【英语论文】pragmatic_failure_of_politeness_in_cross-com.doc

Abstract   
 
         Pragmatic failures of politeness in inter-cultural communication have been very common phenomena and to a large extent are influencing smoothness and effectiveness of communication seriously, which are the focus of this paper confined
in intercultural communication between Chinese and English native speakers. This paper describes pragmatic failures in some categories of polite speech acts and gives a new approach to analyze the causes that lead to such failures.
In terms of daily speech acts, such as greetings, compliment, farewell, refusal apology request and so on, pragmatic failures in practice are illustrated and simply discussed. In this paper, the main causes are classified into three categories, which are politeness transfer, different culture-based cognitive environment，and improper choice of context. The prototypical politeness of individuals in intercultural communication will be transferred into the communication consciously or unconsciously. The formation of cognitive environment is based on the native culture and the most relevant culture factors are always playing as reference points and prototype to influence the communication. The relevant context with optimal relevance will come up first in one’s culture and plays to proceed the communication. Such different prototypical understanding of context in different cultures and languages inevitably result in communicative failures.
To summarize from a new perspective, this paper explores politeness failures in
Inter-cultural communication, presents the discussion of causes in the light of cognitive view and provides a reference for English learning and teaching, as well as intercultural communication.
Key Words: pragmatic failures, politeness, cognitive, prototype, relevance
                                                                            

摘 要    
跨文化交际中的礼貌语用失误已经成为一个普遍的现象，在很大程度上严重影响着交际的顺利进行和有效性，这正是本论文研究的主要问题。本论文描述了几种礼貌言语行为中的语用失误，给出一个新的视角来分析导致这些失误的成
因。 
本论文对日常言语行为中的礼貌语用失误进行了描述和简单地分析，例如对招呼语，称赞语，告别语，拒绝语，道歉语，请求语等中出现的礼貌语用失误进行阐述。在此基础上，本论文将其主要的成因分为三类，即礼貌迁移，以文化为基础的不同的认知环境和不恰当的语境选择。在跨文化交际中，个人类典型的礼貌观念会有意识或无意识地转移到交际中来，也就是说不适用于二语的礼貌规则会迁移到交际中，从而导致礼貌语用失误。认知语境的形成是以母语文化为基础的，最相关联的文化因素总是作为参考点和类典型来影响交际。不同的认知环境导致对关联的礼貌语境的不同理解，因此这种不同的理解会引起礼貌语。不同文化和语言中对语境的典型性理解和构建不可避免的会造成交际失误。
总的来说，本论文突破传统的分析角度，从一个新的观点出发剖析跨文化交际中的礼貌语用失误现象，并在此基础上归结出三大成因，利用认知语言学的理论和观点来分析其成因，为英语的学习与教学，以及跨文化交际等方面提供了参考和借鉴。
关键词：语用失误；礼貌；认知；类典型；关联

Contents          

Acknowledgments i
Abstract in English ii
Abstract in Chinese iv
1  Introduction 1
1.1  Overview on Politeness 1
1.2  Overview on Pragmatic Failures 1
1.3  Pragmatic Failures in Politeness 2
2  Literature Review 3
2.1  Review of Politeness Studies at Home and Abroad 3
2.1.1  Politeness Study Abroad 3
2.1.2  Politeness Study in China 4
2.2  Studies of Pragmatic Failures at Home and Abroad 4
2.2.1  Studies of Pragmatic Failures  Abroad 4
The notion of pragmatic failure has been initially defined by British linguist 4
2.2.2  Studies of Inter-cultural Pragmatic Failure in China 5
2.3  Study in Pragmatic Failure of Politeness 5
2.4  Review on Causes of Pragmatic Failures in Politeness 6
3  The Study 7
3.1   Specific Phenomena of Pragmatic Failures in Politeness 7
3.1.1  Greeting Failures Description and Analysis 7
3.1.2  Request failures Description and Analysis 9
3.2  Effects of Politeness Failures on Intercultural Communication 9
3.3  Cognitive Analysis of Causes for Politeness Failures 10
3.3.1  Focus Causes 10
3.3.2  Introduction of Prototype Theory and Category 11
3.3.3  Introduction of Relevance Theory 12
3.4  Cognitive Analysis on Focus Causes for Pragmatic Failures of Politeness 13
3.4.1  Cognitive Analysis on Politeness Transfer by Prototype Theory 13
3.4.2  Cognitive Analysis on Different Culture-Based Cognitive Environment by Prototype and Relevance Theory 14
3.4.3  Cognitive Analysis or all Improper Choice of Context 14
4  Conclusion 15
References 17