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Abstract： Pragmatic failures in inter—cultural communication have been very common phenomena and to a large extent are influencing smoothness and effectiveness of communication seriously. This paper focuses on pragmatic failures in different speech acts， and presents strategies to avoid pragmatic failures and provides the reference to the English teachers.
Key Words： pragmatic failure inter—cultura communication
1. Introduction
Levison （1983：376） notes that there is considerable room for intercultural misunderstanding. It is undoubted that both grammatical error and pragmatic failure may irritate or hinder communication. As Thomas （1983： 97） puts it， “ while grammatical error may reveal a speaker to be a less than proficient language—user， pragmatic failure reflects badly on him/her as a person.”
2. Pragmatic failure in different speech acts
2.1Addressing
The first thing for people to do when they meet is to address. The way is which people address one another usually depends on their age， sex， social group， and personal relationship. Each culture has its own address system with its own rules which need to be acquired if a person wants to communicate appropriately.
Example 1
One Sunday morning， an American went to her Chinese colleague’s house for a visit.
When she came in， she met with a warm greeting by her colleague’s daughter：
“Good morning， auntie！”
She was a little embarrassed and could say nothing but smile.
The young girl tried to show her politeness by addressing the foreigner ‘auntie’. Of course she did not realize that a pragmatic failure arose in addressing. In order to show friendliness and familiarity， Chinese people tend to use many intimate words and expressions to maintain a social relationship. That is the reason why Chinese children are trained to address people of different age as “grandpa”， “grandma”， “auntie”， “uncle”， “brother” or “sister”. To Americans， only family members can be called in this way.
2.2Greeting
In English， accompanied with greetings is usually a brief period of small talk about neutral topic such as the weather， such as： “Lovely weather isn’t it？” before opening the topic of conversation. In China， Chinese people tend to greet acquaintances with “Have you had your dinner？” if you greet the native speakers of English this way， it will certainly cause pragmatic failure and they might think you are inviting him to dinner. In fact， it is a Chinese way of greeting when people meet. Chinese people are inclined to greet people with “Hi， where are you heading for？” but native speakers of English are quite sensitive to such questions， they regard as an invasion of westerners’ privacy. 2.3Compliments
As to responding to compliments， Chinese speakers frequently responded to compliments with rejection followed by self—denigration， while “thank you” is the most frequent response among Americans. It was found that the Americans are primarily motivated by Leech’s Agreement Maxim （compliment acceptance） while the Chinese is motivated by his Modesty Maxim （compliment rejection and self—denigration）. This difference appears to be related to differences of social values between the two cultures， particularly in their respective beliefs regarding what constitutes self—image， which is likely to cause pragmatic failure to people from different cultures.
3.Strategies to avoid pragmatic failures
In order to avoid pragmatic failure， the first step is to raise pragmatic awareness of both learners and teachers. The pragmatic awareness can be raised form two perspectives. On one hand， teachers should lay emphasis on pragmatic competence and teachers should lay emphasis on pragmatic competence and teach in context. On the other hand， learners should learn to speculate or understand an utterance with ambiguous meaning with the help of context， or find out the implicature of an utterance by analyzing the pragmatic strategies employed.
4.Conclusion
This paper mainly investigates the pragmatic failure in different speech acts and explores the differences in address， greeting， farewell， compliment and request. And then give some suggestions on avoiding pragmatic failure. In fact， only when we improve not only linguistic competence but also pragmatic competence， can we avoid pragmatic failures and make successful intercultural communication.
Reference
Leech， G.N. （1983）. Principles of pragmatics. New York： Longman Group Limited.
顾曰国 （Gu， Yueguo）. （1992）. 礼貌、语用与文化. 北京：外语教学与研究出版社.
何兆熊.2000.新编语用学概要.上海：上海外语教育出版社
何自然（He， Ziran）， 陈新仁（Chen， Xinren）. （2004）. 当代语用学. 北京： 外语教学与研究出社.
Key Words： pragmatic failure inter—cultura communication
1. Introduction
Levison （1983：376） notes that there is considerable room for intercultural misunderstanding. It is undoubted that both grammatical error and pragmatic failure may irritate or hinder communication. As Thomas （1983： 97） puts it， “ while grammatical error may reveal a speaker to be a less than proficient language—user， pragmatic failure reflects badly on him/her as a person.”
2. Pragmatic failure in different speech acts
2.1Addressing
The first thing for people to do when they meet is to address. The way is which people address one another usually depends on their age， sex， social group， and personal relationship. Each culture has its own address system with its own rules which need to be acquired if a person wants to communicate appropriately.
Example 1
One Sunday morning， an American went to her Chinese colleague’s house for a visit.
When she came in， she met with a warm greeting by her colleague’s daughter：
“Good morning， auntie！”
She was a little embarrassed and could say nothing but smile.
The young girl tried to show her politeness by addressing the foreigner ‘auntie’. Of course she did not realize that a pragmatic failure arose in addressing. In order to show friendliness and familiarity， Chinese people tend to use many intimate words and expressions to maintain a social relationship. That is the reason why Chinese children are trained to address people of different age as “grandpa”， “grandma”， “auntie”， “uncle”， “brother” or “sister”. To Americans， only family members can be called in this way.
2.2Greeting
In English， accompanied with greetings is usually a brief period of small talk about neutral topic such as the weather， such as： “Lovely weather isn’t it？” before opening the topic of conversation. In China， Chinese people tend to greet acquaintances with “Have you had your dinner？” if you greet the native speakers of English this way， it will certainly cause pragmatic failure and they might think you are inviting him to dinner. In fact， it is a Chinese way of greeting when people meet. Chinese people are inclined to greet people with “Hi， where are you heading for？” but native speakers of English are quite sensitive to such questions， they regard as an invasion of westerners’ privacy. 2.3Compliments
As to responding to compliments， Chinese speakers frequently responded to compliments with rejection followed by self—denigration， while “thank you” is the most frequent response among Americans. It was found that the Americans are primarily motivated by Leech’s Agreement Maxim （compliment acceptance） while the Chinese is motivated by his Modesty Maxim （compliment rejection and self—denigration）. This difference appears to be related to differences of social values between the two cultures， particularly in their respective beliefs regarding what constitutes self—image， which is likely to cause pragmatic failure to people from different cultures.
3.Strategies to avoid pragmatic failures
In order to avoid pragmatic failure， the first step is to raise pragmatic awareness of both learners and teachers. The pragmatic awareness can be raised form two perspectives. On one hand， teachers should lay emphasis on pragmatic competence and teachers should lay emphasis on pragmatic competence and teach in context. On the other hand， learners should learn to speculate or understand an utterance with ambiguous meaning with the help of context， or find out the implicature of an utterance by analyzing the pragmatic strategies employed.
4.Conclusion
This paper mainly investigates the pragmatic failure in different speech acts and explores the differences in address， greeting， farewell， compliment and request. And then give some suggestions on avoiding pragmatic failure. In fact， only when we improve not only linguistic competence but also pragmatic competence， can we avoid pragmatic failures and make successful intercultural communication.
Reference
Leech， G.N. （1983）. Principles of pragmatics. New York： Longman Group Limited.
顾曰国 （Gu， Yueguo）. （1992）. 礼貌、语用与文化. 北京：外语教学与研究出版社.
何兆熊.2000.新编语用学概要.上海：上海外语教育出版社
何自然（He， Ziran）， 陈新仁（Chen， Xinren）. （2004）. 当代语用学. 北京： 外语教学与研究出社.