A Pragmatic Study of Banter 11 IN Austen’s Pride and Prejudice

Banter is offensive on the surface, but at a deeper level it intends to maintain comity, that is to say, banter refers to employing a literally impolite utterance to convey a truly polite goal. As an important means in human communication, banter is often used to facilitate human relationships, relieve tense atmosphere, reinforce in-group solidarity. The current study attempts to explore banter from a pragmatic perspective. It discusses the politeness aspect of banter through highlighting the relation between politeness, impoliteness and banter, and the comparison between banter and irony, real impoliteness and virtual impoliteness. It also deals with the banter effect which may be positive or negative and the response to banter which may include showing an amused expression, responding with another banter utterance. For the sake of the analysis, certain extracts are taken from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.