A Contrastive Study of Apology Strategies between English and Chinese 本科毕业论文文档格式.docx

A Contrastive Study of Apology Strategies between English and Chinese 本科毕业论文文档格式.docx

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1.2Significanceofthestudy

Asthemostimportantintermediary,apologystrategiesshouldbeadoptedappropriatelywhichcanhelpusmaintaintheinterpersonalharmoniousrelations,setupgoodindividualimageandrestoreone’ssocialposition.Differentcountrieshavedifferentculturalandsocialvalueswhichmaybecausedifferentstrategies’selectionunderasamesituation.

ThoughmanyinternationalandChinesescholarshavemadestudiesaboutapologyandapologystrategies,thereareverylittleresearchesaboutthecontrastivestudyofapologystrategiesbetweenEnglishandChineseandthereasonsofthedifferences.

Inreviewoftheabove,thepresentthesisattemptstomakeabriefcontrastivestudyofapologystrategiesbetweenEnglishandChineseandcauseanalysisfromculturalandsocialfactors.

1.3Layoutofthepaper

ThepresentpaperattemptstomakeacontrastivestudyofapologystrategiesbetweenEnglishandChineseandcauseanalysis.Itconsistsofthefollowingfivechapters.

Chapteronepresentsanintroductiontothewholethesisincludingresearchbackground,significanceofthestudyandlayoutofthepaper.Chaptertwointroducessomebasicknowledgeaboutapologyandapologystrategiesanddescribestheresearchesstudiedbylinguistics.ChapterthreemakesacontrastivestudyofapologystrategiesbetweenEnglishandChinesefromsixaspects.Chapterfouranalysesthereasonsofthedifferencesfromculturalandsocialfactors.Chapterfiveconcludesthewholethesisandmakesaconclusionincludingthemainfindingsandlimitations.

ChapterTwo

Theoreticalprerequisites

2.1Thedefinitionofapology

Owen（1983）regardsthetermapologyastheexpressionssuchassorryandIapologize.Goffman（1971）referreditasremedy,oneoftheessentialelementsinremedialinterchange.HenceabroaddefinitionofanapologydevelopedbyHolmes,asisusedinthispaper,“anapologyisaspeechactaddressedtoB’sface-needsandintendedtoremedyanoffenseforwhichAtakesresponsibility,andthustorestoreequilibriumbetweenAandB（Aistheapologizer,andBisthepersonoffended）.”（Holmes,1990）

2.2Ageneralintroductionofapologystrategies

Manyscholarsmadedeepanalysistotheapologystrategies（Blum-KulkaandOlshtain,1984;

Fraster,1981;

OlshtainandCohen,1983;

Owen,1983）.Muchoftheseresearcheshavemadedefinitionandclassificationofapologystrategies.InthisthesisthemodelusedisbasedonOlshtainandCohen（1983:

22-23）

（A）IFIDs（IllocutionaryForceIndicatingDevices）

a.Anexpressionofanapology,e.g.I’msorry

b.Anofferofanapologywithintensifier,e.g.I’mvery/terrible/reallysorry

c.Arequestforforgiveness,e.g.Excuseme/Forgiveme/Pardonme

（B）Explanation

Externalmitigatingcircumstances,e.g.Thetrafficwasterrible

（C）Takingonresponsibility

a.Explicitself-blame,e.g.itisveryfaultymymistake

b.Lakeofintent,e.g.Ididn’tmeanit

c.Expressionofself-deficiency,e.g.Iwasconfused!

/Ididn’tseeyou!

d.Expressionofembarrassment,e.g.Ifeelawfulaboutit.

e.Self-dispraise,e.g.I’msuchadimwit!

f.Justifyhearer,e.g.youarerighttobeangry

（D）Offeringofrepair,e.g.I’llpayforthedamage

（E）Promiseofforbearance,e.g.itwon’thappenagain

（F）Refusaltoacknowledgeguilt,e.g.itisn’tmyfault.（OlshtainandCohen,1983）

Themodelshowsthatspeakershabituallyusealimitednumberofapologystrategieswhenapologizing.WecanmakeacontrastivestudyabouttheselectionofapologystrategiesbetweenEnglishandChineseaccordingtothisclassification.

2.3Researchonapology-makingbylinguists

ItisobservedfirstlybyErvingGoffmanthattheselinguisticformulasservetocreateandmaintainwhathecalls“thepublicorder”（Goffman,1971）whichmeans“theremedialinterchange”.Speakerstrytoselectonekindofapologystrategiestoofferanapologyinordertoremedypotentiallyunpleasantsocialsituationsinthissituation.Soapologystrategiesaredefinedasamethodtoremedysocialrelationship.BorkinandReinhare（1978）havedoneaveryusefulanalysisoftwoformulaicexpressionsaboutapologies,suchas“Excuseme”“Iamsorry”.Owen（1983）regardGoffman’sworkas“richinthesuggestionsitoffersforfurtherresearch,butisinneedofmoreexplicitempiricalsupportthanthatprovidedbyCoffmanhimself”.AnumberofresearchersworkingonalargeinternationalresearchprogramhaveusedmanyofOwen’ssuggestionsinacross-linguisticstudyofapologies,thecross-culturespeechactrealizationproject（CCSARP）.OlshtainandCohen（1983）alsomadeseveralimportantcross-culturecomparisonsfromtwogroupsofnativespeakers.Fraser（1981）madeaninvestigationaboutthechoiceofapologyfromwork.Hefoundthat“themoreformalthesituation,thelongerandmoreelaboratetheapology.”InChina,therearealsosomescholarsstudythistopic,suchasJiaYuxin（1997）,HuZhuanglinandLiuRunqing（2002）.

Thesestudiesnotonlyexplainhowagivengroupusesapologystrategies,butprovideinformationabouthowspecifictypesofapologiesareappropriatelyusedinnativespeakers.

ChapterThree

ContrastbetweenEnglishandChineseapologystrategies

3.1AdescriptionofDCTsurvey

ToanalysesthedifferencesofapologystrategiesbetweenEnglishandChinese,thechapterusesaDCT（DiscourseCompletionTest）whichincludingfivetypesofsituationswhichhappenbetweenpeopleofdiverserelationsandinvariouscircumstances.

3.1.1Subjects

Onehundredsubjectsparticipatedinthestudywhichinclude50nativespeakersofChinese（NSCs）and50nativespeakersofEnglish（NSEs）.Intermsofage,halfofthesubjectsbetween15and25,therestareolder.Intermsofgender,bothNSCsandNSEssubjectscontain30malesand20females.（JiaYuxin,1997）

3.1.2Questionnaire

Inordertoachievediversityinthisstudy,fivesituationsarelistedwhichinvolvevariousrelationsbetweenpeople,suchastwostrangers,classmates,bossandstaff,parentandchild,twoclosefriends.

Table1TheQuestionnaireoftheDCTSurvey

Situation

People

Place

Case

One

Twostrangers

Inastreet

Onestepsanother’sfoot

Two

Classmates

Inclass

Onedon’tansweranother’squestion

Three

Bossandstaff

Incompany

Employeedon’tfinishthetaskintime

Four

Parentandchild

Athome

Parentdon’tkeephisorherpromise

Five

Twoclosefriends

Inanoffice

Onebreakanother’spreciouspen

3.1.3Procedure

ThequestionnaireincludesChineseversionwhichisgiventoNSCsandEnglishversionwhichisgiventoNSEs.Theparticipantsshouldfollowthesenotesbeforetheywritethequestionnaire,suchastheyshouldreadeachsituationcarefullyandwritetheirresponsesasrealisticallyaspossibleaccordingtohowtheywouldactuallydointhegivensituations.

DataanalysisthroughawrittenquestionnaireintheformofDCT（discoursecompletiontest）isthemostfrequentmethodincross-culturallanguagestudieswhichiswidelyusedanddevelopedbyBlum-Kulka.Wolfson（1989）suggestedthattheprimaryaimofusingDCTtocollectdataisforthecomparisonofcross-linguisticstudyandtheinvestigationofL2learners’sociolinguisticproblems.However,therearemanylimitationswhenuseDCTdateanalysis,thatis,“collectingnaturaldatawouldbemorereliable,forwhatoneclaimsonewilldoinagivensituationisnotnecessarilywhatoneactuallydoesinareallifesituation.”（RubeandRula,2006）Althoughithastheselimitations,DCTisaneffectivemethodtoanalysescomparativelyworthydata.

3.2ContrastoftheuseofapologystrategiesinEnglishandChinese

Table2presentstheoverallproportionsofallapologystrategiesforthetwolanguages.Thedataintable2showstheusedsituationsofapologystrategiesinEnglishandChineseandit’shelpfulformakingcontras