The Study Of Chinese Responding To Thank-Expressing

The research object of this paper is Chinese responding to thank-expressing.This expression component used by people in oral conversation is relatively stable in form and meaning,but has a flexible and highly-frequent usage.Commonly and typically Chinese replies to others’ gratitude include "Bu Yong Xie","Bu Ke Qi","Mei Shi" and "Xie Shenme",etc.Based on the Speech Act theory,this paper will analyze the imperative reply to thank-expressing-"Bu Yong Xie",the declarative reply-"Mei Shi" and the interrogative reply-"Xie Shenme" from four aspects-syntax,semantics,pragmatics and their influence.This paper aims at conducting a comprehensive and systematic study on the Chinese oral responding to gratitude,and to further promote the development of this subject as well as the research on Chinese oral response.This paper consists of seven chapters.The first chapter goes though the relevant researches of Speech Act Theory,oral response and Chinese response to gratitude,and will also reveal the theoretical basis,research methods and data sources.The second chapter defines the expression of replies to thank-expressing and classifies its internal members.First,replies to thank-expressing are divided into generalized ones and narrow ones;Second,the narrow ones is classified from the perspectives of semantic orientation and sentence type function.The third chapter investigates the discourse function,semantic evolution and conversational mode of the more representative imperative reply-"Bu Yong Xie",and finds that its politeness and ostentation coexist in modern Chinese;The discourse function of "Bu Yong Xie" in different positions of the turn has both commonness and individuality.According to the discourse function of "Bu Yong Xie",the "thank-response" conversation mode of "Bu Yong Xie" can be divided into three types: echo mode,communication mode and guidance mode.The fourth chapter investigates the semantic evolution,pragmatic function and causes of the representative declarative reply "Mei Shi"."Mei Shi" mainly has two pragmatic functions-expressing intention and verbal feedback.Subjectivization,interaction subjectivization and contextual adaptation are the main causes for "Mei Shi" to be developed into declarative thank-expressing replies.The fifth chapter investigates the semantic characteristics,pragmatic functions and the realization process of the representative interrogative thank-expressing replies "Xie Shenme".Then the main semantic meaning of "Xie Shenme " is divided into three categories: rebuke,modesty and query.Two main pragmatic functions of showing affection and showing rebuttal are also discussed in this chapter.At the end of this chapter,it is found that the main factors for "Xie Shenme" to become a common expression of acknowledgment response is contextual needs.The sixth chapter analyzes several main factors that affect the choice of replies to thank-expressing(communication intention,context,relationship between communication subjects,etc),and summarizes the basic rules when people choosing their replies to gratitude.The seventh chapter summarizes the basic views,reflects the shortcomings in the research process,and points out the direction of future research.