1887
Volume 27, Issue 1
  • ISSN 1018-2101
  • E-ISSN: 2406-4238

Abstract

In this paper I examine Chinese perceptions of (in)appropriateness and offence from a cross-cultural pragmatic point of view, by exploring (in)appropriate evaluations in the context of a major social offence, and the influence of Confucian ideology on people’s evaluative tendencies. By doing so, I aim to contribute to pragmatic understandings of Confucianism as an ideology that underpins evaluative attitudes in Chinese culture. On the theoretical level, I argue that one needs to carefully examine dimensions of ideologies that underlie evaluative tendencies, and also the ways in which ideologies are invoked, rather than making sweeping claims. I believe that is possible to adopt ‘ideology’ as an analytic notion in interpersonal pragmatics and (im)politeness research, but only if the influence of ideology on interpersonal interaction and evaluative tendencies is captured with the aid of qualitative and quantitative evidence, that is, only as far as one avoids using a certain ideology as an umbrella term to analyse culturally-situated data.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1075/prag.27.1.02kad
2017-02-06
2025-02-19
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/deliver/fulltext/prag.27.1.02kad.html?itemId=/content/journals/10.1075/prag.27.1.02kad&mimeType=html&fmt=ahah

References

  1. Bell, Daniel A.
    2010China’s New Confucianism: Politics and Everyday Life in a Changing Society. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Brown, Gillian , and George Yule
    1983Discourse Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi: 10.1017/CBO9780511805226
    https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511805226 [Google Scholar]
  3. Brown, Penelope , and Stephen C.Levinson
    1987Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Bucknall, Kevin
    2002Chinese Business Etiquette and Culture. Retrieved from: www.authorsden.com/sampleworkspdf/22275.pdf
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Cameron, Deborah
    2004 “Out of the Bottle: The Social Life of Metalanguage.”InMetalanguage: Social and Ideological Perspectives, ed.ByAdam Jaworski, Nikolas Coupland, and Daríusz Glasínsky, 311–322. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. doi: 10.1515/9783110907377.311
    https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110907377.311 [Google Scholar]
  6. Chan, Wang-Tsit .
    1963A Sourcebook of Chinese Philosophy. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Chen, Xinyin , Qi Dong , and Hong Zhou
    1997 “Authoritative and Authoritarian Parenting Practices and Social and School Performance in Chinese Children.”International Journal of Behavioral Development21 (4): 855–873. doi: 10.1080/016502597384703
    https://doi.org/10.1080/016502597384703 [Google Scholar]
  8. Eelen, Gino
    2001A Critique of Politeness Theories. Manchester: St Jerome.
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Etzioni, Amitai
    (ed.) 1969The Semi-Professions and Their Organization. New York: Free Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  10. Fang, Tony
    1999Chinese Business Negotiating Style. London: Sage.
    [Google Scholar]
  11. Fukuyama, Francis
    1995 “Confucianism and Democracy.”Journal of Democracy6 (2): 20–33. doi: 10.1353/jod.1995.0029
    https://doi.org/10.1353/jod.1995.0029 [Google Scholar]
  12. Goffman, Erving
    1981Forms of Talk. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  13. Gu, Yueguo
    1990 “Politeness Phenomena in Modern Chinese.”Journal of Pragmatics14: 237–257. doi: 10.1016/0378‑2166(90)90082‑O
    https://doi.org/10.1016/0378-2166(90)90082-O [Google Scholar]
  14. Harris, Sandra , Karen Grainger , and Louise Mullany
    2006 “The Pragmatics of Political Apologies.”Discourse & Society17 (6): 715–737. doi: 10.1177/0957926506068429
    https://doi.org/10.1177/0957926506068429 [Google Scholar]
  15. Haugh, Michael , and Dániel Z. Kádár
    2016 forthcoming. The Metapragmatics of (Im)Politeness. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
    [Google Scholar]
  16. He, Amy Yun
    2012 “Different Generations, Different Face? A Discursive Approach to Naturally Occurring Compliment Responses in Chinese.”Journal of Politeness Research8 (1): 29–51. doi: 10.1515/pr‑2012‑0003
    https://doi.org/10.1515/pr-2012-0003 [Google Scholar]
  17. Henry, Stuart
    2000 “What is School Violence? An Integrated Definition.”The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science567 (1): 16–29. doi: 10.1177/0002716200567001002
    https://doi.org/10.1177/0002716200567001002 [Google Scholar]
  18. Hong, Beverly
    1985 “Politeness in Chinese: Interpersonal Pronouns and Personal Greetings.”Anthropological Linguistics27 (2): 204–213.
    [Google Scholar]
  19. Huang, Yongliang
    2008 “Politeness Principle in Cross-culture Communication.”Retrieved from: www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/elt/article/view/515/497
  20. Hunston, Susan , and Geoff Thompson
    (eds.) 1999Evaluation in Text: Authorial Stance and The Construction of Discourse. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  21. Hui, Leng
    2005 “Chinese Cultural Schema of Education: Implications for Communication between Chinese Students and Australian Educators.”Issues in Educational Research15 (1): 17–36.
    [Google Scholar]
  22. Jin, Lixian , and Martin Cortazzi
    2006 “Changing Practices in Chinese Cultures of Learning.”Language, Culture and Curriculum19 (1): 5–20. doi: 10.1080/07908310608668751
    https://doi.org/10.1080/07908310608668751 [Google Scholar]
  23. Johnson, John W.
    1997The Struggle for Student Rights: Tinker v. Des Moines and the 1960s. Lawrence: University of Kansas.
    [Google Scholar]
  24. Kádár, Dániel Z.
    2007Terms of (Im)Politeness. Budapest: Eötvös Lorand University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  25. 2013Relational Rituals and Communication: Ritual Interaction in Groups. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. doi: 10.1057/9780230393059
    https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230393059 [Google Scholar]
  26. Kádár, Dániel Z. , and Michael Haugh
    2013Understanding Politeness. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi: 10.1017/CBO9781139382717
    https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139382717 [Google Scholar]
  27. Kádár, Dániel Z. , and Rosina Márquez Reiter
    2015 “(Im)politeness and (Im)morality: Insights from Intervention.”Journal of Politeness Research11 (2): 239–260.
    [Google Scholar]
  28. . forthcoming. Leveraging Relational Practices. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  29. Kass, Leon R.
    1990 “Practicing Ethics: Where is the Action?”Hastings Center Report20 (1): 5–12. doi: 10.2307/3562966
    https://doi.org/10.2307/3562966 [Google Scholar]
  30. Kecskes, Istvan
    2013Intercultural Pragmatics. Oxford: Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199892655.001.0001
    https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199892655.001.0001 [Google Scholar]
  31. Kelley, Michelle L. , and Hui-Mei Tseng
    1992 “Cultural Differences in Child Rearing: A Comparison of Immigrant Chinese and Caucasian American Mothers.”Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology23 (4): 444–445. doi: 10.1177/0022022192234002
    https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022192234002 [Google Scholar]
  32. Li, Tianbo , and Gillian Owen Moreira
    2009The Influence of Confucianism and Buddhism on Chinese Business: A Case of Aveiro, Portugal. Retrieved from: www.immi.se/intercultural/nr19/tianbo.htm
    [Google Scholar]
  33. Linguistic Politeness Research Group
    Linguistic Politeness Research Group (ed.) 2011Discursive Approaches to Politeness. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. doi: 10.1515/9783110238679
    https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110238679 [Google Scholar]
  34. Low, K.C. Patrick
    2010 “Confucius, Customer Service, and Service Excellence.”Conflict Resolution & Negotiation4: 53–61.
    [Google Scholar]
  35. 呂叔湘 Lü, Shuxiang
    1985近代漢語指代詞Jindai hanyu zhidaici [The pronouns of vernacular Chinese]. Shanghai: Xuelin chubanshe.
    [Google Scholar]
  36. Pan, Yuling
    2000Politeness in Chinese Face-to-Face Interaction. London: Ablex.
    [Google Scholar]
  37. Pan, Yuling , and Dániel Z. Kádár
    2012Politeness in Historical and Contemporary Chinese. London: Bloomsbury.
    [Google Scholar]
  38. Sargent, Tanja Carmel
    2009 “Revolutionizing Ritual Interaction in the Classroom: Constructing the Chinese Renaissance of the Twenty-first Century.”Modern China35 (6): 632–661. doi: 10.1177/0097700409338001
    https://doi.org/10.1177/0097700409338001 [Google Scholar]
  39. Schoenhals, Martin
    1993The Paradox of Power in a People’s Republic of China Middle School. New York: M.E. Sharpe.
    [Google Scholar]
  40. Van Dijk, Teun A.
    2011Discourse Studies: A Multidisciplinary Introduction. London: Sage. doi: 10.4135/9781446289068
    https://doi.org/10.4135/9781446289068 [Google Scholar]
  41. Wang, Fengyan
    2004 “Confucian Thinking in Traditional Moral Education: Key Ideas and Fundamental Features.”Journal of Moral Education33 (4): 429–447. doi: 10.1080/0305724042000327984
    https://doi.org/10.1080/0305724042000327984 [Google Scholar]
  42. Wang Xuan , Kasper Juffermans , and Caixia Du
    2015 “Harmony as Language Policy in China: An Internet Perspective.”Language Policy. Retrieved from: https://www.academia.edu/14456903/Harmony_as_language_policy_in_China_An_internet_perspective
    [Google Scholar]
  43. Watson, Burton
    (trans.) 1999The Zen Teachings of Master Lin-Chi: A Translation of the Lin-chi Lu. New York, NY: Columbia University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  44. Watts, Richard J.
    2003Politeness. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi: 10.1017/CBO9780511615184
    https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511615184 [Google Scholar]
  45. Yum, June Ock
    1988 “The Impact of Confucianism on Interpersonal Relationships and Communication Patterns in East Asia.”Communication Monographs55 (4). doi: 10.1080/03637758809376178
    https://doi.org/10.1080/03637758809376178 [Google Scholar]
  46. Zhang, Guogang
    2007 “Relationship between Parents and Children in the Tang Dynasty.”Journal of Chinese Literature and History3: 207–249.
    [Google Scholar]
  47. Zhang, Tong , and Barry Schwartz
    1997 “Confucius and the Cultural Revolution: A Study in Collective Memory.”International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society11 (2): 189–212. doi: 10.1023/A:1025187406580
    https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1025187406580 [Google Scholar]
  48. Zhu, Yunxia
    2009 “Confucian Ethics Exhibited in the Discourse of Chinese Business and Marketing Communication.”Journal of Business Ethics88: 517–528. doi: 10.1007/s10551‑009‑0299‑2
    https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-009-0299-2 [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1075/prag.27.1.02kad
Loading
/content/journals/10.1075/prag.27.1.02kad
Loading

Data & Media loading...

  • Article Type: Research Article
Keyword(s): (In)appropriateness; Confucianism; Evaluation; Ideology; Offence
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was successful
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error