礼貌原则的跨文化研究

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Introduction

Politeness is important in every civilized society, and it is a universal virtue as

well as a useful way to achieve successful and effective communication, for it

constantly reminds the participants to take into consideration the feeling of the others.

Besides, politeness is constrained by many factors and interpreted differently in

different cultures. Thus, it has received much attention in both Chinese and western

societies. And the topic of this dissertation is the politeness principle, which is

proposed by Geoffery Leech as the “rescue” of the cooperative principle. Later, when

receiving much attention and being attached more and more importance, it is

considered by Leech as one independent theory with equal importance of the

cooperative principle.

Politeness principle is not only social, but also cultural in nature. Many social

factors may have an effect on the degree of the politeness principle, such as gender, the

social status and the social distance between the participants. And Leech has also

pointed out that though politeness principle is universal, the application of some

maxims is varied in different cultures. So the contrastive comparisons between western

and eastern cultures (especially Chinese culture) as well as the differences of the

application of the politeness principle in varied cultures become the focus of this

dissertation. Both oriental and western linguists have done many researches on the

politeness principle respectively, especially on the application of its specific maxims in

different cultures. One of the most prominent researches on politeness in China was

done by Gu Yueguo who has proposed his own politeness principle based on Leech’s

principle. In this dissertation, the author prefers to consider Gu’s principle as an

application of Leech’s politeness principle in Chinese culture.

Since late 1970s, the communication between western and eastern countries has

become popular and frequent. And many changes have taken place. More and more

Chinese people not only learn the foreign language, but the culture is also grafted into

the learners’ mind, no matter whether they have realized it or not.

The first chapter serves as an introduction to the politeness principle, that is, its

six maxims and the scale of politeness. In addition, since Leech proposes the politeness

principle as the rescue of the cooperative principle, the relationship between the two is

A Cross-Cultural Study of the Politeness Principle

also a focus of this chapter. Besides, since the day it is proposed, the politeness

principle has undergone many criticisms. And this chapter also includes the

weaknesses of the politeness principle.

The second chapter is mainly about the social constraints on the politeness

principle, such as age, gender, context, relative power and also the social distance

between the interlocutors. The very same utterance may be considered to be polite or

impolite when uttered in different places or to difference people.

In the third chapter, the application of the politeness principle in different cultures

is under discussion. Politeness is not only a social phenomenon, moreover, it has

different values and explanations in varied cultures. These differences are represented

by the inequality of importance of the maxims in different eastern and western

cultures.

As the communication among different cultures develops, the values and believes

of one culture may influence those of another. It is also the case with the politeness

principle. Most obvious one is that in China, for instance, when complimented, many

people would happily accept the compliment, rather than decline it, as they used to do.

This kind of assimilation phenomenon constitutes the main focus of the last chapter.

Chapter One An Introduction to the Politeness Principle

Chapter One An Introduction to the

Politeness Principle

1.1 Leech’s politeness principle

1.1.1 Reason to Put Forward the Politeness Principle

In 1983, in his book Principles of Pragmatics, Leech proposed the politeness

principle in order to “rescue” Grice’s cooperative principle. In Leech’s opinion, the

cooperative principle can only help people interpret the conversational implicature but

fails to explain why the speaker will say things in such an indirect way. And he also

believes that the politeness principle has a higher regulative role than the cooperative

principle because it “may help to understand reasons speaker had for choosing the

particular content and form of what he said”(1983: 38-39). Leech uses two examples to

illustrate this point:

(1). A: We’ll miss Bill and Agatha, won’t we?

B: Well, we’ll all miss Bill.

(2) Parent: Someone’s eaten the icing off the cake.

Child: It wasn’t ME.

In the first example, B violates the quantity maxim. When asked whether or not

“We’ll miss Bill and Agatha”, B just partly affirms A’s words, ‘we’ll all miss Bill’. The

reason why B violates the quantity maxim is politeness, that is, he doesn’t want to

offend a third party (here, it refers to Agatha).

As for the second example, the child’s reply is more like defending himself. And

the reply is not relevant to the parent’s question. That is because the implicature is in

the parent’s utterance. Here the parent obviously knows who has eaten the icing off the

cake but he says it in an indirect way to “save the child’s face.”

However, we may also find that though the politeness principle can well explain

why speakers say things in an indirect way in some conditions, it fails in some other

conditions.

A: What time is it now?

B: The postman has just come.

A Cross-Cultural Study of the Politeness Principle

In this dialogue, B violates the relevant maxim in cooperative principle, however,

if he just tells the time to A, it will by no means offend A or any other person, on the

contrary, that is just what A wants. So the reason why B says things in an indirect way

in this example is definitely not politeness.

1.1.2 Six Maxims of the Politeness Principle

“Leech’s politeness principle can be formulated in a general way from two aspects:

to minimize, other things being equal, the expression of impolite beliefs and maximize,

other things being equal, the expression of polite beliefs (He, 2003: 82).” As the

politeness concerns two participants, that is, the speaker and the hearer, there are two

terms used in the politeness principles: self and other. Self refers to the speaker and

other refers to the hearer, or in some condition, to a third party, present or absent.

The politeness principles are expressed in the form of maxims and these maxims

are linked to particular types of speech acts (Leech, 1983):

Tact Maxim: (in impositives and commissives)

(a) Minimize cost to other (Here according to Leech, “Minimize cost to other”

should read: “Minimize the expression of beliefs which express or imply cost

to other”, the rest maxims should be similarly expanded.)

(b) Maximize benefit to other

Generosity Maxim: (in impositive and commisives)

(a) Minimize benefit to self

Approbation Maxim: (in expressives and assertives)

(a) Minimize dispraise of other

(b) Maximize praise of other

Modesty Maxim: (in expressives and assertives)

(a) Minimize praise of self

(b) Maximize dispraise of self

Agreement Maxim: (in assertives)

(a) Minimize disagreement between self and other

(b) Maximize agreement between self and other

Sympathy Maxim: (in assertives)

(a) Minimize antipathy between self and other

Chapter One An Introduction to the Politeness Principle

(b) Maximize sympathy between self and other

A more recent formulation:

Generosity/Tact:

Place a high value on other’s wants, a low value on self wants.

Approbation/Modesty:

Place a high value on other’s qualities, a low value on self’s qualities.

Agreement:

Place a high value on other’s opinions, a low value on self’s opinions.

Sympathy:

Place a high value on other’s feelings, a low value on self’s feelings.

Obligation [=indebtedness]

Place a high value on other’s actions, a low value on self’s actions. (Leech, 2003)

These six maxims with their more recent formulation may be summarized as

follows:

See what is beneficial to others, and try not to see what means cost to others.

The maxims are not of equal importance. For instance, among all the six maxims,

the tact maxim requires the most attention and is the most basic maxim. First of all, the

tact maxim is used in impositives which requires most politeness among all the speech

acts. This makes the tact maxim the most widely used and essential maxim. In He

Zhaoxiong’s book A New Introduction to Pragmatics, he (2000: 222) proposes that tact

is the foundation of politeness, and using language politely means using it with tact.

Besides, in all maxims, part (a) is more important than part (b) as it emphasizes

the avoidance of imposition or disagreement in conversation. Moreover, if an utterance

keeps to (a), it will also follow (b). In this perspective, we cannot see any necessity to

draw a clear line between (a) and (b).

1.1.3 Scales of Politeness

When politeness is under discussion, a matter of degree is also involved, which

will subject to social and cultural factors. The authors believes, to a certain extent, the

scales of politeness can be regarded as the “rescue” for the six maxims in the

politeness principle. The six maxims has received many criticisms for its considering

some speech acts as “inherently” polite or impolite. And Professor He Zhaoxiong (He,

A Cross-Cultural Study of the Politeness Principle

2000: 223) in his book A New Introduction to Pragmatics has pointed out that one of

the weaknesses of leech’s politeness principle is that it has neglected the social status,

identity of the two people and the degree of the performative easiness of the utterance

itself. By putting forward “scales of politeness”, Leech takes into consideration the

influence some contextual and social factors have on politeness, hence makes the six

maxims in the politeness more powerful.

As many scholars have pointed out that “minimize” and “maximize” in the

maxims are really vague and hard to control. According to Leech (1983), each of the

six maxims has an associated set of scales which help establish the requisite degree of

tact, generosity, etc. in a given speech situation. In order to measure the degree of

politeness as used in speech acts, Leech set up some pragmatic scales.

Social distance scale, which is also known as the power and solidarity scale,

“represents the degree of familiarity between the speaker and hearer (He, 2003: 90).” A

distinction between power and solidarity offered by Brown and Gilman in 1960 serves

as the basis of this scale. As is Professor He Ziran indicates, “this scale is

two-dimensional, for on the one hand, it measures the social distance in terms of the

power and authority of one participant over the other; on the other hand, it measures

the social distance in terms of solidarity or intimacy between the participants (He, 2003:

90).” If the hearer is higher up in the hierarchy of social power and with more distance,

the speaker has greater need to minimize the cost to the hearer, use more indirect

expressions and offer more choices to the hearer.

Cost-benefit scale represents the cost or benefit of an act to the speaker and hearer.

The more benefit the utterance will do to the hearer, the more polite it will be. For

example (Leech, 1983: 107):

Cost to hearer less polite

(1) Peel these potatoes.

(2) Hand me the newspaper.

(3) Sit down.

(4) Look at that.

(5) Enjoy your holiday.

(6) Have another sandwich.

Benefit to hearer more polite

In the above six utterances, each one is imperative, yet the degree of politeness of

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摘要：

Introduction1IntroductionPolitenessisimportantineverycivilizedsociety,anditisauniversalvirtueaswellasausefulwaytoachievesuccessfulandeffectivecommunication,foritconstantlyremindstheparticipantstotakeintoconsiderationthefeelingoftheothers.Besides,politenessisconstrainedbymanyfactorsandinterpreteddiff...

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