语言的礼貌程度和间接程度的关系理论实证分析——以汉语请求言语行为为例-an empirical analysis of the relationship between politeness and indirection of language - taking chinese request speech act as an example.docxVIP

test whether there is a correlation between indirectness and politeness. After that, post-test interviews are conducted among some of the subjects to provide some explanations of their judgment.The comparison of the two sequential orders of indirectness and politeness shows that there is no strong relationship between indirectness and politeness. The results challenge Brown and Levinson’s theory. This difference between English and Chinese can be attributed to their cultural differences. In Chinese, politeness is more complicated and attaches greater importance to the social order and reflects one’s personal quality. Indirectness is not necessarily aimed to achieve politeness. Rhetorical function is an important function of the indirect speech. In this sense, politeness can not be equaled with indirectness and it is no wonder there is no strong relationship between these two.Besides, this study also finds some characteristics of the sequential order of indirectness and that of politeness. People’s judgment of different levels of indirectness is relatively the same while that of different levels of politeness varies. This is also because politeness in China is very complicated and there is no universal accepted criterion to judge the degree of politeness.Key words: indirectness, politeness, speech act of request, correlation, cultural differenceList of TablesTables:Table 1 Basic information of subjects………………………….………………….18 Table 2 Social variables in six situations…………………………….……………21 Table 3 The least indirect in Situation 1…………………………………………..27 Table 4 The less indirect in Situation 1………..…..………………………. 27Table 5 The middle level of indirectness in Situation 1……….……………………27 Table 6 The more indirect in Situation 1…….…………………….…….………28 Table 7 The most indirect in Situation 1……….…….………………….………28 Table 8 The least polite in Situation 1…………………………….……………29 Table 9 The less polite in Situation 1………. …………………………………29 Table 10 The middle level of politeness in Situatio