On The Characteristics Of Indirectness In English And Chinese: A Pragmatic And Cultural Approach

Generally speaking, indirect speech refers to the differences between what it is literally meant and what it is in fact wanted to express, which has been realized by many people, and a lot of scholars have tried to explain this phenomenon from various angels and aspects. What pragmatics mainly studies is how people communicate by using language in the society. So indirect speech act should be discussed and illustrated from the aspects of pragmatics and culture.Indirect speech exists not only on the part of the pragmatics of language, but also is influenced by many cultural factors. Why people use indirect speech should be studied from the aspects of politeness and culture. "Politeness", which has been used to build up people's harmonious relationship, is a kind of moral norms for people to behave in their daily life. But, much to regret, many of the disputes and conflicts in daily life have in fact been aroused by people's careless using of the rude and impolite language or the inappropriate communication manners. So being polite is very important by using language exactly; besides, studying politeness from the aspects of pragmatics and culture is also indispensable.Among the most influential scholars of politeness are Leech's "Polite Principles" and Brown and Levinson's face-saving theory. Leech thinks that Grice's Co-operation Principle explained how implicature was brought out and how it worked, but was unable to explain why people use indirect language to express their thoughts. That's why he brought up his polite principles to compensate the shortcomings of the co-operative principle. The polite principles try to stipulate the standards of polite language from two parts: semantic contents (Cost and Benefit) and expressing manners (Direct and Indirect). Brown and Levinson regard indirectness as strategies of politeness. They make the following assumptions: that all competent adult members of a society have (and know each other to have) (i) "face," the public self-image that every member wants to claim for himself, consisting in two related aspects: negative face and positive face. (ii) some rational capacities, in particular consistent modes of reasoning from ends to the means that will achieve those ends.But through analyzing and comparing the above theories of politeness, we can find that the theories are not so comprehensive. Unlike Leech's tact of maintainingbalance of cost and benefit between S and H, Chinese indirectness is expressed by denigrating self and respecting other (§|$tl^A). Seeking balance is against Chinese ethics. The difficulty here is that it is hard for native speakers of English to interpret the cultural connotations of Chinese "M^k" (modesty) that are different from those of Leech's 'modesty' in his 'Modesty Maxim' in many ways: Chinese "$lM" is to put down self and to build up other whereas 'modesty' in the PP is avoiding self-praise; Chinese "UBS:" is the core of Chinese politeness while the 'Modesty Maxim' is not so important as the other maxims of Leech's PP; Chinese "i§3$:" is a virtue of self-cultivation (!&Al?ii:jiliStJI) that is the foundation on which politeness is built whereas English modesty is a strategy of minimizing praise of self. That is why it tends to be hard for native speakers of English to understand many negative comments in Chinese that are expressed out of modesty.Unlike Brown and Levinson's theory of avoiding FTAs (face-threatening acts), Chinese attach great importance to mutual care, which is equally important as modesty. For example, Chinese sometimes like to make direct comments on some personal matters or to give friends direct comments on some personal matters or to give friends direct advice, to show concern for others' welfare. This conflicts with English individual privacy and self-esteem. Unlike strategic conflict avoidance in English cultures, Chinese indirectness is for seeking harmony and fulfilling moral obligations. Strategic politeness stresses expression which are seemingly polite but ultimately uphold the CP~true message should be unambiguously conveyed in context, but the speaker's responsibility can be evaded if challenged, and thus conflict can be avoided.Moral politeness of Chinese culture stresses true feelings. Sincerity and honesty are essential. Leech regards denying compliments and employing understatement in giving invitations, presents, etc. as pragmatic paradoxes of politeness because in these cases, the Maxim of Modesty of the PP overrules the Maxim of Quality in the CP (1983:136-38). Chinese indirectness is, however, true to "W (passionate feelings) and outer politeness is the mirror of inner feelings. It would be immoral and hypocritical in Chinese culture for one to think in one way but behave in another, for Chinese uphold "If% 'fr^"(words are the voice of mind). Politeness can be achieved only when one truly respects and is considerate to others.