论跨文化交际中的语用失误【毕业论文】.doc

1、 本科毕业论文 （ 20 届） 英语 论跨文化交际中的语用失误 On Pragmatic Failures in Cross-cultural Communication 诚 信 声 明 我声明，所呈交的论文 (设计 )是本人在老师指导下进行的研究工作及取得的研究成果。据我查证，除了文中特别加以标注和致谢的地方外，论文 (设计 )中不包含其他人已经发表或撰写过的研究成果，也不包含为获得 或其他教育机构的学位或证书而使用过的材料。我承诺，论文 (设计 )中的所有内容均真实、可信。 论文 (设计 )作者签名： 签名日期： 年 月 日 授 权 声 明 学校有权保留送交论文（设计）的原件，允许论文（设

2、计）被查阅和借阅，学校可以公布论文（设计）的全部或部分内容，可以影印、缩印或其他复制手段保存论文（设计），学校必须严格按照授权对论文 (设计 )进行处理，不得超越授权对论文（设计）进行任意处置。 论文 (设计 )作者签名： 签名日期： 年 月 日 摘要 II 随着世界 经济的发展和跨国交际的日益增多，跨文化交际中的语用问题已引起了国内外学者们的高度重视。 在跨文化交际中，来自于不同文化背景的人们习惯于将本族文化规约和语言知识带入交际行为，引起语用失误，影响跨文化交流的顺利进行。围绕论题，本文主要从四个方面入手， （ 1）语用失误研究的背景和意义；（ 2）跨文化交际中语用失误的表现形式 ；（ 3

3、） 跨文化交际语用失误的原因分析 ； （ 4）跨文化交际语用失误的防范对策。 本文旨在通过对跨文化交际中的语用失误进行分析，希望能够帮助跨文化交际者理解不同国家之间的不同的文化取向，从而尽可能的达到成功交 际的目的。 关键词 ：跨文化；交际；语用失误 Abstract III With the development of global economy and the increase of cross-cultural communication, pragmatic problems in cross-cultural communication have aroused highly a

4、ttention by home and abroad scholars. In cross-cultural communication, people from different cultures are accustomed to transfer their native conventions and linguistic knowledge into communication. Thus pragmatic failure will occur and influence the successful process of cross-cultural communicatio

5、n. Revolving the proposition, the thesis divides into four aspects, 1) the background and significance of pragmatic failure research; 2) expressing forms of pragmatic failure in the cross-cultural communication; 3) analysis on pragmatic failure and its reasons in the cross-cultural communication; 4)

6、 precautions strategies of pragmatic failure in the cross-cultural communication. Through an analysis of the pragmatic failures, this passage hopes to help communicators understand the different cultural orientation of different countries and try to achieve a successful communication. Key words: cro

7、ss-cultural; communication; pragmatic failure IV Contents 1. Introduction.1 2. Pragmatic Failures in Cross-cultural Communication . .2 2.1 A brief introduction of cross-cultural communication . .2 2.2 Definition of Pragmatic Failure . .2 2.3 Classification of Pragmatic Failures 3 2.3.1 Pragmalinguis

8、tic Failure . .3 2.3.2 Sociopragmatic Failure . 4 3. Causes of Pragmatic Failures .5 3.1 Religions and Customs .5 3.2 Thinking Patterns .6 3.3 Cultural Values . .7 4. Strategies for Avoiding Pragmatic Failures . . 8 4.1 Developing Pragmatic Competence . 8 4.2 Strengthening Cultural Awareness . . .8

9、4.3 Avoiding Negative Stereotyping .8 5. Conclusion . 9 Bibliography .10 Acknowledgements .11 1. Introduction 2 In recent years, the development in foreign travel for business, study and pleasure, etc, the expansion of international trade and the migration of people seeking work in the multinational

10、 companies have naturally led to a concomitant increase in contacts across national boundaries. Since there are significant differences in different cultures, even the same message may be interpreted differently by different individuals. This may cause troubles in any situation of contact between th

11、em. Its the failure of communication. Such miscommunication is a retrospective recognition that one persons intentions have not been understood accurately by another participant. And most miscommunication happened because of the pragmatic failures in cross-cultural communication, it often deeply inf

12、luence the process of a successful cross-cultural communication. Thus, it seems important to have a research in the area of pragmatic failure in cross-cultural communication. Cross-cultural pragmatic failure has been an important area of pragmatics and cross-cultural communication studies ever since

13、 the term was first used by British linguist Jenny Thomas and she divided pragmatic failure into two types; pragmalinguistic failure and sociopragmatic failure. The first type, pragmalinguistic failure, can be regard as part of the grammar and is easy to overcome while the second type, sociopragmati

14、c failure involves the speakers knowledge of the language and system of belief, thus making it more difficult to deal with. There have been many articles and researches on pragmatic failure. In abroad, Thomas established the framework of pragmatic failure and this provided a theoretical basis for mo

15、st of the linguists doing the research on pragmatic failure, but she did not propose an approach use to study. In China, He Zi-ran may be the first person to research the issue of cross-cultural pragmatics. He published a paper on the topic in the Foreign Language Teaching and Research in 1986 and a

16、lso in his 1994 book he defined pragmatic failure from his view. Then in most papers about pragmatic failures, scholars adopted the concept he introduced. There are also many other scholars have devoted to the study of pragmatic failure such as Cao Chun-chun (1998); Deng Yan-chang (1989); Hong Gang

17、(1991); SunYa (2002); etc. Most of their studies are on the cultural influences on communication. In this thesis, the author will use pragmatic theories to analyze some examples of pragmatic failures occurred in cross-cultural communication and intends to make an exploration on pragmatic failure in

18、cross-cultural communication and provide some valuable reference to improve communicators competence of cross-cultural 3 communication. It is worthwhile making efforts to explore pragmatic failures in cross-cultural communication so that communicators can better their communicative competence and ac

19、hieve a successful communication when they are in interaction with people from different cultures. 2. Pragmatic Failures in Cross-cultural Communication 2.1 A Brief Introduction of Cross-cultural Communication Sometimes, the term cross-culture is used interchangeably with “cross-cultural communicati

20、on.” On most occasions, these two terms are used as being the same. But the term cross-cultural communication appears earlier than cross-cultural communication, now the latter is more often used. According to Stella Ting-Toomey (2007), the term cross-cultural communication is used in the cross-cultu

21、ral literature to refer to the communication process that is comparative in nature, while cross-cultural communication is used to refer to the communication process between members of different cultural communities. Gudykunst and Kim thought that the study of cross-cultural communication is generall

22、y considered to include cross-cultural communication. The focus of study of “cross-cultural communication” is cultural issues rather than linguistic ones. Therefore, linguists prefer to use the former term while anthropologists usually use the latter. In this thesis, the term “cross-cultural communi

23、cation” is more appropriate according to Jenny Thomas used when she first put forward the notion of “cross-cultural pragmatic failures”. 2.2 Definition of Pragmatic Failure The term “pragmatic failure” was first put forward by the British linguist Jenny Thomas and she pointed out that interference i

24、n communication is generally referred to as pragmatic failure, which has nothing to do with grammatical mistakes but comes from inappropriate ways of speaking or the unconventional expressions resulting from different perceptions of what is considered as appropriate linguistic behavior, and she defi

25、ned it as “the inability to understand what is meant by what is said” (Thomas,1983). On the basis of Thomas failure, many scholars in China have their own understanding of pragmatic failure. In China, He Zi-ran (1984) first pointed out that pragmatic failure does not refer to the ordinary performanc

26、e error in wording, but to the failure to achieve the expected effect in communication that results from inappropriate use of expressions, improper speaking manner, or expressions not 4 accordant with the language habit. In this thesis, pragmatic failure refers to any misunderstanding in communicati

27、on caused by the speakers inappropriate utterances or the hearers misinterpretation of the speakers utterances. Because of such misunderstanding, the speaker fails to express his/her intention or the hearer can not understand the real intention of the speaker, which makes the communication break dow

28、n or even end in failure. 2.3 Classification of Pragmatic Failures Thomas classified pragmatic failures into two types: pragmalinguistic failure and sociopragmatic failure (Thomas, 1983). The former is easier to overcome than the latter one which involves the socio-cultural aspect. Pragmalinguistic

29、refers to the resources for conveying communicative acts and relational or interpersonal meanings and sociopragmatics is defined as “the sociological interface of pragmatics (Leech, 1983),” that is, the social perceptions underlying participants interpretation and performance of communicative acts.

30、2.3.1 Pragmalinguistic Failure Pragmalinguistic failure is the wrong use of language itself, including incorrect use of the target language and using the target language with semantics and structures of the mother language. In cross-cultural communication, it “arises when the pragmatic force mapped

31、by students onto a given utterance is systematically different from the force most frequently assigned to it by native speakers of the target language, or when speech act strategies are inappropriately transferred from L1 to L2” (Thomas, 1983). One kind of such failure arises when two language share

32、 the same expression but use it in different situations. Here is a typical example of pragmalinguistic failure. In the classroom, when the Chinese student A cleaned the blackboard for the foreign teacher B, B said to A, “Thank you very much.” B responded to this with “Never mind.” In this case, the

33、teacher maybe confused and would not be able to interpret the utterance as the acknowledgement of thanks. However, it is common in Chinese to give a response to thanks by saying “没关系 ” and a Chinese leaner of English tend to translate it as “never mind” in response to an expression of gratitude such

34、 as “Thank you very much”. Though the literal meaning of “never mind” is equal to the Chinese “没关系 ”, in Chinese it is uttered in response to either thanks or apology while the English expression “never mind” is used only in declination to an apology. Thus, the force of the utterance would be lost a

35、nd the Chinese learner of English would have failed to 5 make his or her meaning understood. In order to have a more clear knowledge about pragmalinguistic failure， firstly, we will discuss it from the aspect of vocabulary. For example, the words of color have different associative meanings in the w

36、est and the east. In China, the color of bright yellow, which was used specially by royal family, symbolizes power, dignity and nobility while in west the color of purple is regarded as holy, noble, equal with the color of bright yellow, such as “be born in the purple (生在官宦之家 )”. We can see that the

37、 associative meanings of English words are not equal with that of Chinese. Neglecting the differences will lead people to bring their original values and attitudes into the process of cross-cultural communication. Secondly, to the aspect of structure, English learners are apt to subconsciously or un

38、consciously employ the rule of speaking of their mother tongue. For example, “Come to visit me if you are convenient.” It reveals the Chinese redundancy in statement. A native speaker will say,“ Come to visit me if convenient” to express the same idea. Thirdly, we will talk about the failures in sty

39、le. For example, one person needs someones help, heshe will say,“ Would you kind enough to help me XX?” Actually, it sounds over-polite. If the person is not intended to make an irony, heshe will violate the maxim of quantity in terms of cooperative principles. It also can be shown that native speak

40、ers of English fairly assign certain pragmatic force to certain utterances. Look at an example which happened in the classroom, when teacher A asked student B, “Would you like to answer this question?” B responds with “No, I wouldnt”. In this example, B interprets As enquiry as only a question but n

41、ot a request to do something. Actually, what the teacher wants the student to do is to ask his answer the question. Thus the pragmalinguistic failure occurs. 2.3.2 Sociopragmatic Failure The term “sociopragmatic failure” means that although the leaner has learnt the language of another country, he d

42、oes not understand the differences between the culture of the target language and that of the native language. And it occurs when non-native speakers fail to choose the appropriate language because of lacking the knowledge of cultural differences. Sociopragmatic failure is much more difficult to deal with, since it involves the learners system of cultural background and beliefs as well as their knowledge of the language. Sociopragmatic failure occurs in many aspects of daily communication, such as