A Study On The Interrogator's Employment Of Linguistic Politeness In Chinese Police Interrogation

The present study looks into the interrogator's employment of linguistic politeness in Chinese police interrogation from a pragmatic perspective. We draw on such a theoretical framework based on a combination of Leech's (1983) Politeness Principle and Verschueren's (2000) Theory of Adaptation. The aim of this study is to describe the employment of linguistic politeness and explore its functions in Chinese police interrogation. Methodologically speaking, this study is a descriptive and analytical one.With Leech's (1983) Politeness Principle as a descriptive tool, the interrogator's employment of linguistic politeness in the data collected falls into four categories—the applications of the four maxims of the Politeness Principle (Tact Maxim, Approbation Maxim, Agreement Maxim and Sympathy Maxim). Among them, the application of the Tact Maxim is specified in more detail from the aspect of mitigating the interrogee's criminal responsibility.With Verschueren's (2000) Theory of Adaptation as an explanatory tool, the thesis explores the dynamic adaptation to the social and mental world that takes place in the interrogator's linguistic politeness production. The politeness in the interrogator's language is found to adapt especially to the social settings and the interrogator's assessment of the interrogee's mental world (personality, emotions, beliefs, wishes and desires, motivations and intentions).The interrogator adopts linguistic politeness to adapt to the social and mental world with the ultimate purpose of approaching points of satisfaction for his communicative needs—ensuring the legitimacy and the smooth or even favorable progress of police interrogation and encouraging or persuading the interrogee to make a confession, the two of which can actually be regarded as the functions of linguistic politeness in police interrogation.This thesis may deepen the understanding of linguistic politeness and its functions in Chinese police interrogation. It is also hoped that the police can conduct interrogations more effectively when they know more about linguistic politeness and make proper use of it.Seeing that 'harmonious society' has become a heated topic in both academia and daily life in China, hopefully, the present study can encourage the interrogator to employ linguistic politeness, rather than force, and hence can make certain contributions to building a harmony in police interrogation and building a harmonious society.