Production And Interpretation Of Politeness Utterances Under The Perspective Of Contextual Adaptation

Politeness, as an important speech act and communicative strategy, is frequently used in everyday social interactions throughout the world. Appropriate understanding and proper interpretation of it is critical for facilitating the establishment and maintenance of interpersonal relationships.Politeness as a research topic of much concern has enjoyed much popularity with people specialized in the area of pragmatics, sociolinguistics, and inter-cultural communication. The pragmatic study of politeness is initiated by Lakoff, who proposes three maxims under the rules of ―Be clear‖ and ―Be polite‖. Brown and Levinson claim face-saving theory of politeness, which means that being polite is to save face. Geoffrey Leech then introduces Politeness Principle(PP), which holds that politeness is realized by the observance of six maxims. Although recent scholars such as Xu Shengheng and Wang Jinhua put forward new theories of politeness or add some suggestions to revise the previous politeness theories, most of them are confined to politeness strategy research, lacking a comprehensive exploration for politeness production, variation and interpretation.Under the framework of contextual correlates adaptation in Verschueren‘s adaptation theory, politeness will be discussed by the means of document study and information collection. In this thesis, politeness production is studied from situational, social, cultural and cognitive aspects and its interpretation is clarified through daily communication examples. The research of politeness utterances will be analyzed from the adaptation theory to prove that the understanding of politeness is not simply determined by the use of strategy, but the dynamic contextual adaptation process of communicators.By the research of politeness utterances from another angle, the thesis means to probe into the relativity and adaptability of politeness. It can help enhance communicator‘s capability of recognition and utilization, thus enabling them to harmonize interpersonal relationships and avoid pragmatic failures.