A Comparative Study Of Politeness Strategies In User’s And Critic’s Film Reviews

With the development of computer-mediated communication(CMC),many traditional texts are affected,including film reviews.Nowadays,apart from critic reviews,there emerge user reviews.There exist many language differences between them,but few studies notice their comparison on a specific language use.Therefore,based on Brown and Levinson’s politeness principle(1987),this study provides a detailed comparison of the use of politeness strategies in critic’s and user’s film reviews in English.Quantitative and qualitative methods are employed to examine 40 user film reviews on IMDb and 40 critic film reviews on Rotten Tomatoes,aiming to explore the linguistic realizations of politeness strategies in both film reviews,the differences in the use of politeness strategies between users and critics and the possible influencing factors for such differences.The result shows that both user and critic film reviewers are highly aware of manifesting politeness by using politeness strategies for about 11.5 times per review.In general,critics and users use approximately the same number of politeness strategies;positive politeness strategies are used more than negative strategies.However,the internal differences in the use of politeness strategies by these two groups are remarkable.The major differences include: in user film reviews,there exist frequent uses of exaggerators,bald on-record strategies to give suggestions,presuppositions,impersonalization,subjective evaluation,narration and emotion leakage;while in critic film reviews,the distinctive features include: in-group identity markers like shared knowledge or terminologies,the use of indirect strategies,bald on-record strategies to criticize or disagree,and token agreement.Lastly,this study finds out that the interplay of technological,social and contextual factors generates the distinctiveness of politeness strategies in user’s and critic’s film reviews.This paper,for the first time,explores the role of computer-mediated communication(CMC)in changing the use of politeness strategies in traditional texts by comparing traditional critic film reviews with emerging user film reviews,thus providing empirical support for future research on cyber pragmatics.Besides,this paper explores the diversity of contemporary film reviews.Through the demonstration and analysis of a large number of examples,readers can better understand the implications of different film reviewers,thus improving their appreciation of film reviews,which has practical value in a certain extent.