中英社交语用失误对比 整理

English And Chinese Sociopragmatic Failures Contrast

Abstract: Because of the differences in cultural background , Chinese & English have their typical characters. If we wouldn't accumulate much knowledge about the differences between English & Chinese , we would make mistakes and sociopragmatic failures in daily and social communication . This paper mainly talk about sociopragmatic failures , which include three parts: the definition of the pragmatics and sociopragmatic failure ; the reflection of the sociopragmatic failure and how to avoid sociopragmatic failures for the sake of a better understanding in communication .

Key W ords:differences cultural background pragmatics sociopragmatic failure

Since Chinese and English comes to different social cultural circumstances , it contributes to big differences in using the two languages . An English learner who has little knowledge about the cultural background of the English countries may have sociopragmatic failure . So what is sociopragmatic failure ? I consider that we should know what is pragmatics firstly .

Part One : The Definition of the Pragmatics and Sociopragmatic Failure

And what is pragmatics ? Pragmatics is generally the study of natural language understanding , and especially the study of how context influences the interpretation of meanings . In another word , it is the study of the relationship between symbols and their interpreter . To cite an example : Lily wanted to play outside and Lily's mother said to Lily :" It's raining outside now ." Literally , her mother was talking about the raining day ; actually , it meant that Lily should not go out . However , an English learner who can't understand the implied meaning may lead to pragmatic failure . So pragmatic failure is when have communacations , the language users can not use the language rightly and express appropriately , leading to a unsuccessful conversation. The English linguist Thomas divided pragmatic failure into two parts : pragmaliguistic failure & sociopragmatic failure1. Here we mainly talk about the

1Thomas J．Cross—Cultural Pragmatic Failure[J]．Applied Linguistics，1983(14)：91—92．

sociopragmatic failure , which means when have communications , both sides can't understand each other rightly because of the different cultural environment . From this ,we can know that the usage of language is not only limited by the context , but also the different cultural backgrounds .

Part Two: the reflection of the sociopragmatic failure

Since we learn the definition of sociopragmatic failure , we'll enumerate some reflections of it from the following aspects : 1) Words can not be in accordance with the common usage of English ; 2) The language can not be used seemly in the context ; 3)Apply the Chinese common usage in the English communication .

1.Words can not be in accordance with the common usage of English

The group has some knowledge about English usage , however ,they don't know the English usage very well , which leads to sociopragmatic failure in social communiction .

For instance , a Chinese student met a new American friend on a party , he greeted the friend with the words :" How are you ? '' ,which made the friend confused . And this is because the way of greeting is not accord with the manner of foreign teacher . For "how are you ?"are the words used in acquaintances and "how do you do ?" or "nice to meet you ."are used in the first-meet friends .

2.The language can not be used seemly in the context

When have communications , we need to use different strategies according to different circumstances and targets , otherwise ,we would have sociopragmatic failures in the social communication .

Example: An employee want to smoke , so he said :"Mind if I smoke ?"

Nevertheless , this words are always said by the superiors to the inferiors or the parity of status depending on the principle of politeness . So the speaker have sociopragmatic failure for not consider the words' context .

3.Apply the Chinese common usage in the English communication

When use English , Chinese students often apply the Chinese common usage in the English communications ,which make the English people misunderstood the words' meaning .