The Politeness Function Of "Slightness Expression"

0．Preface Polite language is essential in any society,with it,speakers can show their respect to others easily and clearly,what's more,in modern society,polite language is the fastest and the most effective way to lubricate the people's relationship．1．Change and present situation of Chinese polite language 1·1 Change of Chinese polite language① The quantitative change of"language of respect and humility" According to the survey,the number of the 'language of respect and humility'reduced a lot． ② The change of adjective"language of respect and humility" From the 19th century to the beginning of 20th century,the traditional way to show respect had been reduced sharply in China,and from the middle of 20th century,the whole system began to eliminate totally． ③ The change of the way to show respect Traditional polite language is used less and less,while other ways of expressing respect are used more and more． 1·2 The present situation of Chinese polite language On the whole,most traditional "language of respect and humility"has diminished,which provides more space to the supplementing of"New polite language"．2． Brown and Levinson's theory of "Politeness" 2·1 The concept of"politeness" In this essay,"politeness"is used directly and its meaning is on the base of the explanation of the Japanese scholars,They take"politeness"as"the expression of seriousness"and"the expression of respect and concern"． 2·2 The theory of Brown and Levinson and The response in the field of linguistics Brown and Levinson's FTAs(Face Threatening Acts) is based on Goffman's"Theory of Face"．This essay stresses the theory ――"The speaker considers the listener's face most in order not to offend him"．They also proposed five remedial strategies,among which"positive politeness"and "passive politeness"belong to the category of polite language． FTAs has influenced English－spoken countries and Japan a lot,but China hasn't applied this theory to the research of Chinese．In the author's opinion,Brown and Levinson's"politeness"theory is the effective tool to probe modern Chinese polite language． 2·3 "Positive politeness"and "Negative politeness"① Positive politeness Positive politeness satisfies the listener's positive face,express feelings strongly and makes the polite intention obvious． ② Negative politeness Negative politeness satisfies the listener's negative face,express feelings less stronger than positive politeness．The speaker usually controls his own feelings and emotion,and adopts an indirect way to show his intention．So,relaxed tone is the basic point of negative politeness． 　　The author analyzes the strategy of using passive politeness in modern Chinese on the base of survey．And the result shows that,only by using"slightness expression"can respect not be easily detected．3．Analysis of"slightness expression"3·1 Analysis of"slightness expression"'s significance In this essay,"slightness expression"refers to the politeness－expressing way that can relax the tone which includes "verb overlapping","predicate plus 'a bit'","predicate plus 'indefinite quantifier'"and "predicate plus 'for a moment'"．3·2 Usage of"slightness expression" From the perspective of concern for the other side,using the "slightness expression"reduces psychological pressure and at the same time diminishes the degree of the mutual invasion caused by particular language during a social gathering．It also that moderates the speaker's tone．4．How to verify of "slightness expression" 4·1 Take the line in TV play"Never give up"for example to survey and analyze． 4·1·1 The way of analyzing Find all the respectful sentences with"slightness expression" in the "Never give up",classify these sentences by nature,and then compare these sentences with the ones without"slightness expressio...