论普遍语用学"场域原则"的新佐证--英汉道歉语研究新解

运用跨文化语用研究的理论与方法,对比英汉语言中的道歉语,发现两者的差异根植于两种迥然不同的文化.这一研究对普遍语用学的"场域原则"是一个有力的佐证,也就是说,一种文化形成一种场域.在各自不同的场域中,人们争夺象征资本的游戏规则决定着语用学的习慣.这告诫人们语用学研究必须纳入更广阔的视野和更具概括力的理论框架.

A study of apology-making as defined by the cultural field

Apology-making is recognized as a universal phenomenon. However, the realization of this speech act is to a great extent culture-specific. Based on the findings in a research concerning the cross-cultural speech act realization and the authors' investigation of the apology-making in Chinese, this paper discusses some differences and similarities in apology behavior of Chinese native speakers and that of the English native speakers. It then provides interpretations to these differences in terms of Habermas' theories of universal pragmatics. It is argued that any culture can compose a field in which people need to employ various pragmatic means to strike for the symbolic capital in order to win the social game. Apology realization is but another evidence for the functions of symbolic capital to be defined by the specific cultural field.