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Licensed Unlicensed Requires Authentication Published by De Gruyter April 14, 2015

Compliments and Compliment Responses of Singapore Chinese University Students

新加坡华人大学生的恭维言语行为
  • Lee Cher Leng

    Lee Cher Leng, Associate Professor of Chinese Linguistics at the National University of Singapore. Her research areas are pragmatics, sociolinguistics, and Chinese language education. Her publications include: “Silence and Face-work in Two Chinese TV Talk Shows” Discourse, Context, and Media (2013),“Politeness in Singapore” in Politeness in East Asia (Cambridge University Press, 2012), “Self-presentation, face and first-person pronouns in the Analects” Journal of Politeness Research (2012). “Ethnography of Singapore Names: Race, Religion, and Representation” Lodz Papers in Pragmatics (2011), and “Compliments and responses during Chinese new year celebrations in Singapore” Pragmatics (2009).

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From the journal Global Chinese

Abstract

This paper examines the compliments and compliment responses of Singapore Chinese university students from naturally occurring data. Both Mainland China and Taiwan have received more attention in compliments research. Unlike China and Taiwan, Singapore is in the outer circle (Kachru 1992) of the Mandarin speaking community. Although the population of Singapore comprised of three-quarters of ethnic Chinese, Mandarin is taught in school as a second language with the medium of instruction of all other subjects being English (see Lee 2012). The different language environment and cultural bearings from the Mainland Chinese and Taiwan Chinese are reflected in this study. This study shows that unlike Taiwan college students (Wang and Tsai 2003) whose preferred compliment topic is Appearance, Singapore Chinese students prefer to compliment on Ability/Performance. Contrary to all other studies on Chinese compliment responses which show that Chinese are more modest and therefore tend to Reject compliments, this study shows that there are overall more Accept compliment responses especially between close friends. This is due to the predominant English-speaking environment in Singapore. In addition, Appreciation Token which is known to be a western response to compliments is also used more frequently by Singapore Chinese students. The linguistic features of code-switching to English and the presence of local discourse particles (from southern Chinese dialects and Malay language) are unique features of the diasporic colloquial Mandarin spoken in Singapore.

摘要

本文研究新加坡本地大学生的恭维语和对恭维语的回应, 对象是用华语交谈的本地大学生,语料来自他们的自然生活中的对话。中国大陆以及台湾都有不少的恭维语研究, 在华语圈外围 (Kachru 1992) 的新加坡则比较少这方面的研究,此文正弥补这个空缺。虽然新加坡有四分三的华人,华语(普通话)在学校里算是第二语文, 除了华文以外,几乎所有的科目都是以英文为教学媒体 (见 Lee 2012)。因此, 新加坡的语言环境与中国大陆和台湾全然不同。台湾的恭维研究显示大学生最常恭维的话题是外貌 (Wang 与 Tsai 2003); 本文发现新加坡讲华语的大学生最常恭维的的却是一个人的能力或本领。再者,多数研究华人恭维的文章都认为华人总是以谦逊为准则,因此回应恭维时, 总是不接受; 本文发现应该分别对话人双方关系的亲疏才能得到更准确的答案。本文的研究显示关系比较熟悉的朋友之间确实有比较多接受恭维的回应,也许这是因为新加坡的大环境是英语, 所以受西方的影响比较大的缘故。同时, 回应恭维的时候,有不少同学会用 “谢谢” 或 “Thank you”, 这种回应方式也比较符合西方的用法。本地大学生恭维语和回应中明显的语言特征是语码转换, 以及用了很多本地的语气词, 这都是新加坡华语口语的特征。

About the authors

Lee Cher Leng

Lee Cher Leng, Associate Professor of Chinese Linguistics at the National University of Singapore. Her research areas are pragmatics, sociolinguistics, and Chinese language education. Her publications include: “Silence and Face-work in Two Chinese TV Talk Shows” Discourse, Context, and Media (2013),“Politeness in Singapore” in Politeness in East Asia (Cambridge University Press, 2012), “Self-presentation, face and first-person pronouns in the Analects” Journal of Politeness Research (2012). “Ethnography of Singapore Names: Race, Religion, and Representation” Lodz Papers in Pragmatics (2011), and “Compliments and responses during Chinese new year celebrations in Singapore” Pragmatics (2009).

李子玲, 新加坡国立大学汉语语言学副教授。她的研究领域为语用学, 社会语言学与汉语教育。她的著作包括: “两个汉语电视谈话节目中的沉默与面子问题”, 发表于《话语、语境和媒体》(2013);“新加坡的礼貌”, 发表于《东亚的礼貌》(剑桥大学出版社, 2012); “《论语》中的自我呈现、面子与第一人称代词”, 发表于《礼貌研究》(2012); “新加坡姓名志: 种族, 宗教与表现”, 发表于《罗兹语用学论文》(2011);《新加坡农历新年庆祝中的恭维与应答》, 发表于《语用学》(2009)。

Acknowledgements

I am grateful for the research grant (WBS R-102-000-079-112) from the Faculty of Arts of Social Sciences, National University of Singapore that has made this research possible. I would also like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their feedback and to the editors of this journal for further comments. As for the remaining inadequacies, I take sole responsibility.

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Chinese Synopsis (中文简介)

新加坡华人大学生的恭维言语行为

本文探讨新加坡华人大学生的恭维言语行为。自上世纪 80 年代以来,欧洲各地以及其他讲英语的地区都纷纷探讨恭维的言语行为,讲华文的地区到了90 年代才开始有人研究。目前中国大陆以及台湾的恭维言语行为已经有少量文献,但是内圈以外的华文地区如新加坡则少有人研究, 至今只有 Lee (2009) 研究了新加坡华人过农历新年时的恭维现象。最近 Lin 等 (2013) 比较了中国大陆和台湾的恭维语,他们也认为接下来的恭维言语研究,应该扩大范围到华语内圈以外讲华语地区。本文锁定研究新加坡华人大学生中的恭维言语现象。

新加坡位处东南亚,是内圈以外华人比例最高的国家,有四分之三的华人。这些华人都是 18 世纪从中国移民的后裔。新加坡是个多元种族和语言的国家:华人占总人口的 74.2%, 马来人占 13.3%, 印度人占 9.2%, 其他占 3.3% (2013 年度人口报告);四种官方语言分别为:英语、马来语、华语、和淡米尔语。马来语除了代表马来族外, 也是国语, 华语代表华族, 淡米尔语代表印度人, 英语是全国的行政和法律用语, 也是学校的主要教学媒介语。华文是学校的一门学科, 除了少数的特选中学增加一些华文的课时以外, 大多数的小学华文课时是每周四、五小时, 中学是三小时, 如果中学考上高级华文, 高中可以不选读华文。学生高考不需要华文成绩, 就可以报读大学 (Lee 2012)。大学除了中文系以及其他外文系以外, 所有的科目都是用英文做教学媒介的。在这种教育体制和语言环境下, 新加坡华人大学生的恭维言语行为究竟与中国大陆和台湾学生有何不同呢?

不少有关中国大陆和台湾的恭维语研究用调查问卷的方式取得语料 (Ye 1995, Tang and Zhang 2009, Lin 等 2012)。这种方法的好处是可以控制性别、年龄等参数, 但往往没有办法看到真实的语言现象。Yuan (2002) 和 Lin (2013) 特别强调自然语料对研究恭维语的重要性。本文的恭维语料是会讲华语的新加坡华人大学生的自然语料。为了得到更精确的研究成果, 语料的收集只限在大学读书的新加坡华人, 因为不同的说话对象会带来不同的语料结果。由于对话双方的关系肯定会影响恭维的课题、回应的方式, 所以收集语料时也注意恭维者和被恭维者之间的熟悉程度和性别差异。收集的语料总共有 58 则恭维的对话, 其中熟悉的朋友之间有 25 则, 不熟悉的有 30 则。

目前, 和本文比较相似的研究是 Wang and Tsai (2003), 他们也是用自然语料的方式来研究台湾大学生的恭维现象。不同的是他们并没有区分对话者之间是熟悉的朋友或不熟悉的朋友, 只是分男女性别。其他的华人恭维研究有的是用调查问卷, 调查对象有来自不同年龄、身份背景的人士, 不只是大学生 (Ye 1995;Yuan 2002;Yu 2005)。

新加坡学生恭维语的主题可分为 “能力” (59%)、“外貌” (19.5%)、“物品” (13%), 以及“为人” (8.5%)。其中最多的恭维主题是有关 “能力”, 这和台湾大学生的恭维主题多数有关 “外貌” (Wang and Tsai 2003) 有别。有趣的发现是, 新加坡学生最常恭维同学们的烹饪技巧和讲华语能力, 前者是因为大学生很少自己做饭, 后者是因为英语是大环境的主要语言, 华文程度不错的本地人, 就会被视为是有双语能力者。

中国大陆以及台湾的恭维言语行为研究发现, 华人总是为了礼貌而表面上不接受恭维 (Gu 1990)。但是本文的研究结果显示熟悉的朋友之间多数是接受恭维的 (60%), 而不熟悉的朋友之间多数是不接受恭维的 (48%), 可见研究恭维时, 务必分清楚恭维者和接受恭维者之间的关系, 不可以一概而论, 要不然所得到的结论就不准确了。这个研究结果和中国大陆以及台湾的结果不一样, 新加坡的接受程度比较高也许是因为受到英语的影响。再者, 接受的方式中, 有不少是用“谢谢”或 “Thank you”。这种接受方式有人认为比较西方化, 也比较不像一般华人的回答方式 Yuan (2003), 这也显示新加坡华人受西方影响比较深。

在语言的使用方面, 语料显示新加坡华人说华语时总是夹杂者英语 (Lee 2003, 2013), 显然是因为新加坡的大环境是英语的缘故。除了语码转换普遍以外, 新加坡大学生的华语中也往往夹杂了本地特有的语气词, 如“啦”, “meh”, “hor” 等, 这些语气词多来自汉语南方方言如闽南语、粤语, 以及马来语等 (Wee 2002)。由于是自然语料, 所以也能发现一些对话的特殊现象, 例如有很多恭维的回应是用了 “哈哈” 来回答的, 这也许是被对方恭维而显得不好意思的一种自然反应。

Published Online: 2015-4-14
Published in Print: 2015-4-1

©2015 by De Gruyter Mouton

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