A Contrastive Study of Perceptions of Appropriate Complaints

合宜抱怨策略的感知度之對比研究

洪綺吟(Chi-Yin Hong) ； 石素錦(Su-Chin Shih)

《國際文化研究》 8卷1期 (2012/06) Pp. 63-88

https://doi.org/10.29960/SIC.201206.0003

摘要

不同文化背景的人對於合宜的抱怨可能會有不同的定義與看法，因此本研究探討美國英文母語使用者及台灣中文母語使用者對於包含不同地位及社會距離（熟識度）對話者之不同情境的合宜抱怨行為感知度之異同。五十位美國及五十位台灣大學生參與本研究，資料收集工具為包含二十個情境的選擇題組，其中八個題組探討社會地位的影響，另外十二題則研究社會地位變數在合宜抱怨行為中的角色。每個情境都包含了六個選項，各代表不同的抱怨策略：暗示、不滿、請求、明確抱怨、控訴／威脅、以及沉默。受試者須在這些情境中的六個選項中，選出他們認為最合宜之抱怨行為，並以卡方將收得之語料進行統計分析。結果顯示兩組受試者對於這六個選項皆有選用，但在策略選擇的嚴厲度有所不同。整體而言，中文母語使用者的抱怨嚴厲度比英文母語使用者高，社會地位及社會距離兩個變數皆影響了兩組受試者的抱怨策略之選擇，且兩組受試者在這兩項變數影響下大致上呈現相似的抱怨嚴厲度。最後，本研究對造成這些結果的可能原因加以探討。

關鍵字

感知 ； 抱怨 ； 選擇題組 ； 嚴厲度 ； 社會地位 ； 社會距離

並列摘要

People from different cultural backgrounds might have different concepts of appropriate complaints. This study examines American and Chinese college students' perceptions of appropriate complaints in situations involving addressees of different status and social distance types. One hundred subjects, including fifty Chinese and fifty Americans, participated in this study. The instrument was a multiple-choice task, which included twenty scenarios, with eight investigating the effects of status and twelve exploring the influences of social distance on the subjects' complaints. Each scenario consisted of six options, which represented different complaint strategies: hints, disapproval, requests for repair, explicit complaints, accusations/threat, and opting out. The collected data were processed quantitatively by Chi-square analyses. The results suggest that both of the two groups selected all of the six strategies, but they significantly differed in their severity tendency of strategy choices. Overall, the Chinese speakers tended to be severer than the Americans. Further, social status and distance influenced their choices, by which the two groups showed a similar severity tendency in perceptions of appropriate complaints. Reasons for the findings are provided and discussed.

並列關鍵字

perceptions ； complaints ； multiple-choice task ； severity ； status ； social stance

參考文獻

Blum-Kulka, S.(1987).Indirectness and politeness in requests: Same or different?.Journal of Pragmatics.11,131-146.

Brown, P.,Levinson, S. C.(1987).Some universals in language usage.London:Cambridge University Press.

Chambers, J.,Trudgill, P.(1980).Dialectology.Cambridge:Cambridge University Press.

Clyne, M.(1994).Inter-cultural communication at work.Cambridge:Cambridge University Press.

Kasper, G.(ed.)(1995).Pragmatics of Chinese as a native and target language.Manoa, Hawai'i:University of Hawai'i Press.