Linguistic Strategies Applied By Wang Xifeng: A Pragmatic Study

In the past several decades, scholars at home and abroad have attempted at an account of politeness from different perspectives. And one important aspect of the present thesis is to have a general review of what has been achieved in the area of pragmatics so far, especially the Distance Principle of Politeness (DPP), put forward by Professor Wang Jianhua, which might be closer to the nature of the politeness phenomenon.Wang Xifeng, one of the most outstanding characters in the famous Chinese classic fiction "Hong Lou Meng ", is known for her capability in dealing with different people. A lot of scholars have studied Wang Xifeng in various aspects. This thesis, based on the Distance Principle of Politeness, tries to analyze the strategies that Wang Xifeng applies in communication, with the aim to show that politeness, by nature, is the strategic use of language.Due to the limited space, the Chinese examples are provided. As for the English Version, please refer to A Dream of Red Mansions translated by Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang, published by Foreign Languages Press in 2001 (Second Printing).