Impoliteness in English and Chinese online diners’ reviews

IF 1.4 2区文学 0 LANGUAGE & LINGUISTICS Journal of Politeness Research-Language Behaviour Culture Pub Date : 2019-07-26 DOI:10.1515/PR-2017-0031

Xiaoyu Lai

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引用次数: 6

Abstract

Linguistic impoliteness appears to be an important feature of online reviews. This paper examines how impoliteness is realized in English and Chinese negative reviews, and how these reviews are responded to. The data sets are composed of 32 English and 32 Chinese negative reviews with responses respectively from the websites TripAdvisor and Dazhongdianping. Building on the work of Culpeper (1996; 2011), English reviewers are found to adopt more of a mixture of approval and criticism, and “stuff-oriented” pointed complaints, while Chinese reviewers employ more indignant exclamations and “staff-oriented” pointed complaints. This suggests that the latter are more concerned about their own face needs, and thus have the potential to be perceived as more impolite and aggravating than the former. However, it is also found that Chinese respondents are potentially more polite and indirect than English respondents. Chinese respondents pay more attention to reviewers’ face wants rather than that of their own, while English respondents attach greater importance to maintaining a positive image for a restaurant, and hence attending to their own face needs. This paper reveals a sharp contrast in the use of impoliteness and its link to the concept of face in English and Chinese negative reviews and responses.

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中英文在线用餐者评价中的不礼貌

语言上的不礼貌似乎是网络评论的一个重要特征。本文考察了不礼貌在英汉差评中是如何表现出来的，以及这些差评是如何被回应的。数据集由来自TripAdvisor和大众点评的32条英文差评和32条中文差评组成。在Culpeper(1996)工作的基础上;2011年)，英语审稿人更多地采用赞成和批评的混合方式，以及“以工作人员为导向”的尖锐抱怨，而中文审稿人更多地采用愤慨的感叹和“以工作人员为导向”的尖锐抱怨。这表明，后者更关心自己的面子需求，因此有可能被认为比前者更不礼貌、更令人讨厌。然而，我们也发现，中国受访者可能比英国受访者更礼貌、更间接。中国受访者更关注评论者的面子需求，而不是自己的面子需求，而英国受访者更重视维护餐厅的正面形象，因此更关注自己的面子需求。本文揭示了在英语和汉语的负面评价和回应中，不礼貌的使用及其与面子概念的联系的鲜明对比。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Journal of Politeness Research-Language Behaviour Culture Multiple-

CiteScore

2.50

自引率

30.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： The Journal of Politeness Research responds to the urgent need to provide an international forum for the discussion of all aspects of politeness as a complex linguistic and non-linguistic phenomenon. Politeness has interested researchers in fields of academic activity as diverse as business studies, foreign language teaching, developmental psychology, social psychology, sociolinguistics, linguistic pragmatics, social anthropology, cultural studies, sociology, communication studies, and gender studies. The journal provides an outlet through which researchers on politeness phenomena from these diverse fields of interest may publish their findings and where it will be possible to keep up to date with the wide range of research published in this expanding field.