Euphemistic Speech of Mandarin in Taiwan─ Pragmatic Strategies and Linguistic Structure

• Main Authors: Yi-Chun Liu, 劉怡君
• Other Authors: Fred Jyun-gwang Chen
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2007
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/49752284386448278389

碩士 === 國立臺灣師範大學 === 華語文教學研究所 === 95 === This study investigates the pragmatic strategies and linguistic structure of euphemistic speech of Mandarin in Taiwan. This study is based on the framework of the face-threatening act (FTA) proposed by Brown and Levinson (1987). Questionnaire is used as the instrument for the investigation, and the questionnaire is designed primarily in the format of the discourse completion task. The findings of the present research show that three possible strategies, namely “positive politeness”, “negative politeness”, and “off record” strategies, are used in euphemistic speech, and the “negative politeness” strategy is used most frequently among the three. Furthermore, nine sub-strategies under the three main strategies are analyzed. According to the quantitative results, “question and hedge”, “give reasons”, and “deference and apology” are the most frequently used sub-strategies. Differences in the use of the strategies vary according to different social variables. Students and non-students differ in “bald on record”, “joke” and “hedge and question” strategies, while males and females differ in “give reasons” and “joke”. As regard the age, differences are found in the use of “bald on record” and “joke” strategies. The addressee’s social status makes the most difference; it emerges in nine strategies except for “assert common ground” and “question and hedge”. The linguistic structure of euphemistic speech is discussed in two aspects: the choice of lexical items or phrases, and the use of sentence patterns. The former includes preparators, politeness markers, contrastive markers, downtoners, hedges, subjectivizers, understaters, and fillers. The latter includes question sentence, negative sentence, and adverbial clause of condition. At the end of this study, the researcher has designed a practical lesson plan as a pedagogical illustration based on the empirical findings in the present research.