A Study Of Politeness Strategies In Stockbroker-client Conversation

Research on politeness has been carried out from various aspects in China and abroad.There are diversity studies on politeness: intercultural study of politeness, study of politenessbased on gender and based on certain culture in a country. And also, the new trend ofpoliteness study abroad is the Computer Mediated Communication (CMC); while in China,there are also studies on politeness based on intercultural elements, gender, and age, the newtrend has been study on politeness of business field.In this thesis, study is done based on the rarely studied stockbroker-client conversation.The recording materials are first hand and were recorded in Huatai securities, a prominentsecurity company. The focus point of the study is the various FTAs(face threatening acts) thathappens in stockbroker-client conversations. Categorization and counting of the frequencyand proportion of the data based on the nature of the FTAs and the addresser and addressee ofthe FTAs. Illustrations of different category of FTAs are also done. Theoretical and practicalsupports are given by analyzing the specialness of relation between stockbrokers and clientsand the regularity of their conversation, and also the elements that decides the weightiness ofFTAs.Stockbrokers and clients adopt different method to do the FTAs. This thesis analyzespoliteness strategies both parties adopt basing on Brown and Levinson's the face theory. Theanalysis and data counting are done according to the classification of bald on record, positivepoliteness, negative politeness, off record. This thesis presents the findings by using data andfigures, which are direct viewing, and there are analyses of the results of research. Differentstrategies adopted by stockbrokers when facing different kinds of clients are also analyzed.With the development of China's stock market, stockbrokers became more and moreprofessional. In recent years, many graduating students tend to choose this profession. Thisthesis is hopefully providing some reference for the new stockbrokers.