Startseite Linguistik & Semiotik From silence to positive self-presentation: gradual emergence of negative face wants in Kǒngguīzú’s (恐归族) intergenerational conflicts with their family elders
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From silence to positive self-presentation: gradual emergence of negative face wants in Kǒngguīzú’s (恐归族) intergenerational conflicts with their family elders

  • Ping Zhang

    Ping Zhang, Ph.D., is on the faculty of the College of Chinese Language and Literature at Hunan University, China. Her research interests and publications fall within these three fields of scholarship: language use and interaction in a multicultural context, language information extraction and statistical analysis, and the syntax-semantics interface in Chinese language.

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Veröffentlicht/Copyright: 8. Juli 2020

Abstract

Brown and Levinson’s politeness theory (1978, 1987) is often challenged on its claim of the universality of face, in particular, the applicability of negative face to communicators from the sinosphere. This study argues that the notion of negative face is applicable to account for young Chinese people’s communication strategies and behaviors during their intergenerational conflicts. Drawing on discursive psychology and conversation analysis approaches to the dialogic lyrics of Shénqǔ about Kǒngguīzú, this paper explores the dynamic construction process of young Chinese people’s negative face. It reveals that this dynamic construction has been shaped by the cultural values of mixing traditional Confucian values with a new materialistic and individualistic orientation, and that adhering to the traditional cultural norm of harmony is crucial to satisfying negative face wants. This finding suggests that the mixed cultural values should be incorporated into the parametric system of Chinese negative face analysis.

About the author

Ping Zhang

Ping Zhang, Ph.D., is on the faculty of the College of Chinese Language and Literature at Hunan University, China. Her research interests and publications fall within these three fields of scholarship: language use and interaction in a multicultural context, language information extraction and statistical analysis, and the syntax-semantics interface in Chinese language.

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Received: 2018-03-22
Accepted: 2019-04-29
Published Online: 2020-07-08
Published in Print: 2021-07-27

© 2020 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Heruntergeladen am 21.1.2026 von https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/pr-2018-0009/pdf
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