The Interpersonal Pragmatic Functions Of Collective Advice-Giving In A Chinese Academic Setting

Some major research gaps exist in the extant research on advice-giving.Firstly,scarce research has examined advice-giving in the Chinese academic setting of the PhD dissertation defenses.Secondly,nearly all research has discussed individual advice-giving rather than the collective one.Thirdly,most research seems to reach a consensus that both invited and uninvited advice is problematic in rapport management mainly because asymmetry,the essential feature of advice-giving,infringes the advice recipient's identity claim as an intellectually able participant.However,whether collective advice-giving in a Chinese context is still problematic or not in interpersonal relationship needs further exploration.Within Spencer-Oatey's(2000)Rapport Management Model,the present study aims to explore the rapport-oriented collective advice-giving by the committee members in the Chinese academic setting of the PhD dissertation defenses.Collective advice-giving in the present study is defined as a discursive,micro-reflexive practice including both information and advice elements(Couture and Sutherland 2006:331)which is thought by at least two members cooperatively to “be relevant,helpful or newsworthy”(Vehvil?inen 2001:373)to the advice recipient.To achieve the research aim,three research questions are proposed as follows.(1)What are the discourse features of collective advice-giving in the Chinese academic setting?(2)What are rapport-oriented interpersonal functions achieved through collective advice-giving in this setting?(3)How are those rapport-oriented interpersonal functions realized through collective advice-giving?The present study is based on the self-built data set which records 15 meetings for PhD dissertation defenses.Those records were transcribed into 155300 words in total and 56 examples of collective advice-giving were extracted from the transcription.By observing the collected data and basing on the previous literature on advice-giving,the present study concludes the major findings as follows.Firstly,nine specific discourse features of collective advice-giving have been found,including(1)concluding another's indirect advice,(2)confirming another's direct advice,(3)confirming another's indirect advice,(4)explaining another's indirect advice,(5)explaining another's direct advice,(6)illustrating another's indirect advice,(7)negating the candidate's disagreement with another's advice,(8)specifying another's direct advice,and(9)specifying another's indirect advice.Furthermore,according to the chi-square test,concluding another's indirect advice and specifying another's indirect advice are nearly the same in quantity,while the last seven features are approximately the same in quantity,but concluding another's indirect advice and specifying another's indirect advice are most frequently employed in the academic setting of the PhD dissertation defenses.Secondly,two interpersonal pragmatic functions have been achieved in collective advice-giving: the face-saving function and the involvement function.However,in all the 56 examples there are 3 falling in the face-saving function while there are 55 belonging to the involvement function(2 examples are counted twice because of overlap).The difference between the two functions is significant according to the chi-square test(P<0.001).Therefore,the involvement function is the most important function that is achieved through collective advice-giving in the academic setting.Thirdly,the face-saving function is fulfilled through strategies of(1)praising and(2)respecting,while the involvement function is achieved through(1)boosting,(2)defending,(3)empathizing,(4)praising,and(5)respecting.The chi-square test indicates that the committee members in the academic setting tend to employ strategies of empathizing and boosting to fulfil the involvement function,though the strategies of praising,defending and respecting are also employed sometimes to achieve the function.The present study discusses the collective advice-giving rather than the individual one.The results indicate that advice-giving can be rapport-oriented in interpersonal relationship management,which challenges most of the extant literature where both invited and uninvited advice-giving may have a negative bearing on rapport management.