On the politeness Diction Phenomenon and Misusage in the Intercommunication

摘要：礼貌是人类文明的标志，是人类社会活动的一条重要准绳。文章阐述了言语交际中的礼貌现象，分析了误用问题发生的成因，从文化及教学方面提出几点建设性建议，以期更好的避免误用问题的发生。

关键词：言语交际 礼貌现象 误用问题

Abstract：Politeness is the mark of human civilization and also an important gauge of social event of human. This paper defines the politeness diction in the intercommunication and analyzes the causes of misusage to give some suggestions for teaching.

Key words： intercommunication， politeness diction， misusage

Introduction

Politeness has long been concerned by people as a social phenomenon， and it exists in any language and culture. In 1980s， H. P. Grice， American linguist and philosopher， brought forward to The Principle of Cooperation in the intercommunication. However， compared with other related researches throughout home and abroad， there are few scholars talking about politeness and misusage phenomenon together. The paper analyzes the politeness diction phenomenon and misusage by listing examples and putting forward some suggestions to avoid misusage.

1. The Politeness Diction Study

In 1980s， Grice proposed the Cooperation Principle and its four maxims. Because of the lack of something in the principle of cooperation， Leech and other learners are all dissatisfied with the principle of cooperation and Speech Act Theory. Politeness principle concerns the relationship between two participants of a speech event. It tries to give others more benefit and depreciate self to show respect to others and try to find common grounds between self and other. Politeness is universal and inhibited by social custom and behavior. Gu Yueguo put forward four basic notions of Chinese politeness： respectfulness， modesty， attitudinal warmth and refinement.

2. The Misusage Problems in the Principle of Politeness

Firstly， Language is the carrier of culture， and the great difference exists between the culture of Chinese and English will be reflected in language and the use of language. If language learners cannot use the target language properly， it is easy to make mistakes by using improper words and phrases which is similar to their native language. Secondly， China and English have different cultures and customs， thus Chinese and English nationalities have great differences in psychology， the way of thinking and principle of pragmatics. As far as English and Americans are concerned， it is personal infringement in the intercommunication that they are asked about salary、age、region、belief and marriage directly. Thirdly， Different language users have different way of thinking about the world， and they have different opinions about the same things. Westerners look for improvement and self-value. In Chinese culture， they do not value “change” too much.

3. Strategies for Misusage Problems

Firstly， when teaching a foreign language， the teacher should place more emphasis on the culture of that language. Secondly， although we should pay too much attention to target culture in EFL teaching， it does not mean that native culture may be ignored. On the contrary， we should encourage students to learn and develop our national culture. Thirdly， to realize pragmatic knowledge， we should first know about grammatical knowledge. When teaching a foreign language， the teacher should not only concentrate on the grammatical knowledge， but also on the pragmatic knowledge. Fourthly， any language learning can be improved by listening， speaking， reading and writing. It is the same as English learning， we can find out our drawbacks by communicating with others. Teachers should encourage students to take part in English Salon， English Corner， and English Club.

Conclusion

Politeness is the mark of human civilization and an important gauge of social activity of human beings. In this way， English learners should understand the behavioral function of langue and non-langue of native English people， enhance the sensibility of different cultures， learn to see things in the view of English people， and not to apply Chinese culture to western culture. Therefore， teachers should cultivate students’ awareness of cultural differences and open up some cultural classes to enable students to master principles and guidance about culture. In doing so， misusage can be better avoided and finally the goal of communication can be realized.

References：

[1]Grice， H. P. “Logic and Conversation” in Syntax and Semantics： Speech Act， P. Cole & J. Morgan （eds.）[M]. New York： Academic Press， 1975.

[2]Leech Geoffrey. Principles of Pragmatics. 1983.

[3]Kramsch， Claire. Language and Culture. Oxford University Press. 2000.

[4]顾日国. 礼貌语用与文化[J]. 外语教学与研究， 1992， （4）.

[5]胡壮麟，语言学教程（第3版）[M].北京：？北京大学出版社. 2009.

作者简介：张敏（1988—），女，彝族，云南昆明市人，应用语言学硕士，单位：云南师范大学外国语学院外国语言学及应用语言学专业，研究方向：应用语言学。