A Study Of The Gender Differences In The Use Of Language In Using Positive Politeness Strategies In Chinese Communication

Since the early 1970s, research on language and gender has been receiving more attention from linguists, prompted by the women's movement. Gender differences in language use have developed into the focus of sociolinguistics. Most studies on gender differences are carried out with the English language at abroad originally. At home, most of the studies on gender differences with the Chinese language concentrate on traditional linguistics (phonetics, vocabulary, syntax), with scant attention paid to pragmatic approaches.Positive politeness strategy is one of the politeness strategies proposed by Brown and Levinson. It can be realized by using some language devices such as the use of nicknames, abusive terms and shared dialect etc. The present study makes an attempt to investigate gender differences in the use of such language devices when positive politeness strategy is adopted with the Chinese language, with an attempt to explain such differences from social and cultural perspectives. The research questions to be addressed in the present study are the following:1. Does male and female's use of language differ in relation to the sex of addressee (same-sex and cross-sex) when they use positive politeness strategies? 2. Does male and female's use of language differ in relation to the social distance (close friend and acquaintance) when they use positive politeness strategies? 3. Do females use positive politeness strategies more frequently than males under general situations?The data used in the present study were collected by means of the questionnaire with multiple choices which is modified according to the form of Discourse Completion Test. The subjects involved in this study were 120 non-English major students (60 males and 60 females) who were from different universities in Guizhou province and some in other parts of China. In the questionnaire, such socio-pragmatic factors as social distance and sex of addressee are considered in the design of the situations since these factors are likely to affect the language devices that the respondents choose to use. The study combines qualitative with quantitative analysis, and in the statistical analysis of the data, the method of percentage statistics is adopted. The findings show that social distance can interact with sex of addressee to affect male and female's use of language when they adopt positive politeness strategies. There do exist differences in the use of such language devices as the use of nicknames, abusive terms, shared dialect and humorous expressions etc. between males and females when they adopt positive politeness strategies, and this indicates their own preference and inclination. Such differences are the manifestation of different gender identities formed in male and female's socialization process in Chinese culture.As for the significance of the study, it is a small supplement to the general gender differences studies from pragmatic perspectives and contributes to the understanding of language and gender issues in Chinese context as well as to the general, universal characteristics of language and gender, and is conducive to the empirical researches on gender differences in the use of language from pragmatic approach.