AstudyofgenderdifferencesincomplimentsandomplimentresponsesinChinesecontext硕士论文

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1、汉语语境中恭维语和恭维应答的性别差异研究A study of gender differences in compliments and ompliment responses in Chinese contextTABLE OF CONTENTSACKNOWLEDGEMENT3 ABSTRACT(English Version).4ABSTRACT (Chinese Version).6CHAPTER1 INTRODUCTION.7 CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEVV.11CHAPTER 3 THE STUDY.27CHAPTER 4 THE RESULTS.38 CH

2、APTER 5 INTERPRETATION AND DISCUSSION.46 CHAPTER 6 CONCLUSION58 REFERENCES.61AbstractCompliments are very common both in English and Chinese contexts, which are served to increase or consolidate the solidarity between the speaker and addressee (Holmes,1988).This paper examines the differences betwee

3、n womens and mens complimenting and compliment responding behaviors, exploring the function of the positive speech acts on the one hand as positive strategies and on the other as potentially face threatening or saving acts. Using an open-ended questionnaire of 120 Chinese college sophomores, the pap

4、er provides an analysis concerning the compliments and compliment responses between the same genders and the different genders.Firstly, the compliment strategies and topics characterizing the compliments of female and male Chinese college students are described. Secondly, the compliment formulae, as

5、 well as the gender of complimenters and complimentees are examined. Thirdly, compliment responses are categorized according to types of strategies, in addition to the responders sex.The findings are related to the hypothesis that there are significant differences between women and men in their real

6、ization patterns of compliments and compliment responses, and to the reasons of the existing gender differences in language using. The statistical results show that, generally speaking, there exist significant differences between men and women when they compliment or respond to compliments from othe

7、rs. For the first part, women tend to use more Explicit Compliments than men do, while men tend to apply more Implicit Compliments, or choose to opt out. For the second, men and women also show slight difference in using compliment formulas. Women tend to use more adjectives, whereas men tend to app

8、ly more nouns. For the third, as for compliment response strategies between men and women, women tend to apply more acceptance than men, while more men tend to avoid it. Therefore, our former hypothesis can be true that there do exist significant relationship between gender and the realization patte

9、rns of this speech act.The reason why men and women differ in language use is that they often fill different roles in society, even in their families. Mens dominant position in society leads them to use more assertive speech style. Women tend to use more polite and standard speech style looking forw

10、ard to gaining a better social status. Furthermore, education serves as an important factor in gender difference in language using. Boys and girls are taught to learn to behave themselves like a boy or a girl during their childhood. Hence, it is unavoidable that there are some differences between th

11、eir languages, linguistically speaking. Finally, with the development of society, womens social position has been improved a lot. Society shows more and more concern and respect to women. The gender-based differences will become less and less. I do hope this study will shed some light on the foreign

12、 language teaching and learning, so that learners could compliment or respond to compliments more appropriately, conveniently and naturally while communicating with foreigners.Key Words: compliment, compliment response, gender, Chinese context, study.摘 要英汉恭维语是一种非常普遍的语言现象。它具有缩短交际者之间的社会距离、维护人际关系的社会功能（

13、邹为诚， 1990）。恭维语是一种积极的言语行为，交际者不仅要遵守话语规律，还必须遵守社会文化规范，要受到许多因素，诸如年龄、性别、受教育水平、社会地位和社会关系等影响。语言是社会文化的一个方面。近年30来，国内外许多语言学家已从这一角度对恭维语或恭维应对做了大量的研究，例如Wolfson, Pomerantz, Manes and Wolfson,贾玉新，邹为诚等。他们的研究均证实“无论从句法结构还是语义组成方面，汉语恭维语（与英语恭维语一样）也是高度程式化的言语行为。”；另外，汉英恭维语在话题上都主要涉及两个方面，一是“外貌”和“所有物”，二是“成就”和“能力”。（贾玉新，1997）然而，

14、以上的研究多是关于同性之间的恭维语言语行为现象，且没有把恭维应答纳入研究范围。本文旨在论证汉语语境中恭维和恭维应对之间是否存在性别差异，以及产生这种差异的原因。作者以问卷调查的形式调查了120名安徽农业大学二年级英语、计算机、园艺、动物医学、土地管理与规划等专业的学生，其中男女生各60名，共获得112份有效答卷。调查结果显示，恭维和恭维应对之间存在性别差异。首先，就恭维策略而言，女性较多使用明确的恭维语言，而男性多用含蓄的恭维语言；其次，在恭维格式上，女性多使用形容词，而男性则多用名词；再次，在恭维应答策略方面，女性多会接受恭维，而男性多会拒绝。恭维和恭维应对之间存在性别差异，作者认为，长期以

15、来形成的男尊女卑的社会地位差异是产生这一现象的主要原因。由此，女性会使用较礼貌、标准的语言以期提高自己的社会地位。此外，教育也是导致差异出现的主要因素之一。相信随着社会的发展，女性地位的提高，语言使用中的性别差异将会逐步淡化。关键词：恭维语，恭维应答，性别， 汉语语境， 研究。Chapter One Introduction In everyday life, there are a number of speech acts we can choose to show positive politeness, for example, greetings, hanks, friendly a

16、ddress terms and expressions of concern. “A compliment is one of them, which notice and attend the hearers interests, wants, needs, goods.”(Holmes: 1988) Since 1970s, pragmatists and linguists have attached great importance to the study of speech act behavior, such as Apology, Request, Compliment &

17、Compliment Response, Refusal and Complaint, etc. These studies show that, the social and situational factors, which will exert their influences on the use of the speech acts, include gender, age, level of education, social distance, social relationship, style, ethnicity and so on. Compliments, as a

18、positive speech act, will be inevitably influenced by these social factors. Many investigations have been conducted in the western countries as well as in China.Although pragmatists and socialinguists have examined the relationship between gender and language for the last thirty years, there is litt

19、le consensus about this relationship. As far as female speech is concerned, arguments continue to focus on whether or not female speakers express powerlessness in their speech or whether they express a form of speech only different from that of males by using, for example, more polite speech style.

20、Of the social causes of gender differentiation in speech style, one of the most critical appears to be the level of education. In all studies, it has been shown that the greater the disparities between educational opportunities for boys and girls, the greater the differences between male and female

21、speech (Spolsky, 2000). The more recent feminist theory has focused on the social construction of gender, not exclusively in childhood but for a whole lifetime, and this seems to be more powerful in explaining gender differences in language use.Compliments are positive speech acts, which are sensiti

22、ve to both social constraints and individual variables. Social factors such as age, gender, ethnicity, level of education, social status and social relationship between the interlocutors will inevitably influence the complimenting behavior of all interlocutors.Several studies have shown that there a

23、re some differences between males and females in their realization patterns of compliments and compliment responses. Two important studies that focus on gender differences in complimenting and responding to compliments are those by Holmes (1988) and Herbert (1990). They found that the syntactic patt

24、erns and lexical choice used by men and women were different. Based on the findings, they assumed that females use compliments for keeping solidarity while males regard compliments as potential face threatening acts (FTAs) or actual assertions of praise. Other important studies done in Chinese were

25、by Ye (1995) and Jia (1997), which investigated compliment and compliment response realization patterns in Chinese context. They examined kinds of topics and situations, as well as gender-based distributions. Although Yes study does not take gender as the major variable, it offers the framework and

26、analytical methodology for the present study. Jia also devoted greatly to the study of compliments, whose studies covered lexical choices, sentences patterns, and topics etc. He concludes that compliments in Chinese context is as highly formularized as that in English context, and that the most popu

27、lar topic of compliments are related to the two aspects, one is appearance and possessions; the other is achievements and abilities.Even if the previous studies do not thoroughly agree with each other on the differences between women and mens compliments, they seem to agree upon the viewpoint that w

28、omen tend to use more polite language forms than men in their speech for the fulfillment of the different purposes. For men and women, language may serve different functions. Hallidays functional language theory can be regarded as theoretical evidence. In Hallidays view, language is multifunctional.

29、While Hallidays functional view of language can provide broad theoretical explanations for the analyses on gender differences in language using, Brown and Levinsons Politeness and Face Theory, Leechs Politeness Principle and Gus Politeness Theory, each from slightly different perspectives, provide a

30、 more specific theoretical framework. The theories mentioned above are useful for the analysis of compliments as politeness strategies and for the explanation of the tendency that women tend to use more polite language forms in this speech behavior.Based on the analytical framework established by He

31、rberts and Yes researches, the present study is to investigate the influence of gender on the compliment realization patterns as well as compliment response patterns in Chinese context. It aims to answer the following questions:Q1: Is there any difference between males and females in their complimen

32、t and compliment response forms in Chinese context?Q2: Do women tend to use more polite language forms than men in their complimenting and compliment responding behavior in Chinese context?The study has two aims:(1) to discover similarities and differences of politeness language forms between the ma

33、le and female respondents;(2) to explore the reasons why there exist gender differences in language behavior. Compliments and compliment responses have been described as highly formulaic speech acts. For instance, it is said that the most appropriate response to a compliment is “Thank you”; however,

34、 the Chinese would reject a compliment most of the time. Yet, despite this strong stereotype, many speakers still feel embarrassed with others compliments and are uncomfortable when respond to compliments. Clearly, this paradox merits investigation.Although a lot of researches have been carried out

35、on compliments and compliment responses, they are mainly conducted in English-speaking countries. Few studies have investigated compliments in Chinese context. This study, which is to investigate the characteristics of the Chinese compliments and compliment responses, will surely shed light on the r

36、esearch of this speech act set in Chinese culture and offer useful information for cross-cultural communication.As we all know, the concept of speech act plays a crucial role in language studies. Previous studies have shown that compliments and compliment responses are clearly influenced by both lin

37、guistic and sociolinguistic norms of behavior. So studying of this speech act set can provide a valuable insight into speakers reactions to external evaluations of their personal and social identity.Finally, it is very important for second language learners to give appropriate compliments and respon

38、ding to them accurately. So, doing research on complimenting behavior and compliment response can help teachers know how to teach in order to improve students communicative competence.The data in the study are elicited by the means of two written open-ended questionnaires from a group of native Chin

39、ese College students, who major in different subjects. The results and analyses of the data are performed with Chi-Square tests and percentages.This paper includes five parts. In Chapter Two, the author will review briefly the related theories, such as speech act theories (Austin, 1962; Searle, 1969

40、, 1975), face and politeness theories (Brown and Levinson, 1978; Leech, 1983). Gus politeness theory (1990) is also reviewed for explaining certain politeness phenomena in Chinese context. Since the study focuses on gender-based differences in compliments and compliment responses, certain theories a

41、bout language and gender will be reviewed, namely the theories by Lakoff (1975),Tannen (1990) and Crawford (1995), etc.Chapter Three is about how the study is conducted, including the research design, the dissecting of the research questions, the selection of subjects and the procedures of data coll

42、ecting and analyzing.In Chapter Four, this paper will show the results of the study. In Chapter Five, this paper will interpret the major findings of the study and then give explanations of the results obtained in the research. And finally in Chapter Six, this paper will briefly summarize the major

43、discoveries of this study, indicate the limitations and implications of the study and point out the directions for further research.Chapter Two Literature ReviewAs mentioned in Chapter One, the purpose of the study is to investigate the influence of gender on the compliment realization patterns as w

44、ell as on compliment response patterns in Chinese context. In this chapter, some important theories related to the study will be reviewed. These theories include theories on gender differences, speech act theories, and face and politeness theories. All the theories will build up the theoretical fram

45、ework of this study. In addition, some of the previous studies on gender-based differences in compliments and compliment responses will also be reviewed.2.1 Overview of speech act theory2.2.1 Austins speech act theory Austin was one of the first modern scholars to recognize that words are in themsel

46、ves actions.Austin (1962) defines speech acts as all the things we do with words when we speak. For example, we use language to apologize, to order, to warn, to compliment, to threaten, to request and so on. Actions performed via utterances are generally called speech acts, and in English, are commo

47、nly given more specific labels, such as apology, compliment, complain, invitation, promise or request. The essential concept of speech acts, so to speak, is that although the number of utterances in a language is infinite, people use these theoretically unlimited utterances to accomplish a limited s

48、et of purposes. These purposes are called speech acts.For Austin, on any occasion, the action performed by producing an utterance will consist of three related acts: locutionary act, illocutionary act, and perlocutionary act. Locutionary act is the basic act of utterance, or producing a meaningful l

49、inguistic expression. The second dimension is the illocutionary act, which is performed by uttering some words, such as commanding, offering, promising, threatening, thanking, etc. For example, when A says: “Give me some cash” to B, the locutionary act is the sound he makes when he says the sentence

50、, the illocutionary act is that A performs the act of requesting B to give him some cash. The third part is the perlocutionary act, which is the actual result of the locution. It may or may not be what the speaker B wants to happen but it is caused by the locution. For example, As utterance may have

51、 any of the following perlocutions: A persuaded B to give him the money; B refused to give him the money; B was offended; etc. In a word, the perlocution is defined by the hearers reaction.Of these three dimensions, the most discussed is illocutionary force. Indeed, the term “speech act” is generall

52、y interpreted quite narrowly to mean only the illocutionary force of an utterance. The illocutionary force of an utterance is what it “counts as”.Austin distinguishes locutionary and illocutionary acts by stating that the interpretation of the locutionary act is concerned with meaning and the interp

53、retation of the illocutionary act with force. He later proposes a tentative classification (1962) of explicit performative verbs. He divides them into five categories based on the notion of illocutionary force. They are verdictives, exercitives, commissives, behabitives and expositives. “Compliment”

54、 can be categorized into the group of bahabitives to express ones attitude towards something.2.1.2 Searles speech act theory But, there are still some problems with Austins speech act theory. One problem is that the same utterance can potentially have quite different illocutionary forces. The speake

55、rs will be hard to assume whether the intended illocutionary force will be recognized by the hearers.Based on Austins speech act theory, Searle (1976) attempts to explain the notion of the illocutionary act by stating a set of necessary and sufficient conditions for the performance of a particular k

56、ind of the illocutionary acts. He reclassifies it and proposes so-called direct and indirect speech act. To be exact, a declarative used to make a statement is a direct speech act, but a declarative used to make a request is an indirect speech act.(Yule, 2000)Searle divides the illocutionary act int

57、o five types of general functions.The five-category classification of illocutionary acts is representatives, directives, commissives, expressives and declarations.Representatives are those kinds of speech acts that state what the speaker believes to be the case or not. Statements of fact, assertions

58、, conclusions, and descriptions, for example: “The earth is flat.” or “It was a rainy day”, representing the world as he or she believes it is.Directions are those kinds of speech acts that speakers used to get somebody else to do sth. They express what the speaker wants. They can be positive or neg

59、ative, for example: Dont smoke! or, Give me a cup of tea! They may be very modest attempts as inviting or suggesting, or they may be very fierce attempt as insisting, ordering, or commanding.Commissives are those kinds of speech acts that speakers use to commit themselves to some future course of ac

60、tion, such as promises, threats, refusals, pledges etc. They can be performed by the speaker alone, or by the speaker as a member of a group. For example, I will be back. or, We will not do that.Expressives is to state what the speaker feels. They express psychological state and can be statements of

61、 the speakers attitude, feelings and emotions, for example, pleasure, pain, likes, dislikes, joy, sorrow, complaints, apologies and compliments etc.Declaratives is the speech act which change the world with their utterance, such as command, declaration, etc. For example, We find the defendant guilty

62、!The theory of speech acts has been influential not only in philosophical and linguistic fields, but also in foreign language learning and teaching and cross-cultural research.On the previous section, the paper mentioned Austin and Searles theory of speech acts and their classifications. And as we a

63、ll know, many researchers explored the actual forms and their functions of different speech acts in different languages in cross-cultural study. They found that speech acts were constrained by politeness principle at different degrees depending on different cultures. So it is essential to refer to t

64、wo important notions-politeness and face in the next section.2.2Face and politeness theory As a technical term, face means the public self-image of a person. It refers to the emotional and social sense that everyone has and expects anybody else to recognize.Politeness is viewed as one of major social constraints on human interaction, which regulate participants communicative behavior by constantly reminding them to take into consideration other peoples feel