A Pragmatic Study Of Complaint Responses In Online Commercial Setting

This thesis is a pragmatic study of shop owners responses to customers complaints in Chinese online commercial setting. There have been a large number ofstudies carried out on complaints, yet how complaints are responded seem to have longbeen neglected at home and abroad. Moreover, most studies on complaints orcomplaint responses are done on the basis of data collected by DCT (discoursecompletion task) or in face-to-face interactions, but little attention has been paid tothose in online settings. Thus, this study attempts to further the study of complaintresponses by concentrating on data collected in online commercial setting.This study is a qualitative one based on the data extracted from the feedback forumof a famous trading platform, Taobao, where complaints and corresponding complaintresponses are abundant, within the theoretical framework of Verschueren s (2000)Linguistic Adaptation Theory. Three research questions are addressed:(1) What are thelinguistic realizations of shop owners responses to consumers complaints in onlinecommercial setting?(2) What are the contextual correlates influencing shop owners choice of complaint responses in online commercial setting?(3) Why are differentcomplaint responses used by shop owners in online commercial setting?In terms of the illocutionary forces of complaint responses, five kinds of complaintresponses are found:1) excuse, which includes denial of agency and appealing toaccidents,2) justification,3) refutation, which includes customer-based refutation andcontent-based refutation,4) apology, and5) self-promotion. Then, the contextualcorrelates influencing the choice of complaint responses are explored. Publicity and thecontent of the complaint are found to be two important contextual correlates. At last,the underlying motivations for different linguistic realizations displayed in complaintresponses are suggested. The analysis indicates that complaint responses by shopowners aim at attributing responsibility, repairing damaged images, establishingdesired images, and decreasing the credibility of negative reviews.The present study is expected to give a comprehensive account of complaintresponses in online commercial setting, which may provide the consumers and shopowners of Taobao with some enlightenment on how to deal with complaints. Meanwhile, by exploring online interaction, the study can provide further empiricalevidence for non face-to-face interpersonal communication.