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image of Genuine or ostensible politeness?
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Abstract

Abstract

This study examines the use of (an honorific request marker) across three different historical periods in China and unravels the evolved relationship between -initiated directives of information-seeking and Chinese politeness. Drawing on the CCL Corpus, this study reveals that: first, is employed by the socially more powerful to solicit thoughts, ideas or simply answers with (treating others with respect) in positive standard situations of ancient and vernacular Chinese, thereby achieving traditional Chinese politeness; second, given the collapse of the feudal dynasties and the modernisation of society, a remarkable decline in usage from vernacular Chinese to modern Chinese can be discerned in official settings of negative standard situations; finally, is frequently used to echo apparent directives with a dissociative attitude in vernacular and modern Chinese, signalling ostensible politeness. This study contributes to historical pragmatics in Chinese by focussing on the evolution of -initiated directives of information-seeking.

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/content/journals/10.1075/jhp.25001.hua
2025-11-28
2025-12-06
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  • Article Type: Research Article
Keywords: directives ; Chinese politeness ; power differences ; qingwen
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