Table of Contents

Foreword Sara Mills Acknowledgements 1. Introduction 2. The Myth of Chinese Politeness: Problems, Framework, Data 3. Politeness in Historical China 4. Politeness in Contemporary China 5. The Transitional Period: What Happened to Honorifics? 6. Deconstructing Chinese Politeness Appendix I: Chronological List of Chinese Dynasties Appendix II: Simplified Chinese Transcript of the Texts Studied Appendix III: Newsmaker Labeling in People's Daily and Guangzhou Daily Appendix IV: Fonts in People's Daily and Guangzhou Daily Appendix V: Font Size in People's Daily and Guangzhou Daily Bibliography Index of Names and Subjects Index of Chinese Expressions Studied

Promotional Information

Takes a comparative, diachronic perspective on Chinese politeness and its evolution up to the present day, linking diachronic and synchronic approaches.

About the Author

Yuling Pan is a sociolinguistic at the U.S. Census Bureau, where she directs multilingual research projects for survey research. Dániel Z. Kádár is a Research Fellow at the Research Institute for Linguistics, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Hungary. He is winner of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences Young Scholar Award 2010.

Reviews

This is an impressive book which is intended for both researchers in the Chinese language and also for non-Chinese scholars. There is a wealth of examples to illustrate the authors' argument and the book brings great insight into current and historical politeness, but it also forces readers to consider the way that status and deference play a role in politeness and impoliteness in other languages such as English.
*Professor Sara Mills, Sheffield Hallam University, UK *

In this pioneering study of changes in forms of politeness over time in the same "culture", Pan and Kádár contend that China's famed tradition of courtesy and deference now seem to exist only as ideologies.
* Suzanne Wong Scollon*

A fascinating journey through one of the most pervasive dimensions of human interaction, in a civilisation that continues to intrigue and provoke.
*Francesca Bargiela-Chiappini, University of Warwick, UK*

An impressive and enlightening book for both researchers interested in Chinese politeness and readers who wish to understand Chinese communicative norms and practices over time. It only helps that the authors’ clear and friendly style makes the book a delightful reading.
*Chinese Language and Discourse*

As a whole, the authors have been most courageous in attempting to demonstrate the changes that have evolved in politeness from historical China through the transitional period to the present era. Given the vast differences and complex issues involved, they have managed to give meaningful interpretations with regards to the similarities and differences between the two periods. For the reader, this volume is a most informative and thought-provoking journey through the history of politeness in Chinese given the political and social changes that have taken place in the country. Although it would not be impossible to use this volume to make generalisations of Chinese politeness for Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore, by and large, its value will be as an important reference for future politeness research for these other varieties of Chinese.
*Journal of Historical Pragmatics*