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.

Effectiveness of an amino acid beverage formulation in diarrheapredominant irritable bowel syndrome:A pragmatic real-world study

BACKGROUND Amino-acid based medical foods have shown promise in alleviating symptoms of drug induced gastrointestinal side effects;particularly,diarrhea-predominant symptoms.Irritable bowel syndrome(IBS)is a gastrointestinal disorder that affects up to 9% of people globally,with diarrhea predominant IBS(IBS-D)being the most prevalent subtype.Further trials are needed to explore potential added benefits when integrated into standard care for IBS-D.AIM To assess the effectiveness of an amino acid-based medical food as an adjunct to standard of care for adults with IBS-D.METHODS This is a pragmatic,real world,open label,single arm study comparing a 2-week baseline assessment to a 2-week intervention period.One hundred adults,aged 18 to 65 years,with IBS-D,according to Rome IV criteria,were enrolled after completing a 2-week baseline assessment period and received a 2-week supply of an amino acid based medical food which was consumed at home twice daily on top of their standard of care.The primary outcome was an assessment of tolerability after 2-weeks of consumption,while secondary outcomes included changes in stool consistency(Bristol Stool Form Scale),severity of abdominal pain&discomfort,symptoms of urgency,Global Improvement Survey(GIS),and the IBS severity scoring system(IBS-SSS).RESULTS The test product was well-tolerated as each participant successfully completed the full 14-day trial,and there were no instances of dropouts or discontinuation of the study product reported.Forty percent of participants achieved a 50% or more reduction in the number of days with type 6-7 bowel movements(IBS-D stool consistency responders).Fifty-three percent of participants achieved a clinically meaningful reduction of 30% in mean weekly pain scores,and 55%experienced the same for mean weekly discomfort scores(IBS-D pain and discomfort responders).Participants experienced a mean-109.4(95% confidence interval:-130.1,-88.8)point reduction on the IBS-SSS and 52% experienced a minimally clinically important difference of>95 points.An IBS-SSS category shift from severe to moderate or mild occurred in 69% of participants.For functional symptoms,76% of participants reported symptom relief on the GIS.CONCLUSION The amino acid-based medical food was well-tolerated,when added to the standard of care,and demonstrated improvements in both overall IBS symptom severity and IBS-D symptoms within just 2 wk.

Exploration of Cross-Cultural Pragmatic Failures in English Interpretation and Their Solutions

From the perspective of international market development and international cultural exchange,English is the main applied language,especially in most western countries.With the deepening of global economic integration and international trade,cultural collisions are becoming increasingly frequent,and interpretation in different languages is inevitably required.However,interpretation does not only mean transfer language,it also involves culture.In the practice of interpretation,some errors arise from the lack of cross-cultural awareness,which becomes pragmatic errors.Therefore,this article will mainly discuss cross-cultural pragmatic failures in English interpretation with some examples and specific solutions.Firstly,it will introduce what pragmatic failures are and typical types of failures,clarify the relationship between English interpretation and pragmatic failures,and then elaborate on representative cross-cultural pragmatic failures in English interpretation.Finally,it will summarize the reasons and solutions that lead to cross-cultural pragmatic failures in English interpretation,putting forward corresponding suggestions for reducing cross-cultural pragmatic failures.

Theoretical Transplantation into Translation Studies——An Analysis on the Pragmatic Application of Hofstede’s

The deepening process of globalization has given rise to restless cultural exchanges among people from different regions of the world through newspapers,books,and other written media.However,the significant differences in languages and cultures have become an insurmountable gap in intercultural communication.To lubricate cultural exchanges,new translation theories that focus on the transformation of different cultural concepts shall be introduced and adopted.This paper aims to extract applicable notions from Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions for pragmatic translation studies by laying emphasis on its pragmatic value through case study.By such theoretical transplantation,valuable suggestions are proposed to tackle cultural misunderstandings and conflicts encountered amid cultural exchanges.

国外语用学研究综述——基于Journal of Pragmatics(2005-2014)的统计分析

一、引言 20世纪70年代,一些语言学家看到Chomsky形式句法理论的缺陷和不足,开始在语言研究中重视对语言意义的研究。随着研究的深入,他们越来越意识到对意义的阐释离不开语境,这便为语用学研究开辟了道路。虽然语用学作为一门学科的历史并不很长,但发展却是十分迅速的。

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 Interaction between the Cooperate Principle and the Politeness Principle in Pragmatics

The Cooperative Principle and the Politeness Principle are the main contents of pragmatics. This paper the writer makes a systematic exposition of what are the Cooperative Principle and the Politeness Principle and how they interact with each other in people’s conversations. .

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.

近十年国外语用学研究综述——对Journal of Pragmatics十年(2005—2014)所刊文章的统计分析

文章首先对Journal of Pragmatics(2005—2014年)所刊文章进行了全面的统计描述;其次从实证研究和非实证研究的角度统计分析了十年来该期刊所有的语用学文章;然后依据权威分类将语用学研究分为十三大类,即互动语用学、话语语用学、社会语用学、实验语用学、语料库语用学、认知语用学、语法与语用学、语用学与哲学、语言习得与语用学、跨文化语用学、网络语用学、翻译与语用学和文学语用学,并在此基础上对语用学文章进行了归类;最后细致梳理和综述了十三大类中十年发文量达到100以上的语用学研究文章。

The Meaning Composition of Chinese Calligraphy Sign

This paper clarifies the composition of meaning in the art of Chinese calligraphy on the basis of American semiotician Charles Morris’s three divisions of sign,namely,“Syntactics,Semantics,Pragmatics”.The syntactical dimension of Chinese calligraphy sign is the artistic meaning of the form of Chinese character.“Semantical dimension”refers to semantic referents of linguistic signs and their literary significance,“pragmatical dimension”refers to the use and interpretation of calligraphy.The study of the three dimensions of meaning in Chinese calligraphy reveals a complex and unique composition of sign meaning.Chinese calligraphy deforms the structure and form of Chinese characters while retaining their semantic invariance.In this way,calligraphy acquires more practical semantic and symbolic meanings through the carrier of Chinese characters which are also linguistic symbols at the same time.Chinese calligraphy is dominated by the meaning of sign forms,taking into account the linguistic reference and the use of sign,and the three dimensions of meaning interact and promote each other,building a dynamic and multidimensional space of sign meaning.

The Application of Pragmatics in College English Teaching

The teaching of pragmatic knowledge is as important as those grammatical rules.It is very critical for a successful communication.An increasingly large number of English language teachers who possess a special interest in pragmatics begin to adopt the pragmatic teaching which aims at promoting students'communicative competence.In order to improve students' communicative ability,teachers must pay attention to the importance of pragmatics in teaching process.Only in this way can college students be trained to use language correctly and properly.

On News Language from the Perspective of Pragmatics——By Applying Adaption Theory

News is an important medium to transmit social information and reflect social reality. Its effects are irreplaceable and the news language which is a carrier to spread information is in fact influenced by many factors such as society, economy and culture. In order to exert its function to gain different social ends, the presentation of news language owns distinguishing features. This article starts from Verschueren's Adaption Theory to have the final conclusion that the adaption to the social, mental and physical world is the key element for the determination of the originality in news language.

A Comparative Study of Chinese and English Refusal Language Strategies

Using 80 short video examples about refusal language strategies on Douyin short videos as a corpus,this study explores the commonality and individuality,as well as the contradictory relationship between Chinese and British countries in the use of refusal language strategies by combining manual and graphical data analyses.It is found that Chinese people use more indirect ways of using refusal speech acts,and British and American countries use more direct ways of using refusal speech acts.In addition to this,both Chinese and British countries use non-verbal behavior to reject speech as a way of protecting the positive face of the addressee and reducing the threatening behavior to the face of the other party.This study also found that the ambivalent relationship between the emergence of refusal language strategies in both China and Britain is related to their personal psychological state,social values,and personal face.The results of this study have some values for sociology as well as pragmatics,which is conducive to the maintenance of interpersonal relationships.

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.

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.

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.

PRAGMATICS九年首文研究

通过PRAGMATICS九年首文的研究,中国语用学者获得了选题启示,探知了国际语用学界这一段时期的学术主流、学术原创性以及视角与方法,看出国际语用学界这一段时期的语用学发展史。另外,作者认为,“首文研究”本身具有方法论意义——工具性语用学研究。

Pragmatics and Its Significant Implications on EFL Teaching

Based on pragmatics theories, this article will discuss its application and put forward the implications of pragmatics on EFL teaching.

Cross-cultural pragmatics: compliments and compliment responses in English and Chinese

Language and culture are distinctly interdependent;one reflects the other.In cross-cultural communications,it is critical for language users to use and understand the language appropriately in a certain socio-cultural context.This paper aims to compare the similarities and differences of compliments and compliment responses in English and Chinese from the cross-cultural pragmatic perspective.The implications for teaching are also discussed so as to bridge the gap caused by cultural differences and minimize the occurrence of potential cross-cultural pragmatic failures.