A Pragmatic Study Of Linguistic Politeness

Politeness is a very important issue of study in modern linguistics, especially in pragmatics. As regards its definition, it is often considered as socioculturally appropriate behaviors and is characterized as a matter of abiding by expectations of society. Based on Verschueren's Theory of adaptation, the current study attempts to employ this pragmatic theory in the study of linguistic politeness and considers it as mechanisms of choice-making of the inseparability of the cognitive, the social and cultural—all of which must combine in a pragmatic perspective. The author of the current study collected and analyzed some materials from routine utterances and believed that different cultures have different concepts of politeness and different concepts of politeness reflect different culture values. Among the main aims of the current study is to sensitize people to realize the differences of the concept of politeness in English and Chinese culture so as to successfully minimize the misunderstandings and avoid the pragmatic failures that will arise in intercultural communication. It hopes to shed light on foreign language learning and teaching.The current study tries to carry out a historical review of politeness study in English and Chinese culture, to attribute the differences of politeness to the distinctive cultural values of the two and to make a comparison of the linguistic devices of politeness in the two languages.The current study holds the view that the concept of politeness varies in different cultures. American English attaches more importance on a free, intentionally volition-based pattern of politeness, Americans attach a high value to 'equality', 'privacy' and 'no-imposition', while Chinese politeness concerns more with the addressee's situation and resorting to a discernment-oriented politeness pattern, so Chinese people emphasizes 'order', 'modesty' and 'attitudinal warmth'. Therefore, the different cultural interpretations and evaluations of politeness are of great value and illumination to the study of the specific politeness study.The factors that determine the degree of politeness are power, relative distance, rank of imposition and other social cultures. That there seem to be substantial differences of the concept of politeness between Chinese and Western cultures shows the inadequacy of Brown & Levinson's and Leech's formulations. The author believes that contextual dynamic adaptability of the Theory of Adaptation is the best way to solve problems of pragmatic errors in intercultural communication, and proposes contextual dynamic adaptability of linguistic politeness, which regards politeness as a socially acceptable behavior. This view avoids the unwieldy problem of determining whether certain linguistic forms are polite or not and allows for different societal preferences without evaluating one or the other preference as polite or impolite, thereby avoiding the risk of making polar value-judgments of good or bad. This point is of great significance for improving intercultural understanding and appreciation of the different values in the diverse cultures.