A Cognitive Study on Politeness Intention Processing and Its Association with Pragmatic Failure in Cross-Cultural Communication

Although a large number of studies have focused on various aspects of politeness,very little is known about how politeness intention is activated cognitively during verbal communication.The present study aims to explore the cognitive mechanism of politeness intention processing,and how it is related to pragmatic failure during cross-cultural communication.Using 30 Chinese EFL university students who were instructed to finish a probe word judgment task with 96 virtual scenarios,the results indicate that within both mono-and cross-cultural contexts,the response time in the experimental scenarios was significantly slower than that of the filler scenarios.This suggests that politeness intention was activated while understanding the surface meaning of the conversation;however,the EFL learners could not completely avoid the negative transfer of their native politeness conventions when they were comprehending the conversational intention of the target language.Furthermore,no significant differences in response time were found between the groups with high and low English pragmatic competence,illustrating that transferring the pragmatic rules and principles into cross-cultural communication skills was more cognitively demanding.Overall,this study adds to the literature on politeness research and provides some implications for foreign language pragmatic instructions.

A Comparative Study of the L2 Pragmatic Competence of University Students in Hong Kong and the Chinese Mainland:The Contributions of Sociocultural Context and Linguistic Proficiency

This study investigates the differences in pragmatic competence between Hong Kong and Chinese mainland university students.Participants included 19 native speakers of English,115 Chinese mainland students,divided into those who had spent time abroad in an English-speaking country(CM A)and those who had not(CM NA),and 97 Hong Kong students,divided into those from an English-medium secondary school(Hong Kong EMI)and those from a Chinese-medium school(Hong Kong CMI).Linguistic proficiency was measured by a C-test,and pragmatic competence by a Metapragmatic Knowledge Test,an Irony Test and a Monologic Role Play.Group scores were compared using ANCOVAs to control for differences in proficiency.The results point to a continuum of pragmatic competence—EMI>CMI>CM A>CM NA—reflecting the groups’access to English in real-life contexts.The differences between the Hong Kong groups and the Chinese mainland groups were clearest in those tests measuring processing capacity(i.e.,Irony Response Time and the Monologic Role Play).CM A,but not CM NA,performed as well as the Hong Kong groups on measures of metapragmatic awareness.The results are discussed in terms of Bialystok’s(1993)distinction between analyzed representation and control of processing.

English Translation of Public Signs in Chinese from a Pragmatic Perspective

This paper applies Newmark’s communicative translation and semantic translation theory to analyzing the English translation of Chinese public signs and its pragmatic functions. It finds that communicative translation is typically used to fulfill the communicative function of public signs. Both communicative and semantic translation are employed to adapt to different situational contexts, in order to preserve the pragmatic functions of the Chinese public signs. The differences between Chinese and English lead to pragmatic errors in translation, making the translator’s bilingual proficiency and familiarity with English culture necessary. The fundamental principle of public sign translation is to be concise and clear, which often requires modifying some complex rhetorical devices from Chinese in translation.

翻译中的语用和语义关系

This paper deals with the relations of pragmatic and semantic issues arising from translation,analyses the misunderstandings of some culture bound words and expressions and then calls for the application of sociopragmatics in translation. [

Taking Stock of Grammar-Translation Teaching Method in Developing Intercultural Pragmatic Competence

Grammar-translation teaching method(GTTM as a shorthand below) has long been a buzzword when it is adopted in the class of English as a foreign language.It has been universally acknowledged that such teaching method contradicts the development of communicative language competence advocated in recent decades.However,I positively argue that GTTM in English class,as a comparative and intercultural model,should be given a due reconsideration to improve L2 learners' pragmatic competence.

The Pragmatic Analysis of English Euphemism

In daily communication, English euphemism is both a common linguistic and cultural phenomenon. In general, those disgusting, terrifying and unpleasant facts can be covered and those defacing, embarrassing things can be hidden by the use of euphemism. The originality of this paper lies in the study of English euphemism from the perspective of pragmatics. It discusses some fundamental knowledge and the pragmatic functions of English euphemism.

The Teachers＇ Feedback Act Research of College English Classes

The Follow up Move Research has been deepening after it was first defined in 1975 by Sinclair and Coulthard, but it has not been paid attention in China, let alone study its effect in the classroom. In this essay based on the author＇s literature reading, the Follow up move functions and their language features are classified; its pragmatic motivations are researched and some factors which affect its relevance of occurrence are studied. Then with this guide of the frame four teachers classroom follow up moves are studied. Finally, the other scholars＇ findings in this field are commented and then the author＇s own insights are put forward.

Application of cross-cultural cognitive pragmatic analysis to translation education

Translation is cross-cultural activity existing between two different language signs. In the process of translating, translators can not get out of the influence of cultural elements. From the angle of cross-cultural pragmatic contrasting, the author makes analysis of the problems of difference existing between the volume of information borne or transmitted between two different language signs in the process of translating under the influence of cultural elements, and points out that to study these problems, translators must consider a series of problems about cross-cultural cognitive context. This article also makes cross-cultural pragmatic contrastive analysis in world view difference, register difference, imaginative difference and metaphor difference. The author introduces the method of cross-cultural pragmatic contrastive analysis and suggests taking a series of measures to improve translation education.

Reconsideration on the role of pragmatic transfer

This paper reconsiders the role of L 1 pragmatic transfer on English learning after a brief historical review of the pragmatic transfer research. As pragmatic transfer is a communicative strategy which the language learners tend to use to deal with the immediate problems and difficulties in communication and to develop their pragmatic competence of the target language, the paper comes to the conclusion that foreign language teachers should consciously introduce the pragmatic transfer as a communicative strategy into the classroom teaching, and try to find effective means to cultivate their students＇ abilities of pragmatic transfer in order to develop pragmatic competence.

《语用信度研究》评介

E.McC ready.2015.Reliability in Pragmatics.Oxford：Oxford University Press,304.一、引言语用信度（pragmatic reliability）是指会话双方在交际过程中由于会话策略的不同所产生的话语信任度。目前国内外很少有学者对语用信度展开专门的研究,类似研究主要集中在话语不确定性研究（Pym,2015）和语篇的语用混乱研究（Stemmer,2015）等方面。这些研究多集中在语言特例的批评性分析,

Investigating L2 Request Strategies: A Case Study of Chinese English teachers' L2 Pragmatic Competence

Empirical descriptions of how the teacher performs requests in English can make them realize the importance of improving pragmatic competence, so that they could help students develop more native-like pragmatic behaviors and enhance cultural competence. This case study is to explore the pragmatic competence of a Chinese EFL teacher by investigating the patterns of realization strategies and the ways of reacting to the different social and contextual variables in her requests. It was found out that the teacher investigated in the study had good pragmatic awareness and pragmatic competence to produce the speech act of requests and develop students' pragmatic competence, but more explicit instructions should be provided to help students develop more native-like speech acts by providing more explicit instructions.

On the pragmatic functions of non-restrictive relational clauses in English news report discourse

Traditional syntactic or semantic theories failed to provide a satistactory explanation for the unique features of non-restrictive relational clauses in people＇s daily use of English language. This paper would adopt the theoretical framework of pragmatics and use relevance theory as well as face theory to discuss the unique pragmatic functions of non-restrictive relational clauses in English news report discourse. The three major pragmatic functions are： （1） optimizing the relevance of information; （2） seeking for the consistence with readers; and （3） avoiding imposing the author＇s opinion on readers.

The Study for the Causes of Pragmatic Failure

This paper,based on the questionnaire,deduces the causes of pragmatic failure which are summarized into four:The different value orientation between the two cultures,consisting individualism versus collectivism,power distance,connotation versus denotation,and orientation towards time,negative transfer of equivalent structures and behaviors,insufficient or improper teaching and the scarcity of universal knowledge for communication.

The Vagueness in Business English Interpretation and its Pragmatic Functions

In BE interpretation process, interpreters will inevitably encounter the fuzzy phenomenon when inputting and outputting the message and they will adopt some vague language to fulfill the communication task. The proper analysis of pragmatic function of vagueness in BE interpretation will contribute to the realization of business communication.

An Analysis of Modal Verbs in Language Teaching

Through classifying modal verbs from the semantic aspect and the pragmatic aspect, this paper discusses difficulties that students may encounter in modal verb learning. It indicates that modal verbs have complicacy, and a deductive approach and inductive approach should intermingle as an appropriate method to improve students' accuracy in use of modal verbs.

Vagueness in Teachers' Spoken Language

Politeness symbolizes human civilization,and is one of conduct codes of human beings.As a social activity,language use is subject to this code as well.Pragmatic vagueness is a common phenomenon in spoken discourse.Furthermore,it is an important strategy widely used in teachers' spoken language.Based on the politeness principle,this thesis explores the pragmatic vagueness by analyzing teachers' spoken discourse.Employing pragmatic vagueness in teacher's spoken language can smooth the relationship between teachers and students,and help teachers gain foremost effect on the education to their students.

A Research on the Improvement of Pragmatic Competence in College English Teaching

A core issue in foreign language teaching is to foster actual competence of language learners to practically utilize language, which is called pragmatic competence. But compared with traditional linguistic competence, the levels of their pragmatic competence need to be further understood. Thus it is essential to make an investigation into this. From the investigation results it is expected to reveal from which aspects teachers and students should carry on in order to improve pragmatic competence and meet foreign language learning need in new age.

Using Pragmatic in Translation

Translating process is coordination of the source language and target language.As the source language and translation language readers are in different cultural background,so their understanding of the environment is different.When the translator express their understanding in the receptor language,he must figure out the best relevance between source language and target language,which can achieve pragmatic equivalence.

大学生语用能力面面观(英文)

College Students' pragmatic competence is generally low at present. The following will be the causes:Different sense of value;Improper teaching and negative transfer. There are some methods for improving students' pragmatic competence:a culture syllabus should be compiled;culture courses should be offered and the teaching method of culture input should be employed.

A Pragmatic Approach to Idiom Translation from a Cultural Perspective

Idioms are gems of a language which have been refined through ages of use. Idioms are thus always rich in cultural connotation and national flavor. Lots of cultural information is embedded in idioms. Language is a part of culture. Language is the important carrier of culture. Language and culture have close relationship with each other. The study of the relationship between language and culture has been considered a subject of great value. Owing to this, translation theorists and translators have put more attention to the cultural barriers that exist in translation. Therefore, translators have to better understand the relationship between language and culture and the relationship between culture and translation so as to render idioms from the SL into the TL faithfully and effectively.