Keqi (客气) in historical Chinese: evidence from metapragmatic comments
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Hui Li
Hui Li, Ph.D., is a lecturer at the Department of English and International Studies, China Foreign Affairs University. His research interests include face and politeness theories, conversation analysis and functional grammar.
Abstract
Keqi is a politeness1-related metalexeme in both historical and contemporary Chinese. It is often understood as synonymous to the etic metalexeme “polite”. This article explores the meaning of keqi in historical Chinese by delineating the shared characteristics of the verbal and non-verbal behaviors that are interpreted as keqi in participants’ metapragmatic comments (99 cases of bubi keqi, 66 cases of buyong keqi, and 16 cases of bie keqi) in historical Chinese and by analyzing how the practice of keqi impacts the ongoing interaction. We find that the practice of keqi should be understood as a type of relational ritual and that it can be understood as a ritual frame indicating practice which indicates an emergent standard situation. As a metalexeme, keqi is different from politeness in that it is associated with the operation of ritual frame indication in a behavioral act, while politeness is associated with the operation of other-attentiveness. In cases where both the operations are possible, the interpretation of a behavior as keqi or polite depends on which operation is more salient to the recipient.
Funding source: Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities
Funding source: Beijing Social Science Fund
About the author
Hui Li, Ph.D., is a lecturer at the Department of English and International Studies, China Foreign Affairs University. His research interests include face and politeness theories, conversation analysis and functional grammar.
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Research funding: This study is supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. 3162020ZYKC04) and Beijing Social Science Fund (No. 19YYC017).
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Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Research Articles
- Metadiscourse of impoliteness, language ideology, and identity: offense-taking as social action
- “Shuoshihua, …”: Chinese celebrities’ metapragmatic management of rapport and impression in an interview setting
- Impoliteness in Twitter diplomacy: offence giving and taking in Middle East diplomatic crises
- “People confuse respeto ‘respect’ with terms of address”: an analysis of online metacommunication about politeness and second-person pronoun use in Peninsular Spanish
- Refusing invitations and offers in second language Chinese: effect of proficiency at the actional and interactional levels
- Saying “no” in emails in Mandarin Chinese and Australian English
- Keqi (客气) in historical Chinese: evidence from metapragmatic comments
- How does experience teaching in Japanese EFL classrooms inform English native-speaker educators classroom practices? The negotiation of face in university classrooms
- Book Reviews
- Sinkeviciute, Valeria: Conversational humour and (im)politeness: a pragmatic analysis of social interaction
- Freytag, Vera: Exploring Politeness in Business Emails. A Mixed-Methods Analysis
- Spencer-Oatey, Helen and Dániel Z. Kádár: Intercultural Politeness: Managing Relations across Cultures
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Research Articles
- Metadiscourse of impoliteness, language ideology, and identity: offense-taking as social action
- “Shuoshihua, …”: Chinese celebrities’ metapragmatic management of rapport and impression in an interview setting
- Impoliteness in Twitter diplomacy: offence giving and taking in Middle East diplomatic crises
- “People confuse respeto ‘respect’ with terms of address”: an analysis of online metacommunication about politeness and second-person pronoun use in Peninsular Spanish
- Refusing invitations and offers in second language Chinese: effect of proficiency at the actional and interactional levels
- Saying “no” in emails in Mandarin Chinese and Australian English
- Keqi (客气) in historical Chinese: evidence from metapragmatic comments
- How does experience teaching in Japanese EFL classrooms inform English native-speaker educators classroom practices? The negotiation of face in university classrooms
- Book Reviews
- Sinkeviciute, Valeria: Conversational humour and (im)politeness: a pragmatic analysis of social interaction
- Freytag, Vera: Exploring Politeness in Business Emails. A Mixed-Methods Analysis
- Spencer-Oatey, Helen and Dániel Z. Kádár: Intercultural Politeness: Managing Relations across Cultures
