The Reflection of Interpersonal Relationship by the Lexicogrammatical Structure of Dialogue

This article reports a study on how, apart from semantics and pragmatics, lexicogrammatical patterns of conversation can reflect interlocutors' interpersonal relationship, especially their emotional charge towards each other, through analyzing the changes made in the process of adapting Dan Brown's novel The Da Vinci Code into a motion picture.The novel extract and the corresponding part of the motion picture adaptation of one scene in the novel were analyzed in the study.The original novel and the motion picture adaptation are very similar in terms of the content of the conversation among the characters, while they differ in the characters' emotional charge towards each other.This study focuses on analyzing the different types of response interlocutors give to each other.Response can be categorized as expected, neutral or discretionary, and correspondingly realize positive, neutral or negative emotional charge.This article also demonstrates how the distribution of different response types can be visualized to construct interlocutors' response profiles to facilitate the realization of their emotional charge.