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English vs. Chinese Speech Styles

Author: Chi-yin Hong

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Introduction

• American and Chinese culture differed in the amount of stress placed on the individual and the group.

• There are different ways for Americans and Chinese people to communicate & express politeness.

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Communicative Styles (1)

1. Communicative style: the topics people prefer to discuss and their favorite forms of interaction in conversation.

2. Be punctual, keep the appointment, and avoid bowing. 3. Stay at least an arm’s length away and be cautious about

touching other males (might be taken as a homosexual).4. With a person an American first encounters, the most common

topics for small talk: (a) the weather (b) the speakers’ current physical surroundings

5. Topics with close friends: jobs, recreational interests, houses, family matters, (men) cars & sports, (women) children, personal care (hairdos)

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Communicative Styles (2)

6. Topics to avoid: topics that are too personal, e.g. financial matters, body and mouse odors, or sexual matters. There will also be little self-disclosure, such as personal lives and feelings/opinions about controversial matters (unless with a very close friend).

7. Americans are impatient with people who take long turns and like to get to the point quickly.

8. Americans tend to avoid arguments, and will try to find areas of agreement, change the topic, or even physically move away from the person that are talking to.

9. If an argument is unavoidable, then loud voices, vigorous use of arms, more than one person talking at a time will be avoided.

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Western concepts of politeness (1)

• Goffman (1967) defined politeness as the employment of communicative strategies in managing the image or public identity of interactional participants.

• Leech (1983) viewed politeness as consisting of six politeness maxims.• (1) Tact maxim: (i) Minimize cost to other. (ii) Maximize benefit to other.• (2) Generosity maxim: (i) Minimize benefit to self. (ii) Maximize cost to self.• (3) Approbation maxim: (i) Minimize dispraise of other. (ii) Maximize praise of other.• (4) Modesty maxim: (i) Minimize praise of self. (ii) Maximize dispraise of self.• (5) Agreement maxim: (i) Minimize disagreement between self and other. (ii) Maximize agreement

between self and other.• (6) Sympathy maxim: (i) Minimize antipathy between self and other. (ii) Maximize sympathy

between self and other. (p. 132)

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Western concepts of politeness (2)

Leech (1983, p. 108 )

• Peel the potatoes.

• Hand me the newspaper.

• Sit down.

• Look at that.

• Enjoy your holiday.

• Have another sandwich.

• Answer the phone.

• I want you to answer the phone.

• Will you answer the phone?

• Can you answer the phone?

• Would you mind answering the phone?

• Could you possibly answer the phone?

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Western concepts of politeness (3)

• B. Face-saving view: Brown and Levinson (1987)

• According to Goffman (1967), face is an image “located in the flow of events, supported by other people’s judgments and endorsed by impersonal agencies in the situation” (p. 5).

• Positive face: the desire of every member to be appreciated and approved of by others

• Negative face: the need of a member not to have her/his actions impeded by others and claims the addressees’ rights to territories, freedom of action and freedom from imposition.

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Brown and Levinson’s (1987) model of strategies for an FTA

Do the FTA

Don’t do the FTA(1)

on record

off record(2)

“The bathroom is a little dirty.”

without redressive action, baldly(3)

“You should clean the bathroom!”

with redressive action

positive politeness(4)

“Let’s clean the bathroom, shall we?”

negative politeness(5)

“I hate to impose, but could you clean the bathroom?”

1. Western concepts of politeness (4)

Speakers choose strategies based on their estimation of the risk of face loss.

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Chinese Politeness (1)

• Hofstede (1984): American and Chinese cultures differed in the amount of stress placed on the individual and the group.

• Ho (1975) & Hu (1994): Chinese face is the respectable images that individuals want to maintain for themselves based on the values of the community they come from.

• Thus, individuals pursue connectedness to and interpersonal harmony with their own community.

• Gu (1990): four notions of politeness: respectfulness, attitudinal warmth, refinement, and modesty.

• Modesty indicates self-denigration, which includes two submaxims: denigrating self and elevating other.

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Chinese Politeness (2)

• Example:

• nín guìxìng? (Your precious surname? 您貴姓 ?)

• B: bìxìng Wu. (My worthless surname is Wu. 敝姓吳 )

令郎 小犬貴校 敝校夫人 內人 ( 賤內 )

您 閣下 敝人 在下令尊 家父貴公館 寒舍

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Chinese Politeness (3)

• According to Oliver (1971), denigrating self stressed respect for and subordination to authorities＝＞ respect and subordination used to be expressed by denigrating oneself.

• Mao (1994): the centripetal force, which aims for social recognition and hierarchical interdependence, influences Chinese concepts of face a lot. However, the centrifugal force, which pursues individual desires or wants, determines Western notions of face.

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Chinese Politeness (4)

• Similar to Japanese culture: a Japanese must understand her/his position in relation to other members of the group or society, and must acknowledge her/his dependence on the others. The interdependence, shown by juniors’ respect for seniors and seniors’ sense of obligation to take care of the juniors, constitutes the Japanese politeness system.

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Chinese Politeness (5)

• Repetitive invitations• Western Cultures: if the hearer has explicitly expressed

reluctance to accept the invitation, then the repetition is seen as a threat to the hearer’s negative face.

• Chinese culture: courteous because it shows the speaker’s

sincerity.

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Chinese Politeness (6)

• A: 如果你要的話，我可以載你。 (I can give you a ride if you like. )

• B: 你真好，但我不想麻煩你。 (It’s very kind of you, but I don’t want to cause you any inconvenience.)

• A: 不會，一點都不會。我順路。 (No, not at all. I am going in that direction.)

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Chinese Politeness (7)

• Social variables, such as status & social distance, might influence the way people talk.

• Leech (1983): the higher status and the greater social distance of the addressee, the greater the need for choices and indirectness of an impositive.

• Chinese should be more concerned about the addressee’s social status, but for young people nowadays, this might not be the case.