Politeness Strategies In Social Address Forms: A Comparative Study Of Intercultural Communication

Under the guidance of sociolinguistic theories and theories in intercultural communication, this research aims to make a comparative investigation on the differences in the use of social address forms by the Chinese college teachers and the American college teachers working in universities in Beijing and Urumqi, from the perspective of politeness strategies proposed by the Scollons (2000).Power and distance are two major factors influencing the use of address forms (Brown & Ford, 1961). The fact that different cultures give different explanations to these two factors will lead to the differences in the choice of address strategies. This research attempts to study the differences in the choice of address strategies under the influence of the two factors and investigate the cultural factors which may result in these differences with a view to provide some help for English teaching and intercultural communication.Theoretical framework of the study is that of speech act theories, politeness theories and theories on address forms, especially politeness strategies proposed by the Scollons (2000).This research uses both qualitative and quantitative methods. Qualitative method refers to the collection of data through questionnaires. Quantitative method is the statistical analysis of the collected data and manifestation of the survey results by means of graphs.The statistical analyses of data collected show:(1) There is an overall tendency for the Chinese subjects to use independence politeness strategies and the American subjects to use involvement strategies in the choice of address forms.(2) The existence of both power and distance factors has a larger influence on the Chinese subjects than on the American subjects. Distance may only exert its influence on the American subjects on condition that there is power difference.(3) The Chinese subjects use kinship terms widely in addressing nonkins, while the American subjects seldom use kinship terms in addressing nonkins.Finally, the author analyzes the cultural factors which may be responsible for these differences, and hopes that the study of the differences may benefit English teaching and intercultural communication.