也谈礼貌的相对性——兼评Brown和Levinson的“面子保全论”

On the Relativity of Politeness——some critical comments on Brown & Levinson's "face-saving theory"

Brown和Levinson的"面子保全论"是一种策略性的礼貌理论,适合描写和解释西方文化中的礼貌现象,对崇尚集体主义的东方文化解释力不强。同时,不同文化中表示礼貌的方式和方法以及人们用以判断礼貌的标准具有差异性,所以礼貌是相对的。Brown和Levinson的礼貌理论忽略了中西"面子"的文化差异,没有区分真实礼貌与虚假礼貌,也未提及礼貌与文化语境的关系,因此具有明显的缺陷和不足。

Brown and Levinson＇s ＂Face - saving Theory＂ is the theory that accounts for the redressing of the affronts to face posed by face - threatening acts to addressees. This theory works well in western cultures which highlight individualism, but may not suit eastem cultures which are characteristic of collectivism. Since the ways to show politeness and the criteria for politeness differ greatly from one culture to culture, we then argue that politeness is not universal but culturally relative by nature. Brown and Levinson＇s theory fails to notice the different connotations of ＂face＂ across cultures, not discriminating real politeness from virtual politeness, and not discussing politeness in cuhuml context and hence problematic and imperfect.