A Pragmatic Study Of Self-denigration Maxim From The Perspective Of Chinese College Students Today

Self-denigration.a typical Chinese polite strategy.is to denigrate self or someth ing/someone related to self and elevate others or something/someone related to others The majority of the related researches are cross-cultural studies or diachronic studies,especially the diachronic use and current situation of ancient denigrating terms.However,whether the self-denigration maxim is observed in China today is controversial and still inconclusive.In addition,these researches are slightly weak in terms of research perspectives and research methods.The mainstream discursive approach analysis method cannot explore the whole situation of self-denigration,and the speaker perspective also has limitations in politeness identificationTherefore,this research attempts to answer whether self-denigration as a politeness strategy still exists in China today,and the factors influencing people's perception of self-denigration in China today are further explored.In addition,this study is innovative in both research perspectives and research methods.It uses a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods to explore the status quo of self-denigration in China today.The method of this study combines questionnaires and interviews.340 college students participated in the questionnaire survey,and 277 were valid.Among these 277 participants,15 were selected for interviews.By collecting natural conversation and dialogues in films,plays and reality shows,10 tasks of the questionnaire were obtained,and participants were required to judge the degree of' politeness of the self-denigrating utterances in each task These 10 tasks are assigned to 6 groups,and each group examines a variable,including the degree of' formality,social distance,relative power,types of speech acts,targeting the speaker himself/herselfor someone/something related to the speaker himself/herself,and contrast compliment.Fifteen of the questionnaire participants were selected to participate in subsequent interviews to dig out their judgement criteria and their understanding of self-denigration,and the interviews were recorded and transcribedThrough the quantitative questionnaire analysis and the qualitative interview analysis.this study preliminarily explores the status quo of self-denigration in China today.The study finds that:1)the connection between self-denigration and other-elevation is weak,and Chinese college students today tend to perceive self-denigration as impolite;2)the six factors of degree of formality,social distance,relative power,types of speech acts,and targeting the speaker himself/herself or someone/something related to the speaker himself/herself,and contrast compliment profoundly affect Chinese college students'perception of self-denigration;3)self-denigration can produce humor,hide strength and seek solidarity,seek comfort and express comfort,complain,and show off in China today.All in all,as a polite strategy,self-denigration and other-elevation has gradually withdrawn from the stage in China today,the factors that influence people's judgement on the degree of politeness of self-denigration are intricate and complicated,and social development has given rise to more interpretations of self-denigration.