The Engagement Of Insincerity Parameter In Chinese Politeness And Face

By challenging Gu's Politeness Principle (1990), his Sincerity Principle in particular, the author argues that the Insincerity Parameter (IP), psychologically present and unique in Chinese communities, is the real mechanism underneath the concept of Chinese politeness and face, the concept which is essentially different from that of the West. So first, the author traces back to the origin of Chinese lǐ, from which lǐmào (politeness) derives and which he proposes to classify into political lǐand communal lǐ, to point out the disparity between lǐand lǐmào that many linguists tend to confuse or overlook; then the notion of Chinese face (miànzi and liǎn) as well as their intra-relationship, enormously different from that of the western face, is clarified so that the ramifications of and the systemic interrelationship between lǐ, lǐmào (politeness) and Chinese face could be illustrated. On this basis, the author proposes and contends for the IP and its engagement in Chinese politeness and face respectively, by means of discoursal analysis of Gu's'inviting'case, attempting to achieve better insight into the dynamism of the IP.