| Regional stigmatization is a widespread phenomenon in social life.Stigma,a kind of body mark originated from ancient Greeks,represents an ignominious mark.The American sociologist Goffman was the first one to put forward the concept of “stigma”,believing that stigma refers to attributes and characteristics with a certain derogatory meaning,and that the stigmatized person or region will usually be discriminated against by others and be in an unfair situation.The discourse of regional stigmatization is a typical verbal conflict.In this study,regional stigmatization is defined as a speech act that the speaker uses impolite words to attack or threaten the face of one group,causing verbal conflict,and ultimately hurting the people from this region and affecting the interpersonal relationship of different regions.Under the framework of impoliteness model proposed by Bousfield and Spencer-Oatey’s rapport management theory,this study takes the discourse of stigmatization of Henan as an example to conduct an empirical study of regional stigmatization.This study combines qualitative and quantitative research on the natural corpus of stigmatization of Henan collected from daily life and New media platforms,aiming to investigate the realization of stigmatization of Henan,response options of Henan people and the pragmatic effects of stigmatization of Henan.The qualitative study aims to classify and interpret the ways in which stigmatization of Henan are realized and responded to,and to analyze the effect of regional stigmatization on the development of harmonious relationship of people of different regions.The quantitative analysis is the statistical analysis of the distribution of strategies of stigmatization of Henan and the use of questionnaires to better understand the response of Henan people to stigmatization,so as to gain a deeper understanding of the harm of regional stigmatization.This paper finds that: Firstly,the seven impoliteness strategies in Bousfield’s impoliteness strategies are reflected in the data,including “Criticisms(14.62%)”,“Challenges(10%)”,“Frightening/Threatening(3.08%)”,“Using taboo words(3.84%)”,“Disassociating from the other(3.07%)”,“Sarcasm(2.31%)” and “Using inappropriate identity markers(2.30%)”.In addition,this study found five other strategies of impoliteness: “Labeling(18.46%)”,“Exposing one’s privacy(1.54%)”,“Negative assessments(19.23%)”,“Complaints(13.08%)” and “Negative comparisons(8.47%)”.And there are two or several impoliteness strategies combined in one turn in the discourse of stigmatization of Henan.Secondly,in the face of stigmatization,Henan people choose non-verbal response or verbal response.When Henan people choose non-verbal response,they usually remain silent.When Henan people choose to respond verbally,they usually counterattack or accept the stigmatization.Thirdly,stigmatization of Henan is the speaker’s harmonious neglect or harmonious challenge orientation,which is a threat to the face of Henan people,to social rights and obligations,and to interactional goals,thus affecting the harmonious development of relations of people in different regions.Through data analysis,there are another two findings: First,the repeated use of one impoliteness strategy or the combination of multiple strategies can strengthen the facial injury of people in the stigmatized region.Secondly,the reaction of spectators will have a certain impact on the outcome of stigmatization.These two findings are of great significance for a better understanding of regional stigmatization.This research is a supplement to the existing study of impoliteness and can also help promote further study of the uncooperative language phenomenon — regional stigmatization.At the same time,this study provides a linguistic perspective for the study of stigmatization,which is conducive to promoting the harmonious development of people in various regions,and is of great significance to the construction of harmonious social relationships and social civilization. |
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