that time, forming the style of the Cultural Revolution, which was the product of a specific society and a specific era. At that time, newspaper articles were full of strong words such as "criticism, struggle, revolution, rebellion", mixed with many "nonsense!" "smash your dog's head!" Swearing words, swearing words, etc. Syntactically, due to more criticism of the "enemy", more demands on the masses, and relatively less elements of narrative reasoning, the frequency of declarative sentences decreases, while the frequency of imperative sentences and exclamatory sentences increases. People also directly quote a large number of classic works of Marxism-Leninism, quotations from Chairman Mao and poems, which are highlighted in bold. Some people even imitate quotations from Chairman Mao. For example:
(1) Ideal and career are our life. We must pay full attention to them and never be careless.
There are many reasons for love, marriage and family. In the final analysis, it is a sentence: "* * * and revolution!"
(Shaminong's "osmosis")
This is two paragraphs of a girl's reply to her boyfriend. The whole letter is almost a parody of Chairman Mao's quotations. It can be seen that the social politics at that time had a profound influence on people's use of language.
(D) Communication scenarios
Verbal communication always takes place in certain scenes. The time and place of communication, the occasion and atmosphere of communication, the people involved in communication and other scene factors will restrict people's communication behavior. As far as expression is concerned, what topic to talk about, what kind of sentence to use, whether the tone is light or heavy, and whether the meaning is straight or straight need to be decided according to the specific scene. It may be the best way to say this to this person here and now, but it may not be the best way to say this to another person on another occasion, so use another way. For example, when investigating a case, if the case-handling personnel need to ask the witness to clarify the situation, they can say "call the witness"; However, at the hearing, the presiding judge shall invite witnesses to testify in court. It is obviously inappropriate to use this daily statement, but the court language should be adopted: "Call the witness to court!"
People who are good at communication can often skillfully use situational factors to effectively organize their own discourse forms and achieve ideal communication results. For example, in the 22nd round of Sino-British talks on Hong Kong, the Chinese representative said to the British representative:
It's autumn now. I remember that Mr. Ambassador came in spring, so he experienced three seasons: spring, summer and autumn are harvest seasons.
Here, the Chinese representative chose the topic in combination with the situational factors at the time of the talks, and implicitly expressed our attitude and determination to recover Hong Kong's sovereignty with "autumn is the harvest season". His words are sincere and meaningful and have achieved good results.
Because people's discourse expression is restricted by scene factors, we should also consider scene factors when understanding discourse. Only by combining scene factors can we make an accurate understanding of the text. For example:
(3) I thought things could pass safely. Now that she has been taken away, I can still watch others sacrifice for me? I have to go! With my body, I can do it with my bare hands! I was just about to jump when she turned around, stared straight at the dumbfounded child and said in a long voice, "Listen to your mother, son!" " "
This is the last thing I heard from her. This sentence reminds me of what she said just now, and I tried to control my impulse. But only I understand this sentence, "listen to your mother", and your mother is the party! (Wang Yuanjian's "Party Fee")
Example (3) What party member, a female underground woman, said when she was taken away was ostensibly to tell her "children", but in fact she told the guerrilla liaison officers hiding in the attic not to be impulsive and to save their lives for the party's cause. But I couldn't make it clear at that time, just suggesting that the liaison officer understood the real meaning of her words according to the situation at that time.
(5) Writing style
Due to the differences in communication tasks, communication objects, communication scenes and communication methods, language shows many different characteristics and forms different styles in use. Style also has a great restriction on people's verbal communication. If it is spoken, it is generally required to choose easy-to-understand spoken words, and the sentence pattern should be short and flexible; If it is a book, you can choose elegant and solemn words and use long sentences with complex structures. In writing contracts, resolutions, instructions or instructions, if the language is concise, clear and accurate, statements should be used more often, and figurative expressions such as metaphor, exaggeration, metonymy and analogy should not be used, and implicit and strong rhetorical methods such as pun and irony should not be used; Writing poems, essays, novels and dramas requires fresh and lively language, vivid images, flexible words and eclectic sentence patterns. Metaphor, exaggeration, pun and irony are common expressions. For example:
(4) 1 986 The national daylight saving time will be implemented from May 4th to September14th, that is, the time will be advanced1hour. During this period, radio stations and other time reporting units should rename "Beijing time" as "Beijing daylight saving time"; The time record of international official exchange should adopt daylight saving time; All employees in night shift positions should set their clocks to 3 o'clock at 2 am on May 4, and other employees who are not in night shift positions can set their clocks to 1 hour before going to bed on May 3. All public places, including clocks and watches on buildings, should be instructed by the relevant units to set the hour hand to 3 o'clock at 2 am on May 4. (Announcement of the State Council General Office)
(5) Just after the vernal equinox, Qingming is coming. "At sunrise, the flowers in the river are red, but in spring, they are green." This is the spring of revolution, the spring of people and the spring of science. Let's open our arms and embrace this spring warmly! (Guo Moruo, Spring of Science)
Example (4) is a government announcement with plain and accurate language and simple sentence structure; Example (5) is the end of an essay, which uses rhetorical methods such as antithesis, parallelism, metaphor and personification, with sonorous words and moving images. The different language features in the two situations reflect the constraints of different styles on people's use of language.
Due to the differences in life experience, ideological character and knowledge literacy, people will also show their own characteristics in the use of language and form their own speech style. Once a person's speech style is formed, it will also restrict speech communication and make him consciously or unconsciously keep consistent with his own speech style in terms of words, sentences and expressions. For example, Zhao Shuli always chooses popular words and common sentence patterns in his works to keep his simple and lively speech style.