网络销售语境下建议言语行为的语用研究_英语论文

A Pragmatic Study of Suggestions Making in the Context of Online Marketing

摘要

建议言语行为作为一种典型的“指令类”言语行为，近年来越来越受到国内外学者的关注。随着网络销售的快速发展，研究网络销售语境下客服的建议行为很有必要。本文采用定量与定性相结合的复合型研究方法，从句法、话语、情感三个维度分析中国网络销售客服的建议行为。

研究结果发现，网络销售中的建议性行为在句法维度上主要使用陈述句和祈使句，基本不使用词组和短句；在话语维度上多使用直接建议，解释说明性话语和移情性话语；在情感维度上，经常使用表情、招呼语和结束语来表示欢迎并拉近与客户之间的距离。除此之外，网购建议主要出现在售前与售后，售后建议往往比售前建议更为强硬，更具威胁性。具体来说：在句法维度上，售后建议较多使用条件句和正面祈使句，而售前建议在此基础上还会使用很多标志词和评价语；在话语维度上，由于售后情景的关系，售后建议会更少使用移情性话语；在情感维度上，售后建议基本不使用表情类符号，并且还会出现咒骂语。

关键词:  网络销售  建议言语行为  句法维度 话语维度  情感维度

Abstract

As a typical “instruction” verbal behavior, the speech act of suggestions have become more and more popular in recent years and drawn the attention of scholars both at home and abroad. With the rapid development of online marketing, customer service deserves more attention in the context of online marketing. This paper both adopts the quantitative and qualitative methods to analyze the speech act of suggestions in the context of online marketing from three different dimension - syntactic dimension, discourse dimension and emotional dimension. 

Results on online suggestions show that in syntactic dimension, declarative sentences and imperative sentences are used mostly, phrases rarely used; in discourse dimension, directive suggestion, illustration and empathic words are mostly used; in emotional dimension, emoticons, greetings and valedictory words are largely used to narrow the distance to customers. In addition, suggestions are made before sales and after sales, and the after-sale suggestions are more uncompromising and threatening than the pre-sale suggestions. Specifically, in syntactic dimension, conditional sentences and positive imperative sentences are largely used in after-sale suggestion, but many suggestion markers and evaluation are also used in pre-sale suggestion; in discourse dimension, empathic words are hardly used in after-sale suggestion because of the specific context; in emotional dimension, emoticons are hardly used in after-sale suggestion, and sometimes damning words are used.

Keywords:  online marketing   the speech act of suggestions  syntactic dimension   discourse dimension  emotional dimension 

Contents

11 Introduction 1

1.1 Research Background 1

1.2 Significance of the Study 2

1.3 Structure of the Thesis 3

2 Literature Review 3

2.1 Studies on Computer-mediated Conversation 4

  2.1.1 Definition of Online Shopping Session 4

  2.1.2 Previous Studies on Online Shopping Session 5

  2.1.3 Summary 6

2.2 Studies on The Speech Act of Suggestions 6

  2.2.1 Definition of the Speech Act of Suggestions 6

  2.2.2 The Speech Act of Suggestions and Politeness Strategy 7

  2.2.3 Previous Studies on the Speech Act of Suggestions in the Network Context 8

  2.2.4 Summary 9

3 Research Methodology 9

3.1 Research Questions 9

3.2 Data Collection 10

3.3 Data Analysis 11

4 Results and Discussion 13

4.1The general features of suggestion in online shopping conversation 13

4.2 A contrastive analysis of Pre-sale Suggestion and After-sale Suggestion 16

  4.2.1 Results for Suggestion in Syntactic Dimension 16

  4.2.2 Results for Suggestion in Discourse Dimension 16

  4.2.3 Results for Suggestion in Emotional Dimension 16

4.3 Summary 23

Conclusion 23

Acknowledgements 25

References 26