An Analysis of the Use of Pragmatic Presuppositions in the Film of the Treatment

武淑琴

Abstract：The Treatment is a film which deduced the human world of affection，love，friendship and to social harmony is yearning，because of the difference of culture and cause cross-cultural communication failures also show incisively and vividly. This thesis aims to analyze the Treatment from the perspective of characteristics of pragmatic presupposition.

Key words：Pragmatic Presuppositions;the Treatment

1.Introduction

In The Treatment，the directors present us this controversial topic of culture shock between the Americans and Chinese immigrants. This firm attracted many researchers to study it since its appearance. Research has been done on from different aspects，but from pragmatic presupposition has not yet appearance. This thesis enriches the presupposition theory and broadens its studying and applying field. The research is also instructive to our daily life.

2. Presupposition theory

A presupposition is the background belief related to an utterance，which must be mutually known or assumed by both the addresser and the addressee for the utterance to be considered and it is a very important concept in pragmatics. As Levinson（2001：167）puts it，“In pragmatics，the literature on presupposition is more than that on almost all the other topics”. This topic has been approached from different perspectives by different scholars，and various kinds of relevant theories are delivered. Since the present research is to study the application of pragmatic presupposition in daily speeches，the presupposition theory adopted in this thesis is pragmatically oriented，involving its notion and properties.

3. Pragmatic Persuppositions in the Treatment

Features of pragmatic presupposition are closely dependent on the definition of pragmatic presupposition. As there are various definitions on pragmatic presupposition，linguistics have their own understandings on the characteristics of pragmatic presupposition as well. Defeasibility and the projection problem are taken as the main features of pragmatic presupposition. These features such as appropriateness，mutual knowledge are mainly introduced in this section.

3.1 Appropriateness（Felicity）

The appropriateness（felicity）indicates that presupposition is closely interrelated with the context and presupposition is the precondition of speech act，for example，

（1）Da Tong：why should I beat my own son？ I did that because I want to give you “face”.

The condition for this answer depends on the relationship between the speaker and the hearer，on the hearers ability to understand what is the “face”. The fact that the face is existed in mind and the fact that the speaker wants it be understood. Without this conditions in the context，（1）would be meaningless.

Da Tong is educated with traditional Chinese values，so his first reaction is that no matter what excuse his son may have，the child should apology for his action to Toms son. He slaped on his sons face. This is Chinese way of showing respect to the people who are superior to you. Actually，the fact is that Da tongs son heard Toms son mocking his beloved father，then he beat the Toms son. On the contrary，in American，parents seldom beat their children because they think that every one is individual and it is wrong to beat some one else no matter what reason a person may have. So，when the hearer could not understand such behaviour is in order to give him “face”. This sentence is meaningless. It is not fit the Appropriateness，it couldnt be understand by hearer. So conflict must be emerged.

3.2Mutual knowledge（Common ground）

Pragmatic presupposition relates not only to the context but also speakers and hearers. Only if certain mutual background is shared by the two sides，the utterance A can pragmatically presuppose proposition B. So both speakers and hearers must have mutual knowledge so that they can communicate successfully and understand each other effectively，for example，

（2）Tom：Why did he lie？

（3）Mother：Because he is Chinese.

Da Tong said he did the Treatment which made the whole case complicated is due to his father was applying the American Green Card at that time. If he said the truth，the Americans might refuse his fathers green card and send him back to China. The filial man，Da Tong couldnt bear to take this risk. He desired that his father could live with his family and leaded a better life which meant to stay in American. In this situation，many Chinese people may as Da Tong did. Americans didnt know Gua Sha Treatment，but they decided they would not listen to Da Tongs explanation. Part of the reason may be because Da Tong is Chinese，and Chinese，in their eyes，represent violent and disobey the rules and regulations.

In（2），Tom didnt understood why Da Tong lie，“because he is Chinese”，which，unfortunately，isnt a proposition known by both him and the mother. Since there is no common ground between（2）and（3），it is in vain for the mother to fuss about explaining the situation.

4.Conclusion

This thesis analyzes the Treatment under the guidance of pragmatic presupposition，especially the properties of pragmatic presupposition. Properly using pragmatic presupposition can help the negotiation towards the direction benefit for the speaker and achieve communication goals.

Bibliography：

[1]Levinson.S.C. Pragmatics [M]. Beijing：Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press，2001.

[2]蔣艷.從《刮痧》談中西方文化的差異與融合[J].徐州教育學院學報，2001（3）.