臺灣華語回應感謝之語用策略及教學建議

Abstract

回應感謝行為屬貫穿人生的普遍現象，本研究欲探究臺灣華語母語者使用現況並分析其背後意涵，藉此反思華語教學，對現行教材的課文與釋義編排做出相應修正。根據自然溝通語料、口語語料庫及問卷調查，臺灣華語母語者共使用四種回應感謝策略，分別為降值策略、回謝策略、承認策略與零形式策略，其下涵蓋九種表現形式，包含無言語形式亦無肢體語言形式的「零形式」，與「不用客氣」、「不客氣」、「哪裡」、「不會」、「沒事」、「謝謝」、「嗯」及「好」。本研究發現，英語回應感謝行為的策略分類無法與漢語一對一對應，而漢語對回應感謝表現形式的詮釋也不足以支持此次對臺灣華語的調查結果。為更好地理解臺灣華語母語者對回應感謝表現形式的選用情形，本研究先從量化的角度分析六種社會因素對回應感謝行為的影響，再從質化的角度分析三個高頻表現形式——「謝謝」、「不會」與「不客氣」，指出漢語的構詞規律及語境如何左右臺灣華語母語者對表現形式的判讀，使其於不同的社會因素下偏好不同的表現形式。本研究結果顯示：第一，臺灣華語母語者認為「不客氣」為長輩對晚輩適用（𝑝< .001），代表發話者對受話者態度的拒絕；第二，臺灣華語母語者認為「不會」為平輩之間或晚輩對長輩使用（𝑝 < .001），代表發話者否定潛在麻煩存在的可能性，同時間接否定受話者的負罪感；第三，臺灣華語母語者認為「謝謝」適用於對話參與者之間存在互惠關係時（𝑝 < .001）；第四，華語教材簡化了回應感謝行為的表現形式，難以反映臺灣社會的現況與價值體系，易誤導學習者認為單一回應感謝表現形式可無差別使用。本研究重新詮釋三大高頻表現形式之意涵，以提供補充說明。The speech act of thanks response is a common phenomenon throughout human life. The purpose of this study is to investigate the current use of thanks responses in Taiwanese Mandarin and analyze its meaning, so as to reflect on Mandarin teaching and make corresponding suggestions concerning the arrangement of Mandarin teaching materials. The current study utilizes natural communication, spoken corpus and questionnaire to collect data, and four thanks response strategies are observed, namely, Minimizing the Favour, Returning Thanks, Acknowledging the Thanks and Zero Sign. The strategies are further divided into nine realizations, including “zero sign,” which does not contain verbal speech nor body language, “búyòng kèqì” (no need to stand on formalities), “búkèqì” (no need to be polite), “nǎlǐ” (not a problem), “búhuì” (no), “méishì” (nothing), “xièxie” (thanks), “en” (hmm) and “hǎo” (okay).”A review of thanks response studies reveals that the categorization of this speech act in English does not fully align with that of Mandarin Chinese; nor is the interpretation of thanks response realizations in Mandarin Chinese sufficient to support the findings in Taiwanese Mandarin. In order to better understand the choice of thanks responses by native speakers of Taiwanese Mandarin, the present study conducts a dual-aspect analysis. On one hand, a quantitative analysis is applied to examine the influence six social factors has on responses to thanks. On the other hand, a qualitative analysis of three frequent-in-use realizations—“búkèqì,” “búhuì,” and “xièxie”—is applied by pointing out how Mandarin morphological principles and context affect Taiwanese Mandarin native speakers’ understanding towards the realizations, thus causing them to use different word forms under different social factors.Following the results of this study, several conclusions are drawn. Firstly, native speakers of Taiwanese Mandarin consider “búkèqì” more appropriate when elders are responding to youths (p<.001), representing the speaker’s rejection of the addressee’s attitude. On the contrary, “búhuì” is considered to be more appropriate among peers, or when youths are responding to elders (p<.001), demonstrating the speaker’s denial of the possibility of potential trouble, covertly denying the addressee’s debt. In addition, “xièxie” is widely applied when there is a reciprocal relationship between the interlocutors (p<.001). Lastly, it is found that Mandarin teaching materials simplify the realizations of responses to thanks. Their interpretations and text do not accurately reflect current Taiwanese societal values, easily misleading Mandarin learners to believe that a single realization of thanks response can be widely used without further consideration. The present study reinterprets the meaning of three aforementioned frequent-in-use realizations to offer pedagogical suggestions for the teaching of Taiwanese Mandarin.