摘要
英文極短小說(short short stories)自1980年代以來趨於流行，已有一些極短小說選集。關於這個相對新的敘述文文體也有越來越多的迴響。然而，還是有一些議題像是其定義與固定的字數仍未有定案。此外，極短小說是否可視為小說，學者間看法分歧。因此，現有的文獻主要探討極短小說是否可視為正式文學體裁。大部分有關的文獻不是從學者就是從作者的角度探討。但讀者是如何詮釋極短小說則很少討論。
本研究以語用觀點探究讀者讀英文六字小說時的詮釋路徑。根據五位受試者從線上質性問卷而得的回饋，本論文調查讀者閱讀五則六字小說時如何建構他們的故事世界。根據Mey (2001)的語用行為理論(Pragmatic Act Theory)和Sperber與Wilson(2004)的相關性理論(Relevance Theory)，本研究分析三個面向：(a) 讀者如何詮釋六字小說、(b) 讀者是否扮演演員的角色、(c) 讀者以何種方式扮演導演的角色。
本研究呈現讀者心智資料庫(encyclopedia)中舊有的資訊是如何與文本的新資訊互動，也指出讀者如何和作者合作建構出在心中的虛構世界。此外，本研究提出：當讀者閱讀時所使用的認知機制可由語用行為理論和相關性理論互補解釋之。這不僅可以補足閱讀為語用行為的概念，也可以闡明讀者記憶庫中儲存的舊資訊如何受到激盪。我們延伸行為者(actor)的可能性，論述在本研究中行為者可以是演員角色也可以是導演。本研究提供六字小說的初步分析與闡明讀者和作者間的互動。

ABSTRACT
Short short stories in English have become prevalent since the 1980s; there have been some anthologies of short short stories. More and more attention has been paid to this relatively new form of narratives. However, there remain some issues such as its definition and settled word count. Besides, whether short short stories qualify as novels sparks split opinions among scholars. As such, the existing literature primarily focuses on whether they can be deemed to be an official literary form. Most related scholarship is addressed from the perspective of either scholars or writers. Yet, how readers construe them has been rarely discussed.
Adopting a pragmatic approach, this present thesis aims to probe into readers’ interpretations when they read English six-word stories and intends to propose a hypothesis that when readers construe six-word stories, they deploy a mechanism which can be explained by two key pragmatic theories, Pragmatic Act Theory and Relevance Theory, be they conscious of that or not. Based on five participants’ feedback collected through a qualitative online questionnaire, this thesis investigates how the readers constructed their story worlds when reading five six-word story entries going viral on the Internet. Based on Mey’s Pragmatic Act Theory (2001) and Sperber & Wilson’s Relevance Theory (2004), this study focuses on three main aspects: (a) how readers construe the six-word stories, (b) whether readers play the role of characters and (c) in what ways readers play the given role of directors, suggested by the researcher.
The study presents how readers’ old information in the encyclopedia interact with the new information coming from the texts, and how they cooperate with the authors to construct the fictional worlds in their mind. Besides, the study proposes that Pragmatic Act Theory and Relevance Theory complement each other in explaining the cognitive mechanism readers employ when reading. This not only complements the notion of reading as a pragmatic act but sheds light on how old information stored in readers’ memory pools can be evoked and enriched. We expand the role of readers as actors, arguing that in our research, actors can be characters and directors as well. The present thesis provides a preliminary analysis of six-word stories and elaborate on the possible interaction between readers and authors.

論文審定書...................................................................................................................i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS…………………………………………………………............ii
摘要.............................................................................................................................iv
ABSTRACT.................................................................................................................vi
CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION...................................................................................1
1.1 Background............................................................................................................1
1.2 Motivation and Research Questions......................................................................3
1.3 Overview................................................................................................................6
CHAPTER 2. LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORKS............7
2.1 Pragmatic Act.........................................................................................................7
2.1.1 Definition of a pragmatic act................................................................................7
2.1.2 Pragmeme, pract, allopract................................................................................10
2.1.3 Pragmatic act and action theory.........................................................................11
2.2 Reading as a Pragmatic Act..................................................................................12
2.2.1 Author and reader...............................................................................................13
2.2.2 The pragmatic act of reading..............................................................................16
2.3 Relevance..............................................................................................................21
2.3.1 Contextual effect.................................................................................................21
2.3.2 Relevance, effect, and effort...............................................................................25
2.3.2 Given context or chosen context?.......................................................................29
2.4 Toward an Analytical Model................................................................................... 31
CHAPTER 3. METHODOLOGY...................................................................................35
3.1 Participants............................................................................................................35
3.2 Data Collection Method..........................................................................................35
3.2.1 Background of the targeted six-word stories.......................................................36
3.2.2 Questionnaire design...........................................................................................36
3.2.3 The purpose of the questions..............................................................................37
3.2.4 Data collection procedure....................................................................................38
CHAPTER 4. ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION..............................................................40
4.1 How Readers Read.................................................................................................40
4. 2 Readers as Actors..................................................................................................46
4.2.1 The actor playing the role of a character..............................................................46
4.2.2 The actor playing the role of a director.................................................................50
CHAPTER 5. CONCLUSION........................................................................................62
5.1 Summary.................................................................................................................62
5.2 Limitations and Suggestions for Further Studies.....................................................65
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................67
APPENDIX—Questionnaire Sample.............................................................................71

LIST OF FIGURE
Table 2.1 How PAT and RT complement with each other………………………… .........34

…………………………………………………………………………………………..............

LIST OF TABLE
Table 3.1 The random distribution between participants and stories………………....... 39

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