| This paper will be based on Brown & Levinson's politeness theory, analyze the language expressions in interpersonal communication of Chinese and Japanese from the three perspectives of"size of the field","number of the limitation"and"length of the time". So we can try to explore the root causes of the differences between the two sides.Chapterâ… IntroductionFirst we will use Schopenhauer's "hedgehog's embarrassing" story to describe the psychological communication distance between Chinese and Japanese.A hedgehog would like to close another hedgehog to warm itself. Because they have thorns, if they get too close the thorn will stab each other's body; but if they keep away from each other, they will be cold. The embarrassed hedgehogs get close and far away from each other over and over again, until they find a suitable location. Chinese have the Chinese unique "thorn", Japanese also have the Japanese unique "thorn", and the length of the two"thorns"is different. Even if the length of the "thorn" is similar, they still need to do a lot works to find a comfortable psychological communication distance, the length of the "thorn" is different, then the issue becomes more complex, it will be more hard to find a comfortable distance. When Chinese people are communicating with Japanese, they believe that they can be closer at some time, but Japanese people's "thorn" would stab them, that made them feel baffled; at the same time the Japanese also surprised and couldn't understand how can the other party be so close to themselves. The surprise brought by the different length of the "thorn" is actually an inevitable phenomenon in the process of two sides from recognition to intimacy; it can also be called as a test. If one or both parties cannot see it as a test, it will be difficult to truly understand each other, and even blindly criticize each other.In view of the abstraction of the psychological communication distance, in this article, we will analyze the differences of the psychological communication distance between Chinese and Japanese mainly based on the comparison of speech act of the two sides.First we will classify communication strategy of Japanese and Chinese based on Brown & Levinson's politeness theory, and then connect all kinds of expressions with the three perspectives,"size of the field","number of the limitation"and"length of the time", which we found in the pretest. Next, we will use the empirical evidence which we collected from the questionnaires, the record of talk shows and other methods, to analyze the differences of the psychological communication distance between Chinese and Japanese from the three perspectives,"size of the field","number of the limitation"and"length of the time". Chapterâ…¡Research and analysisIn this chapter, we carried out three kinds of questionnaires to Japanese who live in China and Chinese who live in Japan. Then we found our three perspectives, which is"size of the field","number of the limitation"and"length of the time".Chapterâ…¢PolitenessIn this chapter we will describe several theories related with politeness theory, and make a comprehensive exposition of the concept of politeness. In our view, Brown & Levinson's politeness theory is suitable for analyzing the differences of the psychological communication distance between Chinese and Japanese, so we will focus on positive politeness and negative politeness of their theory.Chapterâ…£Politeness in Chinese and JapaneseWe will re-sort positive politeness and negative politeness in Chinese and Japanese based on the work of five researchers and the author's own view, then find the specific expression belonging to these two kinds of politeness strategies, and conclude a new politeness framework at last. We will use this new framework and the empirical material we collected from TV talk shows to observe the variety of practical use of politeness strategies.Chapterâ…¤Perspective of"size of the field"From the"size of the field " point of view, Chinese people's "field" is larger than Japanese, and Chinese people's "field sense" is not as clear as Japanese. This difference of"size of the field"causes the differences in verbal communication. The difference of Chinese and Japanese demonstrative pronouns on their systems and apply reflects the difference of "field sense" between the two sides. In addition, positive politeness strategy 7 and 12 in Chinese include "reference point conversion (the non-standard usage of second person pronoun 'you'; the usage of'come and go')" and "co-oriented (special usage of 'we' and 'Let's') ", it shows that Chinese people have a tendency to expand the personal realm.Chapterâ…¥Perspective of"number of the limitation"From the perspective of"number of the limitation", Japanese people's sense of maintaining a distance between you and me is a very strong, the"limitation"of people should not be close is relatively large; Chinese people are relatively not so strong and large. This difference of"number of the limitation"causes the difference in verbal communication. We conducted a questionnaire of "expressions when you borrow a pen", and we found that the Japanese distinguished the expressions clearly according to the communication objects, and Chinese people are not that clear. In addition, the negative politeness strategy 1 and 5 in Japanese include "be conventionally indirect (the giving or receiving of expression)" and"give deference", it shows that the Japanese keep the distance between you and me through "enhanced indirection" which is the expression of giving or receiving and respect each other. Chapterâ…¦Perspective of"length of the time"From the perspective of"length of the time", Chinese people realize to start using the expression of intimacy can be expressed relatively short time; Japanese people's time is relatively long. This difference of"length of the time"causes the difference in verbal communication. Both in Chinese and Japanese language, positive politeness strategy 4 include"use in-group identity marker (an extension usage of kinship terms)", but we found that the usage and the function of this strategy in Chinese and Japanese was totally different. Chinese people first use the kinship terms to build a seemingly close relationship and then gradually increase intimacy; Japanese people first raise their intimacy to a certain extent, and then reflect it in the kinship terms. This shows that the Chinese speech act have the tendency to get close to other person as quickly as possible, while Japanese is relatively slow.Chapterâ…§ConclusionTo sum up, the differences of psychological communication distance between Chinese and Japanese reflect in"size of the field","number of the limitation"and"length of the time". These differences are reflected as the differences of their speech act, and all these kinds of differences make Chinese and Japanese uncomfortable in their communication. In other words, the reason they feel different while they are communicating is because of the differences in"size of the field","number of the limitation"and"length of the time"of psychological communication distance between Chinese and Japanese.We separate the three perspectives for convenience, in fact, these three perspectives do not exist independently, but overlap with each other. What kind of relationship exists between these three perspectives? Besides these three perspectives, is there any other point of view which is better to explain our point? We did not explore these questions in depth, so we still need further study on this subject. |
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