外国语学院本科毕业论文（设计）选题审批表

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第二篇：外国语学院本科毕业论文正文模版(12版)(1)

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Contents (Times New Roman 四号)

(以下各项内容英文用Times New Roman 五号，中文用宋体五号。1号标题，如 “introduction”或 “1 Some Fundamental Knowledge”,下属小标题不加粗。逐项缩进。各小节内容与页码之间用省略点号连接。各小节标题中的实意词首字母大写。目录中的小节内容应与文中的小节内容完全一致。)

Abstract?????????????????????????????????（2） 摘要???????????????????????????????????（2） Key words ????????????????????????????????（2） 关键字??????????????????????????????????（2） Introduction ???????????????????????????????（2） 1 Some Fundamental Knowledge about English Euphemism ???????????（4）

1.1 Definition of English Euphemism?????????????????????（4）

1.2 Origin of English Euphemism???????????????????????（5）

1.3 Formation of English Euphemism?????????????????????（5）

1.3.1 Borrowing ????????????????????????????（6）

1.3.2 Widening?????????????????????????????（6）

1.3.3 Semantic Shift???????????????????????????（6）

1.3.4 Metaphor?????????????????????????????（6） 2 Three Basic Principles of Using English Euphemism ??????????????（6）

2.1 Cooperative Principle and English Euphemism????????????????（6）

2.1.1 The Cooperative Principle???????????????????????（6）

2.1.2 Violating the Cooperative Principle???????????????????（7）

2.2 Politeness Principle and English Euphemism?????????????????（8）

2.3 Face Principle and English Euphemism ??????????????????（10） 3 Communicative Function of English Euphemism???????????????（10）

3.1 To Evade ??????????????????????????????（11）

3.1.1 In Terms of Disease and Disabilities ??????????????????（11）

3.1.2 In Terms of Death?????????????????????????（11）

3.1.3 In Terms of Sex ??????????????????????????（11）

3.1.4 In Terms of Body Excretion and Body Elimination Process?????????（11）

3.2 To Upgrade ?????????????????????????????（12）

3.2.1 In Terms of Appearance???????????????????????（12）

3.2.2 In Terms of Unemployment and Poverty????????????????（12）

3.2.3 In Terms of Occupation ???????????????????????（12）

3.3 To Disguise ?????????????????????????????（12）

3.3.1 In Terms of Commerce ???????????????????????（12）

3.3.2 In Terms of Politics ????????????????????????（13） 4 Implications ??????????????????????????????（13）

4.1 Implication on Cross-cultural Communication????????????????（13）

4.2 Implication on Foreign Language Teaching (FLT) and Learning?????????（14） Conclusion????????????????????????????????（15）

Acknowledgements ????????????????????????????（15） Bibliography ???????????????????????????????（15）

Pragmatic Failure in Politeness Language: Intercultural

Communicative Perspective （Times New Roman 四号）

Student:

Supervisor:

(College of Foreign Languages, CTGU) （Times New Roman 小四号）

Abstract: Nowadays, with the information and globalization, the earth becomes smaller and smaller. And intercultural communication among countries is more frequent than even. When people from different cultures communicate with each other, they habitually judge the behaviors of their counterparts according to their own social norms and politeness principles. What is polite in one culture may not be polite in another, thus pragmatic failures arise inevitably.

On the basis of various theories on politeness advocated by scholars at home and abroad, this paper intends to investigate the issues of pragmatic failure in intercultural communication made by English learners in China, according to the framework of “dichotomy” of pragmatic failure by Thomas. The paper also presents some useful suggestions on how to improve English learner pragmatic competence after a contrastive analysis of Chinese and English polite expressions.

摘要: 如今，随着信息化与全球化， 地球变得越来越小，各国间的跨文化交际也越来越频繁，越来越密切。当来自不同文化的人在进行交流时，人们会习惯地根据自己所遵循的礼貌原则来判断交际者的语言是否礼貌。在一种文化中被认为是礼貌的可能在另一文化中便是不礼貌的，语用失误便由此产生。

本文在回顾中外学者所提出的有关礼貌理论的基础上，按照Thomas 提出的语用失误“二分法”的框架结构，调查中国英语学习者在跨文化交际中易出现的语用失误问题。本文通过对汉英礼貌用语进行对比分析，进一步提出一些有利于英语学习者提高语用能力的建议。

Key words: Politeness principle; Pragmalinguistic failure; Sociolinguistic failure; Pragmatic

transfer

关键词: 礼貌原则; 语用－语言失误; 社交－语用失误; 语用迁移

（注： 每部分之间5号Times New Roman 空一行）

Introduction （引言部分字数要求为500-800英文单词）

With the development of science and technology, communication among people from different countries and different cultures is more frequent and important. Our world is multicultural. When we communicate with people from another culture, we are not only affected by the difference of language, but also disturbed by the difference of culture. To ensure a successful understanding and communication, we should pay attention to politeness, one of the most universal phenomena in intercultural communication. Politeness is a very important part of every national culture. When we communicate with others, we should be polite. Polite and proper form of language helps to establish and maintain harmonious social relationships. It may lead to pragmatic failure when people from different cultures use polite forms to communicate with each other. English is Chinese students?

foreign language, and we are not very familiar with its language rules. When we make some grammatical errors, it?s easy to be found. And it?s also could be forgiven, because we are “foreigners” to English. If we can speak English fluently, but we don?t pay attention to the context and speak English improperly, we will be considered to be impolite, and then it will break the atmosphere of the whole communication. Therefore, it is necessary and important to study pragmatic failure in politeness language.

??（省略）

This paper makes an analysis of the cultural difference of politeness language in intercultural communication according to an investigation of Freshmen English Majors? Cross-Cultural Pragmatic Competence in Politeness, on the basis of some theories. And it also proposes some suggestions on how to improve students? pragmatic competence.

1 Theoretical Background

1.1 Intercultural pragmatic failure

1.1.1 Intercultural communication

Intercultural communication is “the communication between people whose cultural perceptions and distinct enough to alter the communication event. Frequently, the term cross-cultural communication is used when referring to communication between people from different cultures” (Samovar, 2000:48).

Nowadays, cross-cultural communication is more frequent and important in the world. In order to communicate with people from different cultures successfully, we must improve our intercultural communicative competence. Generally speaking, intercultural communicative competence is the competence and quality that a successful cross-cultural communication needs (Chen Junsen, Fan Weiwei & Zhong Hua, 2006:13-14).

1.1.2 Pragmatic failure

Pragmatics is a new area in linguistics, and intercultural pragmatics is a new-emerged branch of pragmatics. Until now, there have been many linguists and scholars both at home and abroad who have studied intercultural pragmatic failure. Among them, Thomas Jenny plays the most important role at abroad while He Ziran at home.

The term pragmatic failure was first advanced by Thomas Jenny as “the inability to understand what is meant by what is said” (Thomas, from He Zhaoxiong, 2003:677). Pragmatic failure has occurred on any occasion on which H (hearer) perceives the force of S?s (speaker?s) utterance as other than S (speaker) intended s/he should perceive it (Thomas, from He Zhaoxiong, 2003:683). In China, He Ziran reaches the most outstanding achievements in this regard. He has his own different definition. He defined as “failure to achieve the desired communication effect in communication”. (He Ziran, 1988:226).

Pragmatic failure is different from grammar error. “It?s legitimate to speak of grammatical error, since pragmmaticality can be judged according to prescriptive rules (prescriptive for language-teaching purposes, at least), whereas pragmatic competence, as Candlin has observed, ?entails probable rather than categorical rules.? The nature of pragmatic ambivalence is such that it is not possible to say that the pragmatic force of an utterance is ?wrong?. All we can say is that it failed

to achieve the speaker?s goal” (Thomas, from He Zhaoxiong, 2003:684).

There are two types of pragmatic failure: pragmalinguistic failure and sociopragmatic failure.

1.1.2.1 Pragmalinguistic failure

Pragmalinguistic failure occurs when the pragmatic force mapped on to a linguistic token or structure is systematically different from that normally assigned to it by native speakers (Thomas, from He Zhaoxiong, 2003:696).

Pragmalinguistic failure may arise out of the following sources: pragmalinguistic transfer, pragmatic ambiguity and teaching-induced errors.

The pragmalinguistic failure occurs when the speaker can?t correctly interpret the words, phrases or sentence patterns. For example:

A (to fellow passenger on a long-distance coach): Ask the driver what time we get to Birmingham.

B (to diver): Could you tell me when we get to Birmingham, please?

C (the driver): Don?t worry, love, it?s a big place---- I don?t think it?s possible to miss it!

(Thomas, from He Zhaoxiong, 2003:682) In this case, the drive understood that B?s utterance as a request for information----“What time will we get to Birmingham?”, but misunderstood the intended sense of when.

Pragmalinguistic failure usually also occurs when Chinese people respond to the English tag question in a wrong way. For example, in Chinese, shi is an affirmative answer to the whole question no matter this tag question is in a positive or negative form, while in English “yes” is just confirms the basic part of the verb and doesn?t include the negative structure.

1.1.2.2 Sociopragmatic failure

Sociopragmatic failure occurs when interlocutors don?t understand or ignore the social and cultural differences between themselves. As we know, language is a reflection of culture. When people from different cultural backgrounds communicate with each other, there inevitably occur some misunderstandings between them because of their different social systems, habits and customs, beliefs, values and so on. For example: Mrs. Brown is about fifty years old. One day, she wore a new dress and then a student said, “You look nice and younger wearing this dress.” The student wanted to get the middle-aged teacher?s favor, but this made Mrs. Brown unhappy. Because this made she feel that she was old in speaker?s eyes, only the dress made younger. Or she thought the speaker flattered her. But in Chinese, this topic is absolutely free.

When scholars study pragmatic failure, most of them pay more attention to sociopragmatic failure. It?s the main pragmatic failure. It is usually caused by the inappropriate use of the grade of courtesy and the difference of culture values.

1.2 Pragmatic transfer

Interlanguage Pragmatics is a young discipline. The study and acquisition of the foreign language is easy to be influenced by mother tongue or native language culture, and then the pragmatic transfer appears. Pragmatic transfer is a domain of Interlanguage Pragmatics.

There are two types of pragmatic transfer: pragmalinguistic transfer and sociopragmatic transfer.

A pragmalinguistic transfer is “the process whereby the illocutionary force or politeness value assigned to a particular linguistic material in NL, influences learners? perception and production of

form function mappings in TL”(Kasper, cited in Liu Shaozhong, Liao Fengrong, 2002:37).

The following dialogue between a native English speaker (Speaker A) and a Chinese speaker of English (Speaker B) is a typical case of pragmalingistic transfer.

A: Would you like to go out and have dinner with me tonight?

B: Excuse me, but I?m busy tonight.

In this dialogue, Speaker A gave an invitation to B, expecting B to go to have dinner with him. B refused A directly, and apologized for it before giving an excuse. But B inappropriately used the expression “Excuse me” instead of suitable expressions such as “I?m sorry”. “Excuse me” and “I?m sorry” have the same Chinese meaning “对不起”, but they used in different contexts in English. B failed to use the suitable English expression due to the lack of linguistic means of expression.

A sociopragmatic transfer is a process “operative when the social perceptions underlying language users? interpretation and performance of linguistic action in TL are influenced by their assessment of subjectively equivalent NL contexts” (Kasper, cited in Liu Shaozhong, Liao Fengrong, 2002:37).

The following dialogue between a native English speaker (Speaker A) and a Chinese speaker of English (Speaker B) is a typical case of pragmalingistic transfer.

A: Your English is really fluent.

B: No, no, my English is still very poor.

(He Ziran & Chen Xinren, 2002:172) In this dialogue, A praised B?s English. Following Chinese cultural pattern, B answered modestly. This was absolutely suitable to Chinese culture, but not suitable to English culture. It would make A think that his view was denied and he would feel unhappy. In China, when one is praised, he would behave modestly, and often say “哪里，哪里”. But in English culture, when someone praises you, “Thank you” is the most proper response. So in the dialogue, B can reply “Thank you”. This kind of pragmatic transfer, which is due to the cultural differences between Chinese and English cultural paradigms, is what we call “sociopragmatic transfer”.

Pragmatic transfer can also be divided into positive pragmatic transfer and negative pragmatic transfer according to the effect of transference, which plays an important role in communication. Negative transfer of pragmatic is the directly reason which causes pragmatic failure.

The rules of language are different in every culture. When we acquire our mother tongue, we acquire the rules of mother tongue unconsciously at the same time. In the intercultural communication, we are often unconsciously to express our own thought according to the language rules of our native culture. Because we always ignore the difference of cultural background between each other, and we are lake of the understanding of other?s culture and don?t master the language rules of other?s culture. So the “interlanguage” has come into being, and it may cause pragmatic failure. This is what we usually said pragmatic failure which is caused by pragmatic negative transfer. We can use the following figure to summarize: Pragmatic failure violating the rules of native language violating the norms of

native culture

Pragmatic negative transfer

Pragmatic transfer

The difference between native language and target language

1.3 Politeness principles

Politeness is a hot study in pragmatics. It is a universal phenomenon, and it exists in all cultures. In the English-speaking culture and the Western world in general, politeness has been closely related to the behaviour typical of a certain social location and a certain social group. To be polite means to live up to a set of conventionalized norms of behaviour (He Zhaoxiong, 1995:3).

In modern Chinese, the equivalent of politeness is limao, which is believed to have evolved in history from the notion of li. Li originally refers to the various rules or practices employed in ancient sacrificial rites. The ancient philosopher and thinker Confucius advocates restoring li, which refers to the social hierarchy and order of the slave system of the Zhou Dynasty. It has ever since become an essential feature of the Chinese notion of politeness and has remained at the core of politeness in the Chinese culture (He Zhaoxiong, 1995:3-4).

Brown & Levinson?s “Face Theory” and Leech?s “Politeness Principle” trigger the past 20 years? extensive research of politeness. Lots of literatures about politeness put forward many amendments when they agree the two theories basically. And in China, Gu Yueguo proposed “Politeness Principle” according to the characteristics of Chinese culture.

1.3.1 Grice?s Cooperative Principle

In Grice?s opinion, in all verbal communication, in order to achieve specific aims, there is a tacit understanding between the speaker and hearer, a principle that should be obeyed by speaker and hearer. He called this principle as the Cooperative Principle of conversion.

There are four maxims in Cooperative Principle

(1) The maxim of quality

Try to make your contribution one that is true, especially:

a. Do not say what you believe to be false;

b. Do not say that for which you lace adequate evidence;

(2) The maxim of quantity

a. Make your contribution as is required for the current purposes of the exchange;

b. Do not make your contribution more informative than is required.

(3) The maxim of relevance

Make your contribution relevant.

(4) The maxim of manner

Be perspicuous, and specifically:

a. Avoid obscurity of expression;

b. Avoid ambiguity;

c. Be brief (avoid unnecessary prolixity);

d. Be orderly.

(Yang Xinzhang, 2005:169-170)

If everyone obeys the four maxims strictly, the communication would be the most reasonable and efficient. But in real communication, in order to be polite or something else, the participants often

flout the cooperative principle and its maxims. However, the CP fails to give a reason why people are frequently indirect in expressing what they mean, so that they use conversional implication.

1.3.2 Leech?s PP and Gu?s PP

Leech added and enriched Grice?s Cooperative Principle, proposed Politeness Principle which makes up for the lack of Cooperative Principle and increases the expression of politeness.

In describing the Interpersonal Rhetoric, Leech has concentrated on the Cooperative Principle and one maxim of the Politeness Principle----Tact Maxim. “Apart from Tact Maxim, there are a number of maxims dealing with polite behavior” “politeness concerns a relationship between two participants whom we call self and other” (Leech, from He Zhaoxiong, 2003:533-534).

Leech proposed six maxims of Politeness Principle:

(1) Tact maxim (in impositives and commissives)

a. Minimize cost to other

b. Maximize benefit to other

(2) Generosity maxim (in impositives and commissives)

a. Minimize benefit to self

b. Maximize cost to self

(3) Approbation maxim (in expressives and assertives)

a. Minimize dispraise of other

b. Maximize praise of other

(4) Modesty maxim (in expressives and assertives)

a. Minimize praise of self

b. Maximize dispraise of self

(5) Agreement maxim (in assertives)

a. Minimize disagreement between self and other

b. Maximize agreement between self and other

(6) Sympathy maxim (in assertives)

a. Minimize antipathy between self and other

b. Maximize sympathy between self and other

(Leech, from He Zhaoxiong, 2003:534-535) In these six maxims, we can find (1) & (2) and (3) & (4) are pairs. The difference is that (1) and

(3) considerate from other?s benefits and loses, while (2) and (4) considerate from self?s benefits and loses. We also can see, (1) a and (2) a is not different from each other naturally. If a sentence follows

(1) a, and it must be follow (2) a. Similarly, if a sentence follows (1) b, it must be follow (2) b. And the relationship of the maxim of (3) and the maxim of (4) is different from the relationship of the maxim of (1) and the maxim of (2). Praise or dispraise other will not cause to dispraise or praise self. The maxim of (5) and the maxim of (6) have no relation with each other.

Leech notes that not all the maxims are equally important. Tact maxim appears to be a more powerful constraint on conversational behaviour than generosity maxim, while approbation maxim is more important than modesty maxim. And he suggests that “politeness is focused more strongly on other than on self” (Leech, from He Zhaoxiong, 2003:536).

Leech?s Politeness Principle is proposed according to western culture. Some of them are not

suitable to Chinese culture, because China has its own culture characteristics which are quite different from western culture. Among Chinese scholars, the one who has contributed significantly to the study of politeness should be mentioned Prof. Gu Yueguo. He has proposed four sides of politeness: respectfulness, modesty, attitudinal warmth and refinement (Li Yue?e & Fan Hongxiong, 1998:29).

According to the characteristic of Chinese culture, Gu Yueguo has proposed five politeness maxims:

(1) Self-denigration Maxim

a. Denigrate self;

b. Elevate other;

(2) Address Term Maxim

Address your interlocutor with an appropriate address form;

(3) Refinement Maxim

Use refined language, including the use of euphemisms and indirectness, and avoid foul language;

(4) Agreement Maxim

Maximize agreement and harmony between interlocutors, and minimize disagreement between them;

(5) Virtues-words-deeds Maxim

Minimize cost and maximized benefit to other at the motivational level, and maximize benefit received and minimize cost to self at the conversational level.

(Gu, 1992: 11-14)

Comparing Leech?s PP with Gu?s PP, we can find some similarity between them. For instance, Tact Maxim and Generosity Maxim of Leech?s PP are similar with Virtues-words-deeds Maxim of Gu?s PP. However, there are still some differences between them, because of the different cultural backgrounds. Self-denigration Maxim has the most Chinese characteristics. For example, a Chinese invites an English to go to his house to have a dinner. The English says: “How Sumptuous and delicious the meal is. Thank you very much!” The Chinese host would reply as following: “Oh, no, no. It?s just a simple meal.” When Chinese people are praised, they will deny other?s praise and denigrate self to show modesty. But the English-speaking people would think you are impolite because of denying their praise.

1.3.3 Brown & Levinson?s Face Theory

Face is something that can be lost, maintained and enhanced, a kind of the speaker?s public self-image (Zhang Maizeng, 1998:257).

Brown and Levinson?s Face Theory is generally believed to be the most detailed and influential account of politeness to date. In their view, politeness is that people adopt a kind of language strategy to reach the purpose of leaving face to other in communication. Their Face Theory contains three basic notions: face, face threatening acts (FTAS) and politeness strategies.

Face, in Brown & Levinson?s theory, refers to the public self-image that every member wants to claim for himself. It consists in two related aspects:

a. Positive face: the want of every member that his wants be desirable to at least some others. b. Negative face: the want of every “competent adult member” that his actions be unimpeded

by others.

(Brown & Levinson, from He Zhaoxiong, 2003:564 )

According to Brown and Levinson, nearly all speech acts are face-threatening acts (FTAS). They propose the four-way analysis:

a. Acts threatening the hearer?s negative face, e.g.: ordering, advising, threatening, warning,

etc;

b. Acts threatening the hearer?s positive face, e.g.: disapproving, criticizing, complaining,

insulting, disagreeing, etc.

c. Acts threatening the speaker?s negative face, e.g.: expressing thanks, accepting thanks or

apology, unwilling promise and offers, excusing, etc.

d. Acts threatening the speaker?s positive face, e.g.: apologizing, accepting compliment,

confessing, shuffling, cowering, etc.

(Brown & Levinson, from He Zhaoxiong, 2003:569-572) The above is the classification of FTAS. However, the interlocutors apply various politeness strategies to minimize FTAS, Brown and Levinson propose the following possible strategies for doing FTAS:

on record with redressive action 4. off record 5. Don?t do the FTA

(Brown & Levinson, from He Zhaoxiong, 2003:573)

2 An Investigation of Chinese Students’ Pragmatic Failure

2.1 Purpose

English is Chinese students? second language. For the achievement of such intercultural acts, the form has the special marks of interlanguage inevitability, and it is easy to lead to pragmatic failure (Li Yue?e & Fan Hongxiong, 2002:63).

Misunderstangdings and even breakdown often occur when Chinese students communicate with English native speakers. This is to say they fail to accomplish their goals in the intercultural communication.

The investigation is designed to test the pragmatic failure committed by Chinese students in politeness language and the students? pragmatic competence. And then the writer will propose some suggestions on how to improve students? pragmatic competence according to the result of investigation.

2.2 Questionnaire

Polite language is abundant in English and Chinese. It includes greeting, accepting, refusing, complimenting, apologizing, etc.

Because of the actual limited condition, the present investigation adopts the method of questionnaires. This questionnaire consists of two parts, and 21 items altogether. Part 1 is True or

False Judgment, comprising 7 items; part 2 is Multiple Choice, including 14 items. It is easy to understand each item. It is designed to investigate the pragmatic failures that occur in our daily life.

The materials selected in this questionnaire are mainly from Prof. He Ziran?s A Survey of Pragmatics, a few of them are designed and modified by the writer self. 2.3 Subject

45 subjects involved in the investigation are selected from the first year college students of English major. These subjects have experienced about 6 years of normal education in middle schools, and half year of English major studying. They have certain linguistic competence. 2.4 Result

Table 1.1: Frequency Distribution of Pragmatic Failure of Part 1 (%)

Table 1.2: Frequency Distribution of Pragmatic Failure of Part 2 (%)

From the above two tables, we can find the rates of pragmatic failures are not balanced. The pragmatic failure rates of some items are rather high, e.g.: item 5, 6 in part1 and item 10, 12, 14, 17, 21 in part 2. There are 8 items? pragmatic failures less than 10%. Why there is such a large gap among them? It?s not difficult to find that the topics of lower failure are often appeared in the

textbook, and teachers often tell students to remember them. So students are very familiar with them, and they have become common sense topics in our daily life.

3 Discussion

The writer would like to compare the difference between Chinese culture and English-speaking cultures from the following five aspects.

3.1 Addressing

Addressing is a very important mark of politeness. As we know, both Chinese and English people have two kinds of personal names----surname and given name, also called family name and last name, but the order of the name is different. In China, the family name comes first and is followed by the given name, e.g.: Li Lei: Li is the family name and Lei is the given name. But in English, the given name comes first and is followed by the family name, e.g.: Jenny Smith: Jenny is the given name and Smith is the family name.

In China, the usual ways to address people are: a. by their given name; b. by their surname + title, e.g.: Li Xiansheng, Wang Shushu. In English, the usual ways to address people are: a. by their given name; b. by their title + surname, e.g.: Mr. Smith, Uncle Thomas.

In English, a person?s given name can be addressed by almost all the people while in China, a person?s given name is addressed by his family or intimate friends.

When Chinese people address family member, relatives or neighbors, we often address to show generation hierarchy, e.g.: 二哥，四婶，周大爷 （Li Yue?e & Fan Hongxiong, 1998:28）. Let?s see the item 8, 97.78% of the subjects chose the right answer “Hello, Jimmy”. It shows that most of the students know how to address in English. It is better than Li?s investigation result 28%. So we can find that students? addressing competence is improved.

There are special cultural norms to address people by a title combined with their surname. Here the writer would like to talk about the use of surname with the person?s “profession”. It?s very often and common to hear “老师早”(Good morning, teacher) in Chinese campus to show deference. The students are not allowed to address teachers simply by their names. It will be considered to be impolite. In English, some professions can function as titles, such as Professor, Doctor, Nurse, Captain, etc. these can be used before surname. So a student, for example, can call his professor “Professor Robert” or “Professor”, but not “Teacher Robert”. “Teacher” is not a title in English. In item 13, there are still 8.89% of the subjects addressing “Good morning, Teacher Johns”.

3.2 Greeting

Greeting is used frequently in our daily life; it?s a universal behaviour to show politeness. People from different cultures often have different ways of greeting. Chinese people often say “Have you had your meal?” or “Where are you going?” when they meet. But the English people say “Hello!”, “Good morning/afternoon/evening” or talk about weather “What a lovely day!”. If you greet an English people “Have you had your meal?”, he will think that you want to invite him to have a meal. Students master this kind of greeting. It is wrong to think that “The Chinese often say ?Where are you going?? or ?Have you had lunch?? when they meet, so it is with the English-speaking people.” All students judge correctly in item 3.

Another kind of greeting “How do you do?” is not usually used in our daily life. It is usually

used when people are not in a hurry. Students are not very familiar with it. There are only 22.22% of the subjects judging correctly (see 5).

In China, when we meet a teacher who has just had lecture, we usually say, “You must have been tired” to show our concern. But in English, this sentence may be given to two meanings: a. the class is not good, so the teacher has his lecture strenuously; b. the teacher?s physic or competence is so poor that he seems to need a rest only after finishing a class. If the foreign teacher understands either of these two meanings, he will feel angry. The appropriate greeting is “How do you like your students?”. Only 16.67% of the subjects chose this correct way of expressing (see 14). The students are influenced by the negative transfer of mother tongue.

3.3 Compliment & Responsing compliment

Compliment is an expression showing one?s admiration and approval. Nearly all the people more or less have a psychological inclination to hear compliments. According to Leech?s PP, his Approbation Maxim includes two parts: to minimize dispraise of other and to maximize praise of other. In Brown & Levinson?s Face Theory, compliment is a positive strategy to preserve one?s positive face. Moreover, Chinese Professor Gu Yueguo?s Self-denigration Maxim demands one should denigrate self and elevate other to show one?s modesty. Offering a compliment in Chinese culture and English culture is different. Let?s look at item 7, 40% of the subjects make pragmatic failure. In China the word “old” is not a derogatory term, but in English, people don?t like to be considered old. In their view, old means weak. Mrs. Brown was a middle-aged woman, the student?s compliment may make her feel that the speaker thought she was old, it?s just the dress make her younger; or she thought the student flattered her. So she was unhappy. But this kind of saying is free in China. Generally speaking, North Americans , Australians and many other English speakers tend to accept compliments happily while the Chinese prefer to efface themselves by denial or claiming that they are not worthy of the praise(Song Li, 2004:162).

In responsing to compliment, Chinese people and English people are absolutely different. For example (see 9), a foreign teacher praises a Chinese student “Your English is quite fluent.” According to Chinese culture, a person seldom accepts a compliment. So the typical Chinese response is “No, no, my English is poor” or “No, not at all”. Because Chinese people are apt to observe the Self-denigration Maxim of Gu?s PP. but in English culture, people will receive the compliment happily. He will response “Thank you”. Students are familiar with this kind of response of compliment, because it has been often used and teachers have often emphasized it. The results are gratifying. Only 2.22% of the subjects fail.

3.4 Accepting offer & Refusing offer

During visitation, Chinese people are very modesty as guests. If the host offers something to drink/eat, the visitor often refuses at first. But actually, the visitor wants to drink/eat. If the host is a Chinese, it will appear the following scenes: offer—decline—offer—decline—offer—accept. But if the host is an English, once you refuse, he may be never offer again. So, if you want to accept the offer, “Yes, please” or “Thanks. That would be nice.” is a proper answer to an English host. 73.33% of the subjects are correct in item 15, and still 26.67% of the subjects fail.

If you really want to refuse the offer, first you should say “No” to show your attitude, and then thanks for his offer. So “No, thanks” is a proper answer. In item 15, more than half of the subjects

(57.78%) fail.

3.5 Leaving-taking

If you want to leave, what would you say? 19 of the 45 subjects say “I?m sorry, I have to leave

now.”, 16 of the 45 subjects would make up an excuse, and only 10 of the 45 subjects express

correctly “It?s getting late and I?d better be gone” in item 21. The pragmatic failure rate is up to

77.78%. If we use “have to”, the tone is strong. And if we make an excuse, the host would think you

are not sincere to take part in the party, and he would feel unhappy.

When someone is leaving, he will say goodbye to others. Before saying goodbye, there are

different sayings to show politeness. In Chinese culture, the guest would say, “I am sorry to have

taken up so much of your time”. And the host would say “Go slowly”, “Walk well” or “Drop in often

if free”. These are not suitable to English. To English people, we often say “Thank you for your

inviting. I have a good time.”

From discussion, the writer finds that the students? case of pragmatic failure is not very different

from He?s investigation in 1988 and Li?s investigation in 1998. The students make lower failure about

the topics which are often appeared in the textbook, and teachers often tell students to remember them.

So students are very familiar with them. And the topics of high rate failure are those which students

are not familiar with. And we also can easily find that students? pragmatic competence is improved

than before. This is due to the improvement of English teaching and the students? earnestly studying.

However, students still make high rate of pragmatic failure in some topics as before. So we can find

that there are still some weaknesses in our English teaching and students? pragmatic competence still

need to be improved.

4 Improving Students’ Pragmatic Competence

From the above discussion, we know politeness is a universal phenomenon in both English and

Chinese. In order to communicate with people from English-speaking cultures fluently and

successfullly, students should improve their pragmatic competence. Since pragmatic failure is divided

into pragmalinguistic failure and sociopragmatic failure, we?ll mainly talk about how to improve

students? pragmatic failure from the following tow sides: developing students? pragmalinguistic

competence and developing students? sociopragmatic failure.

4.1 Developing students? pragmalinguistic competence

Pragmalinguistic failure is due to the fact that the speaker lacks the capability of accurate

understanding or proper using the language form and pragmatic function to express himself. Teachers

should help students to develop pragmalinguistic competence in every aspect of language teaching.

Teachers should integrate pragmalinguistic knowledge into vocabulary, grammar and discourse

teaching. In traditional teaching, teachers pay more attention to develop students? linguistic

competence. So students learn a lot of grammar and vocabulary. And students are good at

examination. However, once they are in a real situation, they don?t know how to speak in English

correctly and appropriately. We call the English that the students learn is “dumb English”. If the

teaching of grammar, vocabulary and discourse can be combined with those of pragmatic function, it

will be very helpful for students to use the different linguistic forms appropriately in different

situation.

In the class, teachers should not only pay attention to the exact of language form, but also pay attention to the exact of language using. One of the activities in class is to ask the students to make dialogues. Teachers should guide the students to pay attention to their roles and point out the utterance which is correct in form but inappropriate to the role or context. Language teaching is a very efficient way to improve students? pragmatic competence.

4.2 Developing students? sociopragmatic competence

Sociopragmatic failure is the main pragmatic failure, so it?s very important to develop students? sociopragmatic competence. The main reason of sociopragmatic failure is the interlocutor?s lace of understanding of the social and cultural differences between different cultures. So teachers can help students develop sociopragmatic competence through passing on to them correct cultural concepts.

As we know, a language can?t be separated from the society in which the language is used, and the people from different countries have different ways of speaking. So English teachers should try their best to expose students the English-speaking cultures, and make a comparative study between English-speaking cultures and Chinese culture. Cultural contrast is the basic approach to intercultural communication study. Only by contrast can we realize the differences between cultures directly. As we have mentioned, the differences of culture is the basic reason which causes pragmatic failure. So it?s important to cultivate and improve students? intercultural awareness.

Students also should avoid negative stereotyping. Because it will blind us to real difference that exist between the participants in diverse context. Negative stereotyping may make us believe, for instance, all French are romantic, all Japanese enjoy wushudao, etc. But they are not true. They are prejudice. If we don?t avoid negative stereotyping, we may make mistakes when we are in intercultural communication.

The school should pay more attention to intercultural teaching and add some subjects about it. And teachers should teach systematically and have class with kinds of activities to stimulate students to improve their intercultural awareness, and then improve students? intercultural pragmatic competence unconsciously.

4.3 Other approaches

1) Students should work hard and grasp what teachers have taught. In order to improve pragmatic competence, students should improve their linguistic competence first. For example, students should distinguish the usage of different modal verbs. Most of the pragmalinguistic failures are made due to the lack of language knowledge. Besides, students should be active in class and take part in class activities, such as making dialogues, joining in plays, etc. And English Corner is also a very good place for students to practise English, and then improve their pragmatic competence. In a word, students should try to take every chance to speak English.

2) Students can read English books, newspaper or magazines. When we read them, we should note and accumulate the materials of cultural background, customs, social relationship and so on. As we know, the best way to learn English and understand its culture is to live in the English-speaking countries. But most of us couldn?t go abroad, so we can learn it through this way.

3) Students can watch movies after class. It is an efficient approach to know English culture. Especially the movies which introduce English culture, it?s undoubtedly very useful for English learners. Dialogues in movies usually are near to our daily life, they are good learning materials.

Students can imitate them, and learn to use them when they speak with others in English. For example, The Joy Luck Club is one of the suitable movies.

4) Take good use of foreign teachers. It is very important to touch with native speakers when we learn a foreign language. English is our foreign language, may be we can speak well, but we couldn?t speak as authentic as native speakers. So students should often talk with foreign teachers, pay attention to their utterance, and amend themselves, and then try best to speaker English as authentic as possible.

In short, if you want to improve our pragmatic competence, first and the most important thing is we must speak English out. We correct our mistakes when we are in communication, and then improve our ability. Besides speaking, we also should learn English-speaking cultures. Knowing the culture will help us reduce even avoid pragmatic failure, especially sociopragmatic failure, and make the communication fluent and successful.

Conclusion

Politeness is a universal social phenomenon, so it is important to study politeness which is expected by all people in all cultures. Though politeness is universal, it is also cultural specific. The specificity lies in the basic differences in the conceptions of politeness and different cultures.

With China getting access to the World Trade Organization, Chinese people are making more and more contacts with English-speaking people. When communicate with each other, it is important to show politeness. So we must improve our pragmatic competence to communicate with others successfully.

The major concern of this thesis is put on to the pragmatic failure in politeness language that Chinese learners of English would make in their communication with native speakers. The study found that most of pragmatic failures are due to deficiency in the cultural differences and communication competence. Chinese students should try best to improve their pragmatic competence to avoid pragmatic failure.

However, this thesis is limited in the following two aspects. First, politeness has numerous ways, such as verbal acts, non-verbal acts and other forms. This thesis limited to verbal acts. Second, there are only 45 students taking part in the investigation, the range is not wide enough. And the questionnaire only includes some aspects that Chinese learners of English are apt to commit pragmatic failure, there are still many left.

Through writing the thesis, the writer has tried to study the subject systematically. But because of the limited ability and the lack of original reference, it is impossible to analyze exhaustively.

Acknowledgements

????（省略）

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（文献按姓氏的字母顺序排序。每项严格按照文献的编排格式 “著录--题名--出版事项”的顺序排列注明，如期刊按：著者，题名，期刊名称，出版年，卷号（期号）。书籍按：著者，书名，版次（第一版不标注），出版地，出版者，出版年。）

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（附录另起一页开始，Times New Roman小四加粗，附录正文用Times New Roman五号） Appendix

Questionnaire of Freshman English Majors’ Cross-Cultural Pragmatic Competence

PART ONE

Read each statement and decide whether the italicized part is appropriate or inappropriate. If it is appropriate, write an “A”, or, if it is inappropriate, write an “I” before each statement.

1. When the new term began, a student met his teacher, Miss Smith, on his way to the classroom. Student: “You must have a good time during the vacation. You look like you gained some weight.”

2. The students of Class One arranged an outing with their foreign teachers. As soon as they get on the school bus, one student said to Mrs. Green, “Please sit down, Mrs. Green. You are old. Don?t get tired.”

3. The Chinese often say “Where are you going?” or “Have you had lunch?” when they meet, so it is with the English-speaking people.

4. A Chinese invited an American friend to his house, he said, “Would you honor me by coming to my humble home to have a simple meal on Sunday evening?”

5. “How do you do?” is usually used when you are not in a hurry.

6. A Chinese schoolmaster gives a speech to welcome an American teacher in the welcome meeting. He said: “Ladies and gentlemen, I am delighted to introduce to you a very pretty girl, Miss Hower. She is a very good teacher from the U.S.A. ……”

7. Mrs. Brown is about fifty years old. One day, she wore a new dress, then a student said, “You look nice and younger wearing this dress.”

PART TWO

According to the situations provided, select appropriate answers from the following choices.

8. On the way home, a Chinese student addresses his cousin Jimmy, an eleven-year-old boy, newly coming from America with his parents:

A. “Hello! Cousin.”

B. “Hello! Jimmy.”

9. One day, a foreign teacher, Mr. Brown, talks to you.

Brown: Your English is quite fluent.

Ma: A. Thank you. It?s kind of you to say so.

B. No, no, my English is poor.

C. No, not at all.

D. Oh, no. Far from that. I still have a long way to go.

10. You had something to tell the teacher, Mr. Smith, so you went to his place, entering the room and

said: A. You?re not busy, I hope.

B. Got a minute?

C. Can I have a word with you, Mr. Smith?

D. I?m terribly sorry to trouble you, Mr. Smith.

11. On campus, Prof. Blake meets his student Wei Fang, a new comer from China.

Prof. Blake: “Are you from China?”

Wei: A. “Yes, I am.” B. “Yes, I am from China.”

12. You went to the airport to meet Mr. Barnes for your father. How would you say?

A. “Excuse me, would you be Mr. Barnes?”

B. “Excuse me, would you please tell me if you are Mr. Barnes?”

C. “You are Mr. Barnes, aren?t you?”

D. “Are you Mr. Barnes?”

13. Wei Dong met his English teacher, Dr Johns outside the classroom.

Wei: A. “Hello! Teacher.”

B. “Morning, Dr Johns.”

C. “Good Morning! Teacher Johns.”

14. How will you greet Professor Johnson as soon as he finishes his lecture?

A. “Good morning, you must have had a tiring job.”

B. “You must have been tired.”

C. “How do you like your students?”

15. A Chinese student at a foreign friend?s home.

Jack: “Would you like some tea?”

LuLi: “_____________________”

A. Thanks. That would be nice.

B. Thank you very much.

C. Please don?t go to any trouble.

D. I?d like a glass of milk.

16. Your friend?s mother, Mrs. Keeler, asked if you would like something to eat. What would you say

to refuse politely?

A. Not for the moment, thank you, Mrs. Keeler. I?m full.

B. No, thanks. I?ve just had lunch.

C. Oh, no, Mrs. Keeler. I haven?t long had lunch.

D. I?m full and have no room for any more.

17. If your English teacher uses a Latin word you don?t know, you would say:

A. “Please repeat.”

B. “I?m sorry. What did you say just now?”

C. “I?m sorry, I didn?t understand what you said. Could you please repeat that last word?”

18. On a crowded bus, when an American lady accidentally bumped into Wei Lin.

Lady: “I?m terribly sorry.”

Wei: A. It doesn?t matter.

B. Never mind.

C. That?s all right.

D. Don?t worry.

19. Betty is a foreign student in China. She has met Peng Fei.

Betty: “I was told that you won the 100-meter race in the all-city track meet this morning.

Congratulations!”

Peng: A. Just lucky.

B. Thank you.

C. I can?t say I did well this morning.

D. I could have done better if it hadn?t be so cold.

20. One day, you helped your foreign teacher to do something. When it finished, it was very late.

Your teacher said to you: “Thanks a lot. That?s a great help.”

Hsiao Li replies: A. “It?s my pleasure.”

B. “Never mind.”

C. “Oh, it?s nothing.”

21. At a party, how would you indicate that it was time for you to leave someone?s home?

A. “It?s getting late and I?d better be gone.”

B. “I?m sorry, I have to leave now.”

C. I would make up an excuse (e.g. I have to get up early tomorrow, etc.) and thank the host.