基于语料库的英国英语道歉回应行为研究

Apology Responses in Spoken British English: A Corpus Study

本研究依托英语国家口语语料库2014(Spoken BNC2014),在综合分析道歉回应策略和功能特征的基础上,归纳出英国英语道歉回应行为的主要类别,并进一步探讨男、女回应策略的差异及其潜在原因。研究发现,道歉回应可分为"接受""拒绝""确认""回避"和"澄清"五个类别;就道歉回应策略所作的对比分析显示,男性回应以信息导向型策略("澄清")为主,而女性回应以情绪导向型策略("接受""确认""回避""拒绝")为主;这表明,男性更关注信息交流,而女性更强调情绪表达。此外,男性更常使用"拒绝"策略,而女性更倾向于"接受"或"回避道歉"策略。论文尝试从英美性别文化视角探讨上述差异的动因,认为道歉回应之性别差异反映出男、女不同的交际文化和诉求。本文对完善道歉言语行为和礼貌研究、丰富跨文化交际和变异语用学研究具有重要意义,对跨文化语用对比研究也有所助益。

This study investigates apology responses(ARs)in spoken British English.Using the data taken from the Spoken BNC2014,the investigation allows us to propose a taxonomy of ARs,comprising five categories:"Acceptance""Rejection""Acknowledgement""Evasion"and"Clarification".The proposed taxonomy is subsequently used to examine whether men and women respond to apologies differently,results suggest that gender differences do exist in ARs:men’s responses are more information-oriented(i.e."Clarification")whereas women’s are more emotion-oriented(e.g."Acceptance""Rejection""Acknowledgement"and"Evasion");men are more likely to reject apologies,while women tend to use more"Acceptance"and"Evasion"strategies.These observations are further discussed from the perspective of gendered communicative culture.Overall,the study offers new insights into apology and politeness studies,intercultural communication,variational pragmatics,and cross-cultural pragmatics.