Abstract
This edited volume contributes to the studies of variations in politeness across different genres in Chinese. It sits within the tradition of variational pragmatics – a subfield of intercultural pragmatics. The book looks at the impact of genre on the production and interpretation of politeness within ‘the Chinese-speaking culture’, which is manifested in various Chinese discourses from not only Mainland China but also Hong Kong and Taiwan. Exploring intra-cultural politeness-related variations across genres, the volume is different from previous intercultural pragmatics research that focuses predominantly on cross-cultural comparisons. The types of data covered include everyday interaction (e.g. at dinner tables or in Internet forums), academic, journalistic, medical and recreational genres, and articles that demonstrate genre-specific preferences and features in speech acts such as introductions and responses, refusals, disagreements, advice-giving, compliments and responses, and so on.
Chapter 1 is an introduction by the editor, which outlines the rationale, theoretical and methodological considerations, and limitations of the volume as well as directions for future research. The rest of the volume is divided into four parts, each dealing with one aspect of politeness in Chinese discourses. Part I examines how Chinese politeness behaviours embrace Grand Strategies of Politeness (GSP) (Leech, 2014) in introductions. In Chapter 2, Wang explores how politeness maxims are used and realized in guest-introducing and responding acts at Chinese dinner tables. Chen, in Chapter 3, examines the opening sequence of guest lectures in Chinese universities, focusing on how the host introduces the visiting professor. Both the introduction and the response by the visitors are analysed in detail. Qian (Chapter 4) analyses the introductory segment of three Chinese TV celebrity interview programmes, in particular, the exchanges of compliments between the hosts and the guests.
Part II of the volume deals with identity construction in different Chinese genres. In Chapter 5, Ren investigates the linguistic strategies of the host of a Chinese radio call-in programme that deals with public service complaints. Wu and Lin, in Chapter 6, examine the types of speech acts and facework that are used to build ‘connectedness’ by Chinese celebrities with their followers on Sina Weibo. Chapter 7, by Ran and Chen, looks at advice-giving in PhD oral defences in Chinese universities, and explores how supervisors construct identities in relation to the management of interpersonal rapport with the candidates.
Part III explores how rapport is managed in face-sensitive interaction, especially when Face Threatening Acts (FTAs) (Brown and Levinson, 1987) such as refusals and disagreement occur. In Chapter 8, Hsiang and Rau compare the different strategies of refusals adopted by female guests on TV dating shows in Taiwan and Mainland China. With special reference to politeness orientation, the study shows that the relationship between the interlocutors is neglected and challenged by the females in the Mainland versions, whereas it is maintained and strengthened by the females in the Taiwanese ones. The focus of Chapter 9 by Zhang and Wang is the common patterns and strategies that panellists adopt when expressing disagreement during academic conference discussions. In Chapter 10, Lee and Shum demonstrate how Cantonese interlocutors present implicit disagreements, quoting from words and phrases of Confucian canon and neo-Confucian works in online discussion forums.
Part IV of the volume explores how backchannelling varies across Chinese genres. In Chapter 11, Hu and Chen investigate the interconnection between backchannelling and politeness in TV talk shows from Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Chapter 12, by Mao and Yang, explores the interconnection between backchannels and politeness management in four radio call-in counselling programmes from Mainland China. In Chapter 13, Zhong examines backchannelling on Chinese Internet forums. The functions of backchannelling are classified into seven categories: emoting, endorsement, evaluation, acknowledgement, attention, gratitude and disapproval. These functions conform to the sub-maxims of Leech’s (2014) GSP and serve as strategies of showing ‘pos-politeness’ or ‘netiquette’.
In general, this volume is well-structured and functions as a comprehensive survey of research in Chinese politeness. It revisits a pervasive phenomenon in language – politeness, which has been studied in depth in the past three decades. Filling a gap in politeness research, in particular in Chinese languages, this volume has several strengths. First of all, it is the first collection of articles to focus on how linguistic behaviours towards politeness vary across genres in contemporary Chinese languages, covering not only face-to-face and written forms of communication but also those in computer-mediated contexts. Furthermore, the volume focuses on intracultural variations in discursive strategies across different types of interaction, including introduction, identity construction, rapport management and backchannelling. The volume is also innovative, as it embraces diverse approaches to politeness and a range of naturally occurring data. Rather than adhering to a single model or paradigm, this volume adopts theoretical modules of Leech’s (2014) GSP, Brown and Levinson’s (1987) Face Theory (FT), Spencer-Oatey’s (2000) Rapport Management Model (RMM) and Constructivists’ views of politeness (Arundale, 1999; Haugh, 2007; Kádár and Haugh, 2013; Watts, 2003).
Nevertheless, the volume has some limitations. First, the four modules of politeness theories have their own merits and defects, which are not necessarily complementary to each other. Therefore, the results produced using different frameworks do not facilitate cross-study comparison. Second, though there is a variety of topics covered in this volume, certain areas are given more focus. For instance, academic genres are covered in several studies, including lecture openings in Chapter 3, PhD oral defences in Chapter 7 and panel discussions at academic conferences in Chapter 9. Internet and TV are the other two genres under focus, for example Weibo posts in Chapter 6, Internet forum discussion in Chapters 10 and 13, and TV interviews in Chapters 4, 8 and 11. In contrast, everyday face-to-face interaction, which would give better insight into politeness in Chinese-speaking cultures, is sparsely discussed in the volume.