著者

加藤 典子

出版者

東京工芸大学

雑誌

東京工芸大学工学部紀要. 人文・社会編 (ISSN:03876055)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.23, no.2, pp.48-57, 2000

---

The purpose of this paper is to focus the concept of "face" regarded as an important concept that controls our daily communication and to clarify the difference of "face" in English. Chinese and Japanese. The reason why I take up this theme is that I am convinced that making the difference clear is indispensable for preventing, from happening, intercultural miscommunication. As a result of collecting each feature of "face" in English, Chinese and Japanese, in accordance with Brown and Levinson (1978, 1987) concerning English face, Mao (1994) . Chinese face, and Matsumoto (1988) and Ide (1989) . Japanese face, the following difference is clarified: ・ English face refers to two basic individual v,'ants composed of "positive face" (one's desire to be appreciated by others) and "negative face"(one's desire to be unimpeded by others). ・ Chinese face is closely Concerned with social or communal norms, that is, Chinese face is satisfied by acting and speaking in accordance with one's social norms and conventions. ・Japanese face is also characterized by community-oriented society, and satisfied by discerning the situation, one's status in their community and the relationship between interlocutors. As seen in this difference, English face is characterized by indlvidual wants while Chinese and Japanese face, the compliance with the community one belongs to. This difference between English face and Chinese and Japanese ones reflect on the diversity between western individual-oriented society and non-western community-oriented society. I hope this kind of study contributes to devising more elaborate and comprehensive linguistic theory and promoting smooth intercultural communication.