Politeness Strategies For The Speech Act Of Complaint In Chinese

Within the field of pragmatics, the study of speech acts has drawn much attention. Many scholars have made systematic research on the speech acts of compliments, invitations, apologies and requests. However, there are relatively few studies on the speech act of complaint. As one of the most frequently performed speech acts in our daily life, complaint is a topic that deserves researchers'attention.The present thesis is intended to study complaints from the perspective of politeness. It aims to find out how politeness is manifested and how it is realized conventionally and linguistically. Based on Brown & Levinson's face management model as the theoretical framework and extracts of complaints obtained from TV dramas as the data, we find all the three strategies proposed by Brown and Levinson are utilized—positive politeness strategies, negative politeness strategies and bald-on-record strategies. Though bald-on-record strategies are ranked as the least polite ones, there still exist elements that contribute to politeness. Therefore, the tendency to utilize politeness in performing complaints is obvious. Research reveals that negative politeness strategies are most frequently utilized in complaints, followed by positive politeness strategies and bald-on-record strategies. It is also found that conventional means such as Be conventionally indirect, Impersonalize, Attend to H and Assert common ground are most favored by speakers. Reasons for the popularity of specific strategies and respective conventional means are also explored.Besides, a detailed analysis explains how each conventional means contributes to politeness and facilitates the performance of complaint. As these conventional means lessen the degree of imposition by either appealing to conventions or maintaining rapport, the purpose of complaint is ensured.This thesis may deepen our understanding of politeness and complaints. It is hoped that people can achieve their purpose of complaints when they know more about politeness and make proper use of it.