A Comparative Pragmatic Study Of English Language Used By The Chinese And English Hosts In Conversational Programs

With the fast spread of English in different societies and cultures around the world,different kinds of English variations,besides American English and British English,come into being.With regard to China English,which observes the rules of Standard English,and expresses Chinese unique culture,an increasing tendency of localization is in formation.However,most studies of China English are mainly in the field of linguistic characteristics,for instance lexical features,phonological features,syntactical features,and textual features.Comparative pragmatic studies are rare.This study aims at comparative pragmatic analysis of English used by advanced Chinese English speakers and the native speaker counterparts in four aspects.The language materials are collected in the books HIGHLIGHTS OF DIALOGUE 1 and HIGHLIGHTS OF DIALOGUE 2 from DIALOGUE Program on CCTV of China and another two books,Interviews with Professional Individuals and Everyday English Snack Interviews of Elites,which are used for the sake of comparison between Chinese advanced users in English language and English native speakers.By means of qualitative and quantitative analysis,this study reaches the following findings.The first is that Chinese advanced users employ “title + last name” and title alone type to address the superior in much higher frequency.The second is that in gratitude,Chinese advanced users prefer to use “thank you + good luck” while the English native speakers merely thank the guests for the time.The third is that in conversational structure,Chinese advanced users make more use of “let's + verb” structure compared with English native users.The forth is that China English users employ discourse marker,“do you agree”,in higher frequency.This study also discusses some implications for China English research,English teaching in China and cross-cultural communications.