| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立臺灣師範大學 === 英語學系 === 104 === Self-deprecation is a prominent but scarcely explored politeness strategy that can be commonly observed in Chinese social encounters. By examining online discourse, this study aimed to investigate how Mandarin Chinese speakers in Taiwan achieve the desired interpersonal harmony through the use of self-deprecation. Forty information-sharing and demonstration-giving articles (IDAs) were collected from two popular boards of PTT—MakeUp and e-shopping. All of the articles in the database were selected randomly under the category of xinde ‘reflection’ and contained the writers’ selfies. The text in every chosen IDA was carefully read through so as to recognize self-deprecating expressions.
The identified self-deprecating expressions were analyzed in terms of their (1) topics, (2) linguistics features, and (3) contexts. Considering the topics, four types of self-deprecation were discovered, including appearance, ability, personality, and surroundings. The results showed that the authors deprecate themselves much more often in the aspects of appearance and ability, the attributes more relevant to the essence of makeup- and clothing-related IDAs, in order to eliminate possible threats which may undermine their credibility and to trigger more beneficial positive evaluation in return.
In terms of linguistic features, negatives, intensifiers, downtoners, and linguistic creativity are the major devices employed in the self-deprecating expressions. Negatives, intensifiers, and linguistic creativity display the writers’ sincerity with a straightforward attitude and highlighting effects; the use of negation particularly suggests the authors’ awareness of the standards they have failed to achieve. Hedges, on the other hand, tone down the self-deprecation and help maintain the writers’ face.
As for the contexts, self-deprecating expressions were usually found within digression, where more personal information and weaknesses of the writers are disclosed. Self-praise is used to restore the credibility of IDAs and usually followed by hedges or self-deprecation to lessen its face-threatening effect. The complimentary response given by most readers shows that the authors’ self-deprecating behavior has been noticed and nicely taken.
The findings indicated that through self-deprecation, individuals can live up to the Chinese social norms to stay modest, fish for compliments to be praised by others, and even express an additional sense of humor.
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