A Contrastive Study Of Complaints And Their Responses Between Children In Chinese And American Family Sitcoms

Complaining is common in daily communication, and complaints occur when a speaker reacts with displeasure or annoyance to an action that has affected the speaker unfavorably. Complaint-responses refer to the hearer's reactions to the complainer. Although complaining is a face-threatening act, the hearer's face can be maintained if the speaker chooses an appropriate complaint strategy. Likewise, complaint responses also influence the effect of communication between interlocutors. Therefore, complaints and their responses under different cultural background are worth studying with frequent intercultural communication.20 episodes are randomly selected from a Chinese and an American sitcoms: Three Children in One Family and Growing Pains respectively. The act of complaining in the two TV progams is analyzed. The framework of this study is constructed by Speech Act Theory, classifications of complaining and culture factors, which respectively apply to the study of the structure and distribution of complaining and the explanation of the similarities and difference of complaining in American and Chinese families. The main research results are as follows:1. Both the American and the Chinese act of complaining consist of three semantic components: Centre Speech Act, Auxiliary Speech Act, and Microunit. The structures of complaining are both in various forms. The increasingly important globalization accounts for the similarities in the structure of the act of complaining in English and Chinese.2. The "mere mention of the offensive act" frequently appears in both the Chinese and the American families. The strategy of "requesting a change in the complainee's behavior" is the most frequently employed strategy in English and one of the two second most often used patterns (the other one is justifying discontent) in the Chinese family. A significant difference lies in the distribution of "allusion to an offensive act". Warning or threat appears less frequent in the two languages.3. No obvious corresponding relations are found between the 4 complaint-responses patterns and the 7 complaint realization patterns. The acceptance of the 7 complaint strategies presents no uniformed tendency. Under most complaint strategies, the percentage of Chinese children's acceptance of responsibility is higher than American children's. A significant difference lies in the responses when Chinese and American children are requested a change in behavior. Compared with Chinese Children, American children are far less willing to accept responsibilities.There are no distinct patterns in the distribution of "partial acceptance" or "rejection" by Chinese and American Children. But we can still observe that under most complaint strategies, the percentage of Chinese children's "partial acceptance of responsibility" is higher than that of American children. When they are warned or threatened, neither Chinese children nor American children will choose "partial acceptance" as responses. Under most complaint conditions, the percentage of Chinese children's "rejection of responsibility" is no more than American children's. "Disregarding the complaint" is the least used strategy by Chinese and American children.4. Generally speaking, acceptance of responsibilities is expressed by apology or change of the offensive acts. To belong to the category of partial acceptance, there are two realization patterns presented in the research materials: justifying oneself and asking for compromise. Rejection has three realization patterns: denying the offensive act, accusing the complainer, and further strengthening the offensive act. Disregarding the complaint is realized by forms like being silent and changing the subject under discussion.The results above indicate that both similarities and differences exist in the selection of complaint strategies in English and Chinese. Responses to complaints are not directly related to the severity of the complaints. Native English speakers tend to express their complaints and discontents more directly, while native Chinese speakers usually complain in implicit ways. The differences are caused by cultural differences between Chinese and American: collectivism in China and individualism in America, and high context culture of China and low context culture of America. Cultural differences also bring about different complaint-responses in English and Chinese. However, direct and explicit complaint strategies occupy a large proportion in both American and Chinese families, which indicates that complaints among intimates can be directly to the point. This study complements previous contrastive studies of complaint strategies and complaint-response in English and Chinese. In the present paper, the reaction of hearer is paid more attention to, which is helpful in establishing successful communication.