中美家庭情景喜剧中请求和道歉言语行为实现模式对比研究

【摘要】請求和道歉是日常交流中的两个重要言语行为。然而，由于文化差异，他们的实现模式大不相同。本文将采用中美情景喜剧家有儿女和摩登家庭作为例子，研究父母对孩子的请求和道歉行为实现模式的不同及侧重点，并发掘背后的成因。

【关键词】言语行为;家庭情景喜剧;对比研究

【Abstract】The request and apology are two important speech acts in daily communication. However， due to cultural differences， their implementation patterns are quite different. This paper will use Chinese and American sitcoms Home with Kids and Modern Family， as examples to study the differences and focuses of parents requests for children and the patterns of apology， and to explore the causes behind them.

【Key Words】Speech Act; Family Sitcoms; Contrastive Study

【作者简介】陈珊珊（1995.01-），福建平潭人，福州大学外国语学院，研究方向：批评话语分析。

Ⅰ.Introduction

Usually， a speech act is created when speaker/writer S makes an utterance U to hearer/reader H in context C. Under Searles taxonomy， speech act are universally grouped into five types： （i） representatives or assertives; （ii） directives including requests; （iii） commissives; （iv） expressives including apologizing; （v） declarations. （Searle 1979： 2-8） Request and apology are two common speech acts in our daily life. However their realization patterns can be greatly different in Chinese and English because of cultural differences.

Ⅱ.Theoretical Framework

1.Request and Its Realization Strategies. Searle （1969： 66） described request as a directive speech act which is considered as an attempt to get the hearer to do an act. Requests are by definition face-threatening acts （Brown and Levinson， 1978）. According to Trosborg（1995： 205）， the taxonomy of request realization strategies are as follows：

Categories Request strategies example

Direct Obligation You must/have to lend me your car.

Performative I would like to ask you to lend me your car.

Imperative Lend me your car（， please）.

Conventionally indirect（hearer-based） Ability Can/could you lend me your car？

Willingness Would you lend me your car？

Permission May I borrow your car？

Suggestory formula How about lending me your car？

Conventionally indirect（speaker-based） Wishes I would like to borrow your car.

Desires/needs I want/need to borrow your car.

Indirect Hints I have to be at the airport in half an hour.

2.Apology and Its Realization Strategies.  Olshtain （1989： 156） defined an apology as “a speech act which is intended to provide support for the hearer who was actually or potentially malaffected by a violation”. In an apology， the speaker is ready to degrade himself/ herself to a degree that the apology is a face-saving act for the hearer and a face-threatening act for the speaker. According to Olshtain and Cohen（1983： 22）， apology strategies could be divided into the following：

strategy example

An expression of an apology Expression of regret Im sorry

Offer of apology Excuse me

Request for forgiveness Excuse me

An expression or account of the situation The bus was late

An acknowledgement of responsibility Accepting the blame Its my fault

Expressing self-deficiency I wasnt thinking

Recognizing the other person as deserving apology You are right

Expressing lack of intent I didnt mean to

An offer of repair Ill pay for the broken vase

A promise of forbearance It wont happen again

Ⅲ.Case Study

1. Sources of Examples .This paper is going to take two sitcoms， Home with Kids and Modern Family， as examples. Home with Kids I tells daily lives of a rebuilt family in Beijing. The father is Xia Donghai， who gets divorced with his ex-wife and gets married with Liu Mei， who gets divorced with her ex-husband. Both of them have children with their exes. As for Modern Family tells daily lives and complicated relationship of three families in America： Claire and her husband Phil， with their three children Haley， Alex and Luke; Mitchell （Claires brother） and his partner Cameron， with their adopted daughter Lily from Vietnam; Jay （Claire and Mitchells father） and his second wife Gloria from Columbia，with her son Manny. They are both family centered and representative model of Chinese and American family lives. What they say and what they do in the plots of sitcom are the real reflections of family lives， so they are suitable to do the research.

2. Analysis of Differences.  Through the comparison， it turns out that request and apology realization strategies used in both Chinese and English seem to be the same because all the strategies mentioned above can be found in both sitcoms. However， there are still some differences. Firstly， the addressing forms which are used to call the hears attention before making a request are different. As is seen in the following examples：

（1）Jay： Lets go， buddy. School time.（from the 3rd episode）

（2） Phil： Luke，buddy，hold back a sec. （from the 11th episode）

（3） Claire： Haley， sweetie， put the phone down and put on some sunscreen please. （from the 23rd episode）

（4）Liu Mei： 快去吧，換衣服啊，换完衣服该上学了啊。（from the 1st episode）

（5）Liu Mei： 干嘛呢干嘛呢你刘星，给我收起来，我让你收起来。（from the 3rd episode）

（6）Xia Donghai： 那个小雪，你听爸爸说，你一定要坚强一点， 不要太难过。（ from the 9th episode）

The examples above all involves direct strategy and they are requests made by parents to their children. The first three are from Modern Family and the other three are from Home with Kids. In the examples from Modern Family， parents use “buddy” or “sweetie” to call their children in order to show the closeness. “Buddy” is an addressing form used among intimate friends to show their close and intimate relationship. However， in the examples from Home with Kids， parents only call their childrens names. Compared with American parents， Chinese parents are trying to establish authority over their children so that they can keep their children under their control.

Secondly， when it comes to apology， American parents are more willing to make apologies to their children and they say it in a natural way. While Chinese parents are reluctant to apologize to their children so they would say something else besides words like “對不起” or “道歉” to make sure that they save their faces. Examples are as follows：

（7）Claire： Luke， I-I really couldnt be more proud of you， And I am so sorry I didnt give you more credit.

Luke： Thanks. （from the 18th episode）

（8）Xia Donghai： 好像有人需要道个歉了，知错就改才是好同志嘛。

Liu Mei： 成，刘星，妈妈道歉，明天晚上罚妈妈光做饭不吃饭，行了吧？（from the 13th episode）

The two examples show how American and Chinese parents make apologies to their children when they misunderstand the children. In the example from Modern Family， the mother uses both an expression of an apology strategy and an acknowledgement of responsibility strategy. In the second example， Liu Mei also uses “道歉” to make an apology and offers a repair. But it should be noted that Liu Mei does not realize that she should make an apology before Xia Donghai gives a hint. The words “成” and “行了吧” shows her unwillingness. Although parents make an apology， they are more powerful and not to be questioned.

Ⅳ. Conclusion

Request and apology are two essential speech acts in daily communication. From the case study mentioned above， it can be concluded that the realization patterns of requests and apologies from parents to children in Chinese are often with unwillingness and fear of losing control over their children. While in English， parents pay more attention to easing the imposition of requests and they are ready to say sorry to their children. Since language and culture are tightly linked with each other， the use of language has been greatly influenced by culture. It is the cultural differences that affect their realization patterns.

References：

[1]Brown， P. and S. Levinson. Universals of Language Usage： Politeness Phenomena[C]. In： E. Goody （ed.）， Questions and Politeness. Cambridge： Cambridge University Press， 1978.

[2]Olshtain， E. and Andre D. Cohen. Apology： A speech act set[C]. In： Nessa Wolfson and Elliot Judd（eds.）， Sociolinguistics and Language Acquisition. Rowley， MA： Newbury House， 1983： 18-35.

[3]Olshtain E. Apologies across Languages[C].In S. Blum-Kulka， et al （eds.）， Cross—cultural Pragmatics： Requests and Apologies. Norwood， NJ： Ablex， 1989： 155一173.

[4]Searle， John R. Speech Acts： An essay in the Philosophy of Language[M]. Cambridge： Cambridge University Press， 1969.

[5]Searle， John R. Expression and Meaning： Studies in the Theory of Speech Acts[M]. Cambridge： Cambridge University Press， 1979.