On The Treatment Of Pragmatic Information In English-Chinese Learners’ Dictionaries From The Perspective Of Politeness

The focus of foreign language learning has gradually shifted from sheer grammatical correctness to the integration of pragmatic appropriateness from the 1970s and 1980s.This shift indicates that foreign language teachers and students both pay much more attention to the practical skills of English.Indeed,L2-L1 English-Chinese learners’ dictionaries(hereinafter E-C learners’ dictionaries)play a crucial role in guiding improving practical abilities of Chinese learners.However,it is found that current pragmatic and politeness information provided in present E-C learners’dictionaries is limited in quantity,which could not fully meet the practical demand in daily communications of learners(Liu,2007).By contrast,English monolingual learners’ dictionaries began to design pragmatic and politeness information systematically since the 1980s.Their presentation has been improved by lots of attempts and perfection.As a pragmatic concept,politeness should refer to whether the speaker’s verbal behavior is appropriate and proper,so that the listener is ready to accept and feel happy(Liu,2007).The Politeness Principle,a notion of pragmatics,proposes that one should minimize the expression of impolite beliefs and maximize that of the polite ones(Huang,Y,2012;Leech,1983;2014;Huang,2012).The thesis adopts Searle’s Speech Act Theory and his classification of speech acts(1979).Searle argues that when people utter a sentence,they also implement(part of)an act,which,under his typology,can be assertive,directive,commissive,expressive or declarative(ibid.).Searle(1979)explains directives as the attempts by the speaker to the hearer to do something.In daily communications,people usually use some frequent verbs to make hearers to do something.It is very likely to be impolite and may even lead to communicative failure when people use the directives inappropriately.Based on a contrastive survey of the presentation of politeness information for directives between the British "Big Five" and New Age English-Chinese Dictionary(NAECD),a general reference framework for politeness information of directives for E-C learners’ dictionaries should be proposed under the guidance of Politeness.The British "Big Five" are very popular among Chinese English learners.NAECD is aimed at the needs of Chinese learners,which attaches great importance to learning functions,and is a truly original E-C learners’ dictionary independently compiled by Chinese scholars.According to the research,the politeness information of directives can be presented through the microstructure,outside matter and cross-reference.Thus,the study will analyze the selected 19 directives samples in the British "Big Five" and NAECD,which cover the politeness information in the presentations of microstructure,outside matter and cross-reference respectively.It is found that "Big Five" outperform NAECD in offing politeness information for the directives in microstructure and outside matter,but their target-readers are the global learners,thus not that particularly pertinent for special learning demands of Chinese learners.Instead,the treatment in NAECD is more systematic and coherent in cross-references.Finally,a primary framework for the presentation of politeness information for directives for E-C learners’ dictionaries is proposed on the basis of the textual analysis,which consists of three parameters and three principles.The parameters of outside matter and explicit presentation in the microstructure should be enhanced in the framework.In addition to these two parameters,it is also necessary to stress the significance of the connection in cross-references.Against the backdrop of British plight in innovation and the emerging nationspecific endeavor in pedagogical lexicography,the current research may benefit the presentation of politeness information of directives in E-C learners’ dictionaries in the future.Although this study has limitations in the small size of sampling,and the limited focus on several selected dictionaries,it is still of guidance for innovative practice and theoretical exploration in the field of bilingual learner lexicography.