SOME INAPPROPRIATENESS IN BROWN AND LEVINSON’S POLITENESS THEORY FOR CHINESE

ABSTRACT

This paper presents two arguments proving that Brown and Levinson’s theory (B&L’s theory) is ill-suited for analyzing Chinese politeness. First, the Chinese notion of politeness is different from that defined by Brown and Levinson; I divided this argument into two parts, face and face threatening acts (FTA), which are separately discussed in section 2.1 and 2.2. Second, I proposed that Chinese politeness is a maxim rather than an implicature as claimed in B&L’s theory. And I suggested that Leech’s theory of Politeness Principle be more applicable in Chinese context. Finally I came to the conclusion that B&L’s theory is not suitable for Chinese data, which also serves well as evidence that the theory fails to be universal as they’ve always claimed.

Keywords: Brown and Levinson, politeness, face, Chinese

Contents
1.    Introduction    7
2.    Face    9
2.1    Chinese face and B&L’s face    9
2.2    Face threatening acts    10
3.    Politeness should be a maxim in Chinese context    13
3.1  Analysis of a conversation    13
4    How to interpret politeness in Chinese culture    15
4.1    Brown and Levinson’s interpretation of politeness    15
4.2  Interpretations of Politeness more suitable in Chinese context    16
5.    Conclusion    18
Bibliography    19