A Study Of Indirect Complaint Among Chinese Young Employees From The Perspective Of Gender Talk

Complaining permeate with daily communication. However, as a common speech act, it does not win enough attention. Complaint can be divided into direct complaint and indirect complaint. Direct complaint is defined as "the speaker expresses displeasure or annoyance-censure-as a reaction to a past or on-going action, the consequences of which are perceived by speaker as affecting him/her unfavorably. The complaint is usually addressed to the hearer whom S holds, at least partially, responsible for the offensive action." Indirect complaint is defined as "the expression of dissatisfaction to an interlocutor about the speaker herself/himself or someone/something that is not present. The hearer is not responsible for the offensive action." Different from direct complaint which tends to express annoyance, indirect complaint has the major function of establishing, maintaining and developing relationship.The present study focuses on indirect complaint from the perspective of socio-pragmatics, adopting questionnaire method to collect information about the performance of young employees towards indirect complaint and make elaborate analysis. It shows the characteristics of indirect complaint performance made by young employees and testifies whether there exist differences between male and female employees.The study aims to find the answers to the following research questions:1. Are there similarities and differences of realization patterns in indirect complaint used by male employees and female employees? If any, what are they?2. Are there similarities and differences of response modes in indirect complaint used by male employees and female employees? If any, what are they?3. What factors contribute to male employees’indirect complaint differentiating from female employees’indirect complaint? And why?Analysis on the data collected is conducted and conclusions have been made:Functions of indirect complaint are listed as follows:(1) expressing unhappiness, disapproval, annoyance or blame to the one who is in the same situation for agreement and sympathy;(2) expressing resentment to get the third party’s suggestion;(3) conversational opener;(4) lubricant of a serious topic and (5) reducing severity of awkwardness.1. As for the realization patterns of indirect complaint,(1) Males tend to be more straightforward and direct than females. They adopt "accusation", a severe strategy which holds only13.9%among females. Females usually perform their indirect complaint in a gentle and indirect way in general. Meanwhile, Males are reserved and impartial while females carry more personal emotions.(2) Fewer males adopt the strategies "below the level of reproach"(4.2%) and "expression of annoyance or disapproval"(27.8%) than those of7.2%and43.1%among females. When Males perform indirect complaint, they mainly employ more of the strategy of "explicit complaint"(45.6%) and more use of "accusation"(22.5%) than females do while females use "expression of annoyance or disapproval"(43.1%) most frequently.(3) Both males and females employ direct strategies when complaining to intimates, with whom the social distance is kin or small. In a situation where the hearers’ social power is higher, both males and females realize complaint in a polite way and adopt indirect realization strategy. On the contrary, if the hearers’social power is lower, complainers use direct strategies.2. As for the response modes of indirect complaint,(1) Females show more cooperation. Females sigh with feelings or question to show interest and support. Showing agreement or commiseration is the response mode winning most popularity among females followed by the mode "questioning". Females put themselves in others’ place. Even if females have to express contradictory opinions, they express disagreement in an indirect way. Males do not act as politely as females. They do not change mind easily to cater for the complainers’ feelings.(2) The mode used most by males is "offering suggestion" which accounts for48.9%while "showing agreement or commiseration" holding50.8%, wins the popularity among females.(3) Males and females are more likely to express their true feelings with good friends and family members. Expressing contradictory opinion, which is the most face threatening, is mostly used among people between whom the social distance is not large. As a fact, males and females turn careful when responding to complainers who are not so familiar. Safe strategies like "questioning" and "showing agreement" are adopted. In front of those who are with higher social power, males and females reduce the use of "offering suggestion" to show respect while when the hearers’ social power is lower, males and females act as professional and offer advice.3. The different performance between male and female employees in handling indirect complaint is the consequence of combined factors. The paper analyzes the data collected and tries to attribute three factors which may lead to the differences:(1) males’dominant status. Dominant theory is first presented by Thorne and Henley. It focuses on male power and dominance. Males as the dominant group in society tend to be powerful in communication while females are in a social position of powerlessness that they behave passive and modest (2) different sub-culture males and females live in. Researchers including Maltz, Borker and Tannen are followers of the theory. The essence of the theory is that gender difference is culture difference. Cross-gender communication is one kind of cross-culture communication. Traditional culture poses different expectation on males and females and requires that the two gender groups should own specialty distinct from each other. As males behave in a direct and competitive way, females tend to be cooperative and concern for others, paying more attention to establish and maintain good relationship with others.(3) distinct attitudes towards politeness. Holmes’ politeness theory focuses on different social conventions adopted by males and females. Males and females have different opinion towards the concept of "politeness". Compared with males, females tend to be easier to observe the politeness principle and as a consequent, females behave in a more polite way.In this research has indirect complaint been studied and have its similarities and differences between males and females been compared through the analysis and conclusion of corporate young employees’indirect complaint, with the hope of promoting communication and understanding between the two genders to preserve the harmony.