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4.3 Generation of Interactional Overinformativeness.......43
4.4 Interpretation of Interactional Overinformativeness............53
Chapter Five CONCLUSION......... 59
5.1 Major Findings...... 59
5.2 Implications...........61
5.3 Limitations....61
5.4 Suggestions for Further Study..........62

Chapter Four PRAGMATIC ANALYSIS OFINTERACTIONAL OVERINFORMATIVENESS

4.1 Definition and Classification of InteractionalOverinformativeness
Technically, on the basis of the previous relevant studies, the interactionaloverinformativeness in the present study is defined as the provision of added or extrainformation provided by the interlocutor except the basic information which is enoughto fully meet the initiators’ needs in the ongoing conversation. An example is taken toillustrate this phenomenon.In this example, the honored guest supplies both required information and addedinformation. The basic information is that she is always nervous in front of the publicevery time, which rightly meets the hostess’ requirement. While the added informationis to explain why she feels nervous before the public. The reason is that she is theprincess and ought to take responsibility for her people. As a result, the pressure andresponsibility from her social status make her feel nervous. Interestingly enough, thephenomenon of supplying overinformative answer here theoretically violates the maximof quantity in terms of Cooperative Principle. However, both basic information andadded information communicate useful and necessary meanings to the audience. Inaddition, the added information helps build good images of the honored guest amongthe audience and her fellows. Therefore, there is no doubt that the added information isquite necessary in conversation.
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CONCLUSION

The present thesis studies the phenomenon of interactional overinformativeness inconversation. By nature, the present thesis is pragmatic study. In terms of methodology,it is a qualitative analysis. The data used in the present study are collected from threepopular talk show programs: namely “Yang Lan One on One”, “A Date with Lu Yu”and “Tell It Like It Is”. In order to study the pragmatic functions, generation andinterpretation of the IO, the present study makes full use of an integrated theoreticalframework composed of the Grice’s Cooperative Principle, Verschueren’s AdaptationTheory and Sperber & Wilson’s Relevance Theory.This chapter serves to wind up the whole study. It starts with a summary of majorfindings of the present study. Then, it points out some implications and limitations fromthe study. Finally, some tentative suggestions are given for the further research.The present study produces some findings, all of which are helpful to ourcomprehensive understanding of the phenomenon of IO in conversation. The majorfindings are presented as follows.On the surface, although interactional overinformativeness violates the secondsub-maxim of quantity intentionally or unintentionally, it is still observing the overallCooperative Principle because the added information provided is usually relevant to thecurrent conversation in some ways and it may produce the conversational implicatures.The generation and interpretation of IO operate under the condition of cooperation onthe whole.