Abstract
Many research studies on L2 learners’ pragmatic competence have revealed the potential influence of L1 on L2 speech act production in terms of cultural speech norms and corresponding linguistic expressions. The influence of cultural rules and norms on language use has been a focal area in cross-cultural communication, sociolinguistics and pragmatics. The study of Chinese English learners’ pragmatic competence and their L1 cultural norms is no exception. It is essential to review the Chinese cultural norms so as to better understand the use of speech acts in English by Chinese learners. To achieve this, this chapter first presents the influence of L1 culture on language use. It then focusses on the key Chinese cultural concepts of lǐmào (禮貌/礼貌): politeness, and miànzi (面子): facework for interpersonal communication, and reviews how these concepts are implicitly demonstrated or embedded in five speech acts, namely requests, apologies, compliment-responses, complaints and refusals. This is achieved through the use of strategies and corresponding linguistic expressions in both Chinese and English by native-Chinese speakers and Chinese learners of English in cross-linguistic and cross-cultural interlanguage speech act studies.
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Notes
- 1.
Both simplified and traditional Chinese characters are used in the original source.
- 2.
Tones of the Chinese characters are not provided in the original source.
- 3.
The end-of-imperative particle may not be used in written requests (Yip and Rimmington 2004, p. 364).
- 4.
A simplified Chinese character.
- 5.
According to Hong Kong—the Facts (https://www.gov.hk/en/about/abouthk/facts.htm accessed on 8 Jan 2018), 89.1% of the population speak Cantonese, followed by 1.85% who speak Mandarin and other languages.
- 6.
The tones of the Chinese characters are not provided in the original source. Only traditional Chinese characters are given.
- 7.
Cantonese transcription is based on Fan et al. (1997) Guide to LSHK Cantonese Romanization of Chinese Characters.
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Lee, C. (2018). Chinese Culture, Language, and L1 and L2 Speech Act Production. In: Researching and Teaching Second Language Speech Acts in the Chinese Context. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-8980-0_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-8980-0_3
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