从语用学的礼貌原则看英语中的委婉语 [7]
论文作者:苛雅婷论文属性:短文 essay登出时间:2009-04-06编辑:黄丽樱点击率:13841
论文字数:5500论文编号:org200904061045258415语种:中文 Chinese地区:中国价格:免费论文
关键词:euphemismsocial functionsPoliteness Principleface want委婉语社会功用礼貌原则面子
According to Brown and Levinson, nearly all speech acts are face-threatening acts. There are two kinds of face: one is Positive Face; the other is Negative Face.
“Positive Face refers to our need to be accepted and liked by others and our need to feel that our social group shares common goals. Positive Politeness orients to preserving the positive face of other people. When we use positive politeness we use speech strategies that emphasize our solidarity with the hearer, such as information pronunciation, shared dialect or slang expressions, nicknames, more frequent reference to speaker and hearer as “we”, and requests which are less indirect.
Negative Face refers to our right to independence of action and our need not to be imposed on by others. Negative Politeness orients to preserving the negative face of other people. This is much more likely if there is a social distance between the speaker and the hearer. When we use negative politeness, we use speech strategies that emphasize our deference for the hearer. Nicknames, slang and informal pronunciation tend to be avoided and requests tend to be more indirect and impersonal, often involving could you… or could I ask you to… or even referring to the hearer in the third person.” [27]
4.2.3 The relationship between politeness and face want
Face refers to our public self-image. Politeness involves us showing an awareness of other people’s face want. In our interpersonal communication, we should pay attention to other’s face want. In the field of education, teacher has to deal with the relations with the students. There are some euphemisms about education. For example, if a student is lazy, we don’t call him “lazy student”. Instead, we call him “underachiever”. If a student cheats in class, we regard it that he depends on others to do his work. “And if a student is quarter-witted and he usually gets a low mark in the exams, we don’t call him stupid. So when the teacher talks with the child’s parents, the teacher would say: ‘Your child is a bit slow for his age.’” [28] He says the fact in a roundabout way so it will not hurt the parents’ and the child’s self-esteem. It is a face-saving strategy.
In short, in people’s daily communication, they have to be polite to save each other’s face and make their relations more harmoniously. They can achieve this goal by using euphemisms because they are sweet-sounding. And this is the polite function of euphemism.
5. Euphemism and Politeness Principle
From the above, we know that euphemism has something to do with politeness. We can associate politeness with Politeness Principle.
5.1 Leech’s politeness principle
“Generally speaking, most of the euphemisms accord with conversational principle, especially politeness principle. Leech’s (1983:132) maxims of the Politeness Principle tend to go in pairs as follows:
(1)Tact Maxim (in impositives and commissives)
a. Minimize cost to other;
b. Maximize benefit to other.
Some examples : a、If you keep this diet, you’ll be on the heavy side.
(c.f.: If you keep on eating too much, you’ll become very fat.)
b、Thank you for your kind hospitality.
(c.f.: Thank you for your delicious food.)
(2)Generosity Maxim (in impositives and commissives)
a. Minimize benefit to self;
b. Maximize cost to self.
Some examples: a、Would you do me a favor?
(c.f.: Can you help me?)
b、I shall never cease to feel grateful for your favors
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