当代中国礼貌观城乡差异调查与分析

An Empirical Study of Contemporary Chinese Politeness Variation between Urban and Rural Areas

礼貌变异研究近年来发展迅速,但缺乏对于中国城乡之间礼貌变异的关注。本研究以致歉言语行为为例,通过问卷调查的研究方法,考察城乡居民对致歉必要性和郑重程度看法的差异,并探讨权势关系、社交距离、冒犯程度等变量对城乡礼貌观的影响,以管窥当代中国城乡的礼貌变异情况。研究结果表明,就道歉而言,当代中国居民普遍具有较为突出的礼貌意识,在表达礼貌的意识程度方面城市居民总体上高于农村居民,城市居民在礼貌方式的选择上比农村居民更为精细;通过对权势关系、社会距离、冒犯程度等方面的考察发现,在实施道歉行为时城市居民会考虑到更多的因素,城市居民的礼貌观比农村居民更具复杂性。本研究的实践意义在于,在"跨城乡"交际中应充分意识到城乡之间礼貌观念的差异性,并适时调整表达礼貌的方式,以保证交际的成功。

The study of politeness variation has been developing rapidly,but it remains unexplored how politeness varies between urban and rural areas in China.The present study,focusing on the speech act of apology,examines the differences between urban and rural residents’perception on necessity and seriousness of apology by means of questionnaire,and investigates the influences of such variables as power relation,social distance and degree of offense on the residents’notion of politeness,to reveal the politeness variation between the urban and rural areas in contemporary China.The results suggest that,as far as apologizing is concerned,contemporary Chinese people generally embrace strong awareness of politeness,and compared with rural residents,urban residents are more inclined to express politeness in general and more subtle in the manner of showing politeness.The exploration on power relation,social distance and degree of offense indicates that urban residents take more factors into consideration than rural residents do when performing an apology,and urban residents’perception on politeness is more complex than that of rural residents.The practical implication of this study is that,when urban and rural residents communicate with each other,their differences in politeness should be kept in mind and the manner of expressing politeness can be adjusted in order to ensure the success of communication.