中美学生抱怨言语行为的差异探究

An Investigation of Differences of Complaint Verbal Behaviours Between American and Chinese Students

本文以敞开式问卷对中美两国三组学生(英语专业、非专业、及美国本族语学生)的抱怨言语行为进行了调查,具体分析他们在抱怨策略、用词等方面的差异,结果表明英语专业学生在用英语抱怨时,与本族语学生的抱怨话语不仅有质的区别,还有量的差异,他们不能根据受抱怨者的身份和地位调节抱怨的参数。这说明英语中抱怨是一种难以掌握的言语行为;中国非英语专业学生与美国本族语学生在抱怨策略、用词方面的趋势基本相同。研究还发现抱怨这一言语行为也能反映出文化背景的差异。

The present research examines the speech acts of complaining by three groups of students： American native speakers （ANS）, Chinese learners of English（CLE, i.e. English majors） and non-English majors （NEM）. To be more specific, this research explores how the three groups of students complain, i.e. to find similarities and dissimilarities in terms of their strategy use and wording features. Findings show that when complaining in English, the complaints produced by CLE differ from those by native speakers not only in quality, but also in quantity. CLE cannot adjust the complaining parameters according to the status of the complainee. This suggests that complaining is a difficult speech act to grasp. Comparison between the ANS and the NEM suggests that the two groups share basically the same complaining strategies, and show similar tendencies in phrasing their complaints. Other findings are that the speech act of complaining also reflects cultural differences.