Politeness in making requests and responses in computer-mediated communication among chinese college students

Abstract

This study aims to explore the politeness strategies used in making requests and responses in computer-mediated communication (CMC) among Chinese college students and the applicability of discursive approach to such analysis. Following the steps of previous studies using discursive approach, some extracts of chat history on WeChat concerning requests and responses are selected and showed to the interlocutors. Then the interlocutors were asked to judge the conversations from the perspective of politeness. By analyzing the data, this study found that various strategies were used in order to achieve politeness in CMC, which can be associated with Brown and Levinson’s theory of politeness. This study also found that discursive approach can be applied in analyzing politeness in CMC well though it differs from face-to-face communication in some ways.