The Pre-Closing Strategies of Everyday Conversation: Comparsion of Chinese and English

• Main Author: 劉素帉
• Other Authors: 謝佳玲
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2011
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/10330845285154441112

碩士 === 國立臺灣師範大學 === 華語文教學研究所 === 100 === Conversation closing is a highly normative speech act. Improper endings are considered offensive and face-threatening, whereas appropriate closings strengthen relationships. The social function of pre-closings is widely recognized by linguists; however, because they are often hard to distinguish from the last topic and can be interrupted in various ways, there has been relatively fewer studies done on them compared to conversation openings. Therefore, this study investigates the strategy types, sequence order and contextual factors of pre-closings, and uses its findings to compare pre-closings in Chinese and English. A discourse completion test was used to elicit data from 200 Taiwanese speakers of Chinese and 50 western English native speakers. The results suggest that Chinese native speakers tend to use negative strategies to prevent negative emotions in the listener, whereas English native speakers prefer to use positive strategies to maintain a positive mood throughout the closing. More specifically, both groups use the same direct and self-oriented strategies when terminating conversations with familiar peers, which suggests that both cultures have individualistic tendencies. This similarity suggests that Chinese society has gradually adopted an English communication style in the context of equal status and close relations. On the other hand, Chinese native speakers use a humble tone and emphasize maintaining harmony when facing an interlocutor with a higher status, regardless of whether the relationship is close or distant. This indicates that Chinese society retains characteristics of collectivism whenever hierarchy is a concern. Nevertheless, legitimization is the strategy most frequently used strategy by Chinese speakers, which, despite being a negative strategy, directly reveals the speaker's intentions. From this we can infer that the younger generation of Chinese value the right of self-expression, while at the same time maintaining a polite tone. In the conclusion, the conventional strategies and sentence patterns used to close conversations are integrated into a classroom lesson plan, in hope of enhancing students' communication competence and facilitating their ability to converse as authentically as native speakers of Chinese.