An Analysis Of Politeness Phenomena Produced By Chinese And Western Cultural Differences From The Perspective Of Pragmatics

In recent years, the use of pragmatic theory to study the articles of literary works becomes more and more, and the research on Fortress Besieged, Chinese modern classic, is even more pieces too numerous to cite. This thesis, from the perspective of pragmatics, explores the characters of Fortress Besieged politeness phenomenon in communication.Politeness is a moral norm for people to behave in daily life, but also is a common expression can be used to maintaining their interpersonal relations, and enhancing mutual feelings. From the 1970s, it has been draw linguists'attention. Literary works are imaginary, but it is a reflection and imitation of the real world, so in fiction is real. Therefore, the use of pragmatic theories for literature communication has theoretical validity.Fortress Besieged is a novel written by Ch'ien Chung-shu. It has been acclaimed as "the greatest novel" in Chinese modern literature. It includes Chinese and Western literature, philosophy, customs, logic, law, education system and other areas. It involves all aspects of cultures, and also has huge differences between Chinese and Western cultures which lead to the different figures with different communicative performance.This thesis is divided into six chapters. The guiding theory of this thesis is politeness theory, Leech's Politeness Principle, Brown & Levinson's Face theory, Gu's Politeness Maxims and Mao's View on Mianzi and Lian, and gives the relative definitions of politeness and culture. The author reviews the politeness theory and the studies of Fortress Besieged under the frame work of Pragmatic theory by domestic and foreign scholars, and finds combined Fortress Besieged with politeness is left untouched or not systematically analyzed. Can politeness theory be used to analyze literary works effectively? What factors can result in politeness difference? What aspects does politeness phenomenon represent? Toward these questions, this thesis, Fortress Besieged as a research material, uses quantitative analysis and qualitative analysis methods to analyze the text characters'typical words and deeds in the communication process and have a detailed comparative analysis of a concrete politeness performance, aims at having a deeper understanding of the literary work from the perspective of pragmatics, and a concrete analysis of the politeness phenomenon in order to enable people to make better use of politeness strategies in communication to reduce the pragmatic failure. By listing the politeness theory, reading the text, and identifying examples of characters' politeness phenomenon in communication, the author classify some typical examples into the related theories and do some analysis. In the end, concludes that politeness theory can be used to analysis literary works effectively, and politeness phenomenon can be reflected in characters'words, behaviors and clothing, while the culture is a major factor leading to differences in politeness, but the educational background, family background, and gender will also have some impacts on politeness behavior.