Polite "Request" In American English:Features,Strategies,Golden Expressions And Pragmatic Translation

This study explores how polite "request" is performed in American English and how such exemplary language uses can be pragmatically translated to benefit attempts in constructing an overall sociopragmatic inventory for China's moderately prosperous society.Specifically,four research questions are examined: 1)How polite language is featured? 2)How polite "request" is performed in American English? 3)What patterns and golden expressions are used in Americans' daily life? And 4)how to pragmatically translate into Chinese the key concepts and terms related to "request"-making studies? Related literature was consulted and on-the-spot observations were conducted during a three-month-long academic visit to the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.CARLA-indexed references,Internet sources,and News & Records newspaper were used for data collection,which were then analyzed in line with Austin and Searle's speech act theory,Goffman's "face" theory and Brown & Levinson's "politeness" theory.It was found that politeness language has eight properties,but is,essentially,to the cost of the speaker and to the benefit of the hearer;that "request" strategies are heavily used and polite linguistic means are employed in American English;that statements,interrogatives,and imperatives patterns are used,with high frequent sentences identified as "golden expressions";and that a set of concepts and terms are used in the related literature on "request"-making and pragmatically translated into Chinese.Implications were portrayed in relation to efforts in constructing social language use norms for China's moderately prosperous society,and directions were made for further scrutiny into the topic.