Chinese thanking interaction from premodern to modern China: A diachronic analysis

IF 1.3 2区文学 Q2 COMMUNICATION

Language & Communication Pub Date : 2025-01-09 DOI:10.1016/j.langcom.2024.12.013

Limin Huang , Dengshan Xia

引用次数: 0

Abstract

This study aims to trace the evolution of thanking interaction from premodern to modern China, drawing on data collected from dramatic texts in the 16th-18th centuries and the mid-20th century. The results show that in both periods Chinese thanking features a similar interactional structure. However, notable diachronic changes are revealed in three respects. First, our data disclose a significant process of routinization and simplification of rituals in the forms of thanking. Second, there is a remarkable shift in thanking strategies and thanking response strategies. Third, we have identified an attenuation in the functions of thanking. The diachronic changes might be motivated by China's modernization in which the New Culture Movement plays a vital role.

查看原文本刊更多论文

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Language & Communication Multiple-

CiteScore

3.40

自引率

6.70%

发文量

期刊介绍： This journal is unique in that it provides a forum devoted to the interdisciplinary study of language and communication. The investigation of language and its communicational functions is treated as a concern shared in common by those working in applied linguistics, child development, cultural studies, discourse analysis, intellectual history, legal studies, language evolution, linguistic anthropology, linguistics, philosophy, the politics of language, pragmatics, psychology, rhetoric, semiotics, and sociolinguistics. The journal invites contributions which explore the implications of current research for establishing common theoretical frameworks within which findings from different areas of study may be accommodated and interrelated. By focusing attention on the many ways in which language is integrated with other forms of communicational activity and interactional behaviour, it is intended to encourage approaches to the study of language and communication which are not restricted by existing disciplinary boundaries.