A Comparative Study And Cultural Interpretation Of Comforting Speech Act Of Chinese And American

The world today is in a period of great development,change and adjustment,which not only brings more opportunities but also puts more pressure to people.Comforting,being an expressive speech act,plays a positive role when people have passive or negative emotions like regret,anxiety,depression and pain.In a family setting,comforting speech act is in great need.A timely comforting speech act can eliminate the passive emotions of family members,improve their mental conditions,and maintain family harmony and even social security.On the basis of Searle’s Speech Act theory and Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions theory,the author adopts both quantitative and qualitative research methods in this thesis.The data is collected from Chinese sitcom A Little Reunion and American sitcom Modern Family(season7 to 11)for the comparison and analysis of comforting speech act between family members.This comparative study aims at investigating the comforting speech acts performed by Chinese and American family members from three aspects: comforting speech act sequence,comforting strategy and the cultural differences reflected from the uses of them in the two sitcoms.The major findings of this study are as follow: Firstly,in regard to comforting speech act sequence,it is found that both Chinese and American family members prefer the sequence Head Act to Supportive Move.And comparatively,more types of comforting speech act sequence are used in Chinese families.Secondly,as for Alerter,almost half of the Chinese and American comforting speech act sequences contain them and there are combined uses of Alerters in one comforting speech act sequence.Furthermore,most of the Alerters are likely to be used in the front of comforting messages.And names and kinship terms have been employed more frequently and precisely by Chinese family members,while more intimacy makers have been applied in American families.Thirdly,as for the Head Act,in Chinese families,most of Head Acts are put in the middle of the comforting speech act sequences,and sometimes,head act is expressed twice in one comforting speech act sequence.In American families,most of the Head Acts are placed at the end of the sequence and there are only one head act in one comforting speech act sequence.Fourthly,about Supportive Moves,most of them appear at the end of the comforting speech act sequence in both Chinese and American families.In addition,it is found in both families the worse a comfortee feels,the more Supportive Moves are performed in one comforting speech act.As for comforting strategies,the most frequently used sub-strategy is negating the value of the emotion in Chinese families,while offering solutions in American.Finally,the cultural differences from five dimensions can be reflected from their different uses of comforting speech act sequences and comforting strategies.The comparative study of comforting speech act in the two countries has certain theoretical and empirical significance.This study presents the specific differences of comforting speech acts in the two countries and enriches the domestic study of Speech Act,which is enlightening to second language teaching and learning.