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Analysis of Politeness Principle in Obamas Speechat the Town Hall Meeting in Shanghai奥巴马上海科技馆演讲的礼貌原则探析ByHe Baoqiao Supervised byLecturer Li Shan May 20th, 2011College of Foreign Languages and Cultures Chengdu University of TechnologyAnalysis of Politeness Principle in Obamas Speechat the Town Hall Meeting in ShanghaiStudent: He Baoqiao Class: 2007110107Supervisors: Lecturer Li ShanAbstract Public speech is an important social activity, where the speaker declares their opinions, expresses their emotions, and influences the audience. President Barack Obama is a successful speaker. His speeches have distinctive political features and are rich in the use of politeness words. So, the thesis attempts to analyze the politeness phenomenon in Obamas Speech at the Town Hall Meeting in Shanghai from the perspective of pragmatics, based on the politeness theory.Since the study on politeness could improve peoples communicative abilities, and help people build and maintain the harmonious relationship in the communication, the thesis applies the Politeness Principle to the study of Obamas Speech at the Town Hall Meeting in Shanghai, so as to analyze its pragmatic effects of the Politeness Principle in Obamas speech. It consists of four chapters. First, a brief introduction is presented to the theme of the thesis, the literature review, the significance and purpose, the methodology and the organization. Chapter Two introduces the background of the speech made by Obama, the reviews on Obamas speech and the use of politeness in political speech. Chapter Three briefly introduces the research of politeness theory made by Leech. Chapter Four is the pragmatic analysis of Obamas speech, based upon Leechs Politeness Principle.Through the pragmatic analysis of Obamas speech, we come to the conclusion that the maxims of the Politeness Principle are effective and practicable in explaining the politeness words of political speech, helping the speaker achieve his speech effects and establish the harmonious relationship with the audience. Key words: the Politeness Principle; political speeches; Barack Obamas speech奥巴马上海科技馆演讲的礼貌原则探析学 生：何宝桥 班级：2007110107导 师：李珊 讲师摘要演讲是一种重要的社会活动,演讲者可借此发表自己的意见、抒发情感、影响听众。美国总统巴拉克·奥巴马是一个成功的演讲家。他的演讲具有鲜明的政治特点和丰富的礼貌用语。本论文从语用学礼貌理论出发，分析奥巴马上海科技馆演讲中的礼貌现象。由于对礼貌语言的研究有助于提高人们的交际能力，帮助人们在交往中建立和维护和谐的人际关系，因此本论文运用礼貌原则分析奥巴马在上海科技馆的演讲，以此分析礼貌原则在其演讲中的语用效果。全文共分为四个部分。第一部分简要介绍了本论文的主题，礼貌现象的国内外研究状况，本论文研究意义和目的，研究方法以及本论文结构。第二部分介绍了奥巴马演讲的时代背景，对奥巴马演讲的评价以及政治演讲中的礼貌现象。第三部分主要阐述了英国语言学家利奇的礼貌理论。第四部分根据利奇的礼貌原则，具体对奥巴马的演讲进行语用分析。通过对奥巴马演讲的语用分析，我们得出结论：礼貌原则的各项准则对政治演讲中的礼貌现象具有一定的解释性和实用性，有利于帮助演讲者增强演讲效果，并与听众建立和谐的关系。关键词：礼貌原则；政治演讲；巴拉克·奥巴马演讲ContentsAbstracti摘要iiIntroduction11. Obamas Speech and Its Reviews1 1.1 Obamas Speech and Its Background2 1.2 Reviews on Obamas Speech2 1.3 Politeness in Political Speech32. Leechs Politeness Theory4 2.1 Tact Maxim5 2.2 Generosity Maxim5 2.3 Approbation Maxim6 2.4 Modesty Maxim6 2.5 Agreement Maxim7 2.6 Sympathy Maxim73. Pragmatic Analysis of Obamas Speech in Terms of the Politeness Principles8 3.1 Pragmatic Effects of Tact Maxim in Obamas Speech8 3.2 Pragmatic Effects of Generosity Maxim in Obamas Speech9 3.3 Pragmatic Effects of Approbation Maxim in Obamas Speech10 3.4 Pragmatic Effects of Modesty Maxim in Obamas Speech12 3.5 Pragmatic Effects of Agreement Maxim in Obamas Speech12 3.6 Pragmatic Effects of Sympathy Maxim in Obamas Speech13Conclusion14Acknowledgements15Endnotes16References17 IntroductionPublic speech is an important social activity. In order to achieve the designed effect, the speaker declares their opinions, expresses their emotions, and influences the audience. President Barack Obama is a good speaker. His speeches have distinctive political features and are rich in the politeness words. So, the thesis attempts to analyze the politeness phenomenon in Obamas Speech at the Town Hall Meeting in Shanghai from the perspective of pragmatics, based on the politeness theory. Through the analysis, we can know the pragmatic effects of the Politeness Principle in Obamas Speech at the Town Hall Meeting in Shanghai. Politeness phenomenon is a very important branch of pragmatics. Many scholars home and abroad have done plenty of research into this phenomenon from different perspectives. For example, Grice proposes Cooperative Principle,1 Lakoff establishes rules of politeness.2 Face Threatening Acts and politeness strategies are proposed by Brown and Levinson.3 Leechs Politeness Principle is composed of principles and maxims which the two parties of communication should follow.4 Based upon the research done by Leech, Chinese scholars Gu Yueguo proposes the Politeness Maxims, which conform to Chinese characteristics and the linguistic reality in the mainland of China.5 In addition, Xu Shenghuan revises the Politeness Principle to explain politeness phenomena in language use.6Politeness is the symbol of civilization society, and is also a basic conduct of human beings communication. As a universal phenomenon, it plays a very important role in establishing and maintaining the good relationship. People could cross the boundaries of countries, nations and races to successfully communicate through the appropriate use of polite language.The research helps Chinese learners to grasp the usage of language, and the knowledge of American society and culture. As the native speaker, President Obama uses the native formal language. The analysis of his speech can threw a light on the understanding how the native speaker says, how to appropriately use language, and which features the speech has. The study on Obamas speech opens the window for Chinese students to know the American and western culture, and is useful to improve their abilities of cross-cultural communication.1. Obamas Speech and Its ReviewsAs the first black president of the United States of America, Barack Obama is always the focus of the world. There is no one president who gets more praise and criticism than Barack Obama. He is the god to some young persons, but to some opponents of abortion, he may be a devil (Obama supports abortion).After he becomes the president of America, the polities he raised also lead to great dispute. If you want to know him more, let us give a brief introduction to Obamas speech and its background.1.1 Obamas Speech and Its BackgroundIn recent years, especially after the international financial crisis happened in 2008, China has made great development in many aspects, for example, its economic and political status in the world. Even though China suffered from the financial crisis, the Chinese economic has also made great improvement, being the first country which went out from the crisis and the second largest economic entity.In contrast, although the United States has superior influence on various areas, for example, its economics, politic and military power. The financial crisis heavily hit this country. Considering the current trade conflicts frequently occurring between the two countries and the misunderstandings among people because cultural differences, it is necessary for the two countries to have more communications. Political factors make a great contribution to the relationship of both countries, so the leaders of both countries have always been giving political communications as a priority. Under this circumstance, the new elected American president made a charming visit to China and declared a speech to Shanghais university students at Town Hall Meeting in Shanghai Science and Technology Museum.1.2 Reviews on Obamas SpeechObamas speech receives great repercussion among students and political reviewers. Before he comes to China, many students know him from his election campaign speeches. Most of them are attracted by his personal charm and appreciate his inflammatory speeches. When the news that President Obama will come to China and make speech at Town Hall Meeting in Shanghai, the students in Shanghai are so excited that they have the chance to see Obama at short range.When Obama makes speech, the students give their big appraise to him from time to time. After the speech, the students also express their enjoyment to him and his speech. Many Chinese political reviewers also think Obamas speech is much modester than other American presidents speeches made in China, which reflects the change of position of strength between China and America.1.3 Politeness in Political SpeechIt is generally agreed that language is a system of symbols designed for the purpose of human communication. However, different countries use different symbols to explain meaning, there is a need to set up a bridge to help different nations to communicate with each other and enhance their mutual understanding. In this regard, the pragmatics studies, as the bridge, play an important role in the communications among people from different countries.In order to better understand Obamas speech and construct relatively complete system of political speech in our mind, it is necessary to introduce some knowledge of speech and political speech before analyzing Obamas speech at Town Hall Meeting in Shanghai Science and Technology Museum. There are different classifications of speeches according to different criteria. According to the field with which the speech if concerned, public speech can be classified into political speech, academic speech, military speech, and so on. Obamas speech belongs to political speech. According to their general purposes, speeches fall into three categories: informative speech, entertaining speech and persuasive speech. Political speech including presidential speech is under the category of persuasive speech, which aims to persuade audience to agree and perhaps to act. According to the formality of speeches, they could be divided into formal speeches and informal speeches. Obamas speech belongs to the formal speech because it is delivered on formal occasions. As far as channel is concerned, there are impromptu speeches, extemporaneous speeches, and speeches written to be spoken. Obamas speech is prepared before hand.Political speech is an important social-cultural phenomenon of the West. It is one that the speaker, usually on behalf of a certain class, society, or party, makes to the audience on some important matters and relationships at home and board. The primary aim for every political speech is to form the highest expressions of the aspirations of the groups for whom the speaker speaks. However, the aim of political speeches is not single but multiple most of the time. Besides the intention of expressing certain thoughts and communicating ideas, there can be very complex intentions to influence the public opinion and obtain some political purpose. In Obamas speech, he delivers his speech with the aim of building a good relationship with China, propagating western political ideas for freedom, equity and democracy, and getting the economic order for goods from China.Before Barack Obama, many other American presidents have made speeches in China. For example, Ronald Reagans speech in Fudan University in 1984,William J. Clintons speech in Peking University in 1998,Geoge W. Bushs speech in Tsinghua University in 2002. On one hand, they are all belonging to the part of presidential formal state visits to China. They are all political speeches delivered at similar occasion; hence they are many similarities in usage of polite language. On the other hand, they took place in different times and they were made by different persons, so differences may be found among their speeches. Because they are guests of Chinese, all of their speeches are more or less full of politeness language, while Obamas speech is the most single-hearted. This shows that the comprehensive national power between China and America is getting narrower.2. Leechs Politeness TheoryAs for the research of politeness language, scholars home and abroad raise relatively many theory modes and search methods from the perspectives of rhetoric, psychology, sociolinguistics and pragmatics. Politeness as a main research subject of much concern has been and is still enjoying much popularity with people specialized in the area of pragmatics.In 1967, American philosopher Grice proposed the cooperative principle and later collected into his essays, Logic and Conversation and Further-notes on Logic and Conversation, respectively published in 1975 and 1978. Grice thinks that “Our talk exchanges do not normally consist of a succession of disconnected remarks, and would not be rational if they did. They are characteristically, to some degree at least, co-operate efforts; and each participant recognizes in them, to some extent, a common purpose or set of purposes, or at least a mutually accepted direction”.7 In order to attain the specified objective in the behavior of language must obey, i.e., the Cooperative principle. Grice thinks the cooperative principle has four maxims: Maxim of quantity, Maxim of quality; Maxim of relation Maxim of manner. Under the demand of the cooperative principle, two parties in the exchange of conversation should follow the four maxims in most cases, and provided the right amount of information which is truthful, relevant, as well as informative enough, and in a clear manner. Hearers also try to interpret what is said to them in this way. However, in actually, in order to meet certain communicative need, few people always speak as the demand of these maxims.There is no doubt that the Cooperative Principle can go some way towards explaining the generation of implicature. But Cooperative Principle does not account for the reason for the generation of implicature. For this, Leech has proposed an independent pragmatic principle, to function alongside the Cooperative Principle, which he calls the Politeness Principle.Politeness Principle includes several maxims, and each maxim has positive and negative sub-maxims.2.1 Tact MaximThe Tact Maxim is a oriented towards the hearer and has positive and negative sub-maxims. The speaker minimizes the cost to the listener or other and correspondingly maximizes the benefit to the other side.a) Minimize cost to other.b) Maximize benefit to other. 8Examples:1Answer the phone.2I want you to answer the phone.3Will you answer the phone?4Can you answer the phone?5Would you mind answering the phone?6Could you possibly answer the phone?9 Among the above sentences, there is a general increase in politeness from sentence 1 to sentence 6.By using a more and more indirect kind of illocution, we show more polite. I