Literature Review Previous studies on teacher talk from both home and abroad roughly include the following aspects: amount of teacher talk, teachers? questions, teachers? feedback, and interactional modification. Based on the former researches, it can be found that different definitions of teacher talk have been reached from different perspectives at home and abroad. One definition goes that teacher talk is the language in the classroom that takes up a major part of class time used to give classroom directions, explain classroom activities and check students? understanding (Sinclair & Brazil, 1982). Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching & Applied Linguistics (Richards, 1992) describes teacher talk as “that variety of language sometimes used by teachers when they are in the process of teaching. In trying to communicate with students, teachers often simplify their speech giving it many of the characteristics of the Foreigner Talk and other simplified styles of speech addressed to language learners”. In Ellis? opinion, teachers “make adjustments to both language form and language function in order to facilitate communication. These adjustments are referred to as ?teacher talk?” (Ellis 1994:726) To be more specific, Song Deyun & Pan Longming (2000) define English teacher talk as follows: English teacher talk includes classroom English, instruction English, teacher-student interaction and teacher feedback English which is employed to instruct English knowledge, communicate and organize classroom activities. Politeness seems to be a prevalent concept and an important element in human interaction. According to Routledge Dictionary of Language and Linguistics (1996), politeness is an “umbrella term for a combination of interpersonal considerations and linguistic choices affecting the form and function of linguistic interactions”. In different cultures and different contexts, politeness refers to quite different things. It is known that every culture has its own customs and expectation, including the politeness involved in daily life. Different culture expects different behavior to meet their politeness system. In other words, people should conform to politeness principle in communication. Leech?s Politeness Principle is not an entirely new notion since E. Goffman, P. Brown, S. Levinson and others had discussed politeness phenomena before him in the application of language, such as address forms in kinds of languages, like “你” and “您” in Chinese. E. Goffman poses the question of face from the sociological view of point in the early 1950s. In his opinion, communications between people do involve face work all the time. Face is one of human behavior norms, infiltrating interpersonal interaction. On the one hand, human behavior is bound by face; on the other hand, people hope that others take consideration of their face. In order to do face work well, people need cooperation. After all, whether people lose their face or not depends on others. For the sake of their own face, they had better protect others? face. Therefore，people tend to downgrade themselves and elevate others. Otherwise, social interaction will become inconceivable. Universals in Language Usage: Politeness Phenomena written by Brown, P & Levinson is an article which is widely cited in the world. They investigate politeness phenomena in English, a kind of native language in Mexico and one native language in southern India. And they discover politeness phenomena in language usage are extremely close and regard it as a common phenomenon. The idea of face is used on by Brown, P & Levinson and is developed into two types of face: one is positive face which desires to win others? compliment on personality, profession, hobby, dress and so on; another one is negative face which protects people from personal attack, injury to freedom of action, etc. Hence, politeness behavior also falls into two types: positive politeness satisfying requirements of positive face and negative politeness meeting ones of negative face. Besides, Brown, P & Levinson think that avoiding calling a spade a spade is also a kind of politeness behavior. Namely, people use vague words not to reach others? face and make listeners themselves judge messages. Based on these research findings, British linguist Geoffrey N. Leech puts forwards his Politeness Principle Speech act theory, the first major theory in the study of language in use, originates with the Oxford philosopher John Langshaw Austin who first distinguishes performatives and constatives and offered a theory of Illocutionary Act in 1950s, and afterwards was improved by American philosopher Searle whose major contribution is the discovery of indirect speech act. Nowadays, it has become a philosophical theory and pragmatic theory that is well accepted. American linguistic philosopher H. P. Grice advances that both sides have to adhere to the Cooperative Principle in order to ensure the smooth progress of the conversation. In the meantime, when one side goes against the Cooperative Principle, the other one will spare no effort to seek the Conversational Implication. However, Leech believes that these theories can not explain all phenomena occurring in the application of language. For this reason, he presents his idea which can account for linguistic phenomena that Austin?s and Searle?s speech act theory and Grice?s Cooperative Principle cannot explain. Speech act theory has been criticized more by Leech for it is difficult to define the type of speech act which does no good to pragmatic analysis. He considers speech act is a constantly evolving and ongoing variable, depending on other factors besides language factors. Concerning the Cooperative Principle, Leech thinks it just can restrain what people say in communication and how to comprehend each other?s conversational implication, whereas it cannot fully explain the reason why people do not say directly what they mean. Leech (1983: 80) regards politeness as crucial in accounting for “why people are often so indirect in conveying what they mean”. He thus poses the Politeness Principle so as to “rescue the CP” in the sense that politeness can satisfactorily explain exceptions to and apparent deviations from the CP. Hence, his Politeness Principle is not just an addition to Grice?s CP, but a necessary complement needed for cases where the CP fails to offer a reasonable explanation. Here are two examples Leech uses to state that the Politeness Principle is necessary for the CP. On the base of these observations, Leech proposes six maxims of the Politeness Principle which runs as follows: Minimize (other things being equal) the expression of impolite beliefs and maximize (other things being equal) the expression of polite beliefs. The six maxims of the PP: Maxim of Tact (ⅰ) Minimize cost to other (ⅱ) Maximize benefit to other Maxim of Generosity (ⅰ) Minimize benefit to self (ⅱ) Maximize cost to self Maxim of Approbation (ⅰ) Minimize dispraise of other (ⅱ) Maximize praise of other Maxim of Modesty (ⅰ) Minimize praise of self (ⅱ) Maximize dispraise of self Maxim of Agreement (ⅰ) Minimize disagreement between self and other (ⅱ) Maximize agreement between self and other Maxim of Sympathy (ⅰ) Minimize antipathy between self and other (ⅱ) Maximize sympathy between self and other
本科生毕业论文
题目：Leech礼貌原则在大学英语教师话语中的应用
姓 名：XXXX 班 级：XXXX级1班 指导老师：XX 专 业：英语教育 院 系：XXX学院英语系
完成日期：2013年5月8日
The Application of Leech’s Politeness Principle to