Expressing Gratitute Verbally in Chinese and Enlgish: A Pragmatic Study
Expressing gratitude plays a very important role in communication.Due to cultural differences and other factors influencing languages, there would be definitely differences in the way in which people of different background show and express gratitude, and these differences may lead to pragmatic transfer.In the present study, a questionnaire with social distance and relative power as key variables is developed to collect data about how native English speakers, native Chinese speakers and Chinese EEL learners express gratitude in different situations. The data collected is analyzed.Firstly, the responses given are analyzed to find whether factors like social distance and relative power would influence expressing gratitude in Chinese and English.Then both Chinese and English thanking strategies are analyzed, and the data are coded. Furthermore, the similarity and differences of strategy use between native Chinese and native English are discussed.Finally, pragmatic transfers are examined in the aspects of situation, strategy use and utterance respectively. Results show that there are situational differences between native English speakers and native Chinese speakers in expressing gratitude.There are also differences in thanking strategy use.The present study also certifies that there are pragmatic transfers in Chinese EFL learners gratitude expressions.Firstly, pragmatic transfer of situation occurs when the social distance between the participants is very near.Secondly, the strategy transfer is very obvious.Finally, the utterances given by Chinese EFL speakers demonstrate the pragmatic transfer: many responses are just translation of Chinese responses.
Chinese and English expressing gratitude a pragmatic study Chinese EFL learners pragmatic transfer
Wansheng Liu
The School of Foreign Languages Nantong Vocational College Nantong,China
国际会议
成都
英文
1578-1582
2011-07-15（万方平台首次上网日期，不代表论文的发表时间）