Лингвокультурная специфика речевого акта извинения в китайском языке

Abstract

The paper aims to shed light on the national specificity of Chinese apology by demonstrating the linguocultural features of the act of apology in the Chinese language. The specificity of the speech act of apology in the Chinese language is due to the peculiarities of speech etiquette, as well as the peculiarities of the national mentality, moral and ethical norms, the way of life and thinking of the Chinese people, their values, traditions and customs. Scientific novelty of the work lies in the fact that the speech act of apology is analysed from the viewpoint of its communicative-pragmatic and linguocultural specificity and is associated with the concept of face-saving. The admission of guilt in Chinese linguoculture is equivalent to loss of face, which is why the Chinese language has developed a number of linguistic means that allow the speaker to avoid an emotionally tense situation. This is attributable to the fact that in Chinese, apologies can be divided into two classes, i.e. phrases of confession of guilt and phrases of requests for leniency/forgiveness. In addition, there is a subgroup of “pseudo-apologies”, which, being apologies form-wise, are a way of expressing gratitude content-wise. As a result of the study, it has been found that there are apologetic performatives in the Chinese language, but speech clichés realising a compensating behaviour strategy that allow the speaker to reduce the degree of their guilt and thereby save face are more common.