臺灣常用道歉語使用及嚴重程度認知探討

Abstract

道歉屬於言語行為的一環，亦是維護雙方「面子」及互動和諧不可或缺的要素。華語現有道歉相關研究中，多是以語用角度探討母語者的道歉策略使用，少有以社會語言學角度探究在不同社會性因素下，道歉語的使用情形。有鑑於此，本研究以華語常見道歉語：「對不起」、「抱歉」、「不好意思」為例，首先藉由前人文獻及語料庫分析其語義內涵，並接著調查在「性別」、「親密程度」、「社會地位」、「冒犯程度」、「冒犯類別」等因素影響下，母語者的道歉語使用及事件嚴重程度認知情形。 筆者以18-25歲的臺灣大學學生為調查對象，一共蒐集到90筆問卷資料並以統計軟體進行量化分析。結果顯示：道歉語使用及嚴重程度認知均會受到親密度、社會地位、冒犯程度及冒犯類別的影響，且整體而言無性別差異。而就細部觀察個別社會性因素下的統計結果，可發現在低度冒犯情境中，男性較女性對嚴重程度的認知較高。關於道歉語使用與嚴重程度的相關性，結果指出：「對不起」最常使用於嚴重程度最高的情境；「抱歉」最常使用於嚴重程度一般或偏高的情境；「不好意思」則最常使用於嚴重程度一般或偏低的情境，此結果與語義分析中，「對不起」的歉意及禮貌程度最高、「抱歉」次之、「不好意思」最低的結果相互呼應。 在質化分析方面，筆者透過對比中西方對「禮貌」概念的差異，以及臺灣人使用道歉語的習慣，歸納出華人與臺灣人在道歉情境中的文化特點：例如將道歉行為視為真誠禮貌的展現，以及臺人以「不好意思」來展現體貼友善的禮貌文化。 最後，本論文以研究結果為基礎，設計了幫助學習者區別及使用華語道歉語的教材。教材透過呈現「對不起」、「抱歉」、「不好意思」三者的差異，以及多元情境的例句，讓學習者能更清楚了解不同道歉語的適用語境及使用時機。

As a part of the speech act, an apology is an important element to maintain the 'face' of both speakers and hearers. Most of the existing researches on apology in Chinese have explored the usage of apology strategies by native speakers from a pragmatic perspective, while few have explored the usage of apology from a sociolinguistic perspective under different social factors. In view of this, this study first analyzes the semantic meanings of Chinese apology phrases: 'duì bù qǐ', 'bào qiàn', 'bù hǎo yì si', and then investigates native speakers’ usage and severity degree recognition under factors 'gender', 'intimacy', 'social status', 'degree of offense', and 'category of offense'. A total of 90 questionnaires were collected and analyzed with SPSS software. The results show that apology usage and severity degree are affected by “intimacy”, “social status”, “degree of offense”, and “category of offense”, and there is no gender difference overall. The results of individual social factors show that men have a higher perception of severity than women in the low-degree offense situation. And lastly, the results show that 'duì bù qǐ' has the highest degree of regret and politeness, and is most often used in the highest severity situation, followed by 'bào qiàn', and then 'bù hǎo yì si'. By analyzing the concepts of “politeness” in Chinese culture and the use of “bù hǎo yì si” in Taiwan, this thesis summarizes Chinese’ apology characteristics and Taiwanese’ apologetic customs: for example, Chinese think “apology” is a demonstration of sincerity and politeness, and Taiwanese use “bù hǎo yì si” to show their kindness and politeness. Finally, this paper designs a textbook to help learners distinguish the usage of Chinese apology phrases. By presenting the examples in various situations to show their differences of them, the textbook will help learners understand the usage of different apologies more clearly.