奥斯汀小说中请求言语行为的礼貌策略研究

Politeness in the Requesting Speech Acts of Jane Austen's Novels

对奥斯汀小说中请求言语行为的礼貌策略研究表明,在18世纪末19世纪初英国乡绅社会中消极礼貌策略的使用频率高于积极礼貌策略。最常用的消极礼貌策略是对发出请求的原因进行解释,而最主要的积极礼貌策略是对听者表示尊敬。消极礼貌策略和积极礼貌策略的使用都主要受人际距离因素的影响,而权势关系和对具体言语行为强加程度的认定对礼貌策略的使用没有显著影响。这些发现表明,在奥斯汀时代,人际距离已经取代权势关系成为制约社会交往礼貌规范的决定性因素,英国社会正从以积极礼貌策略为主的传统等级社会向以消极礼貌策略为主的现代公民社会转变。

The study on the politeness in the requesting speech acts of Jane Austen＇s novels reveals an increase in the use of negative politeness strategies over positive politeness strategies in the British gentry so- ciety at the beginning of the nineteenth century. The most popular negative politeness strategy is giving ac- counts for the request and the predominant positive politeness strategy is showing deference to the hearer. Both politeness strategies seem to vary mainly with social distance （D） while power （P） and absolute rank- ing of imposition （R） are not statistically significant. These findings may suggest that in the British gentry society at the turn of the nineteenth century, social distance had replaced power as the most critical social mechanism in shaping the politeness norms in social interactions. The British society was evolving from a pos- itive politeness oriented social hierarchy towards a negative politeness oriented civil society.