Gender Difference in Chinese Request Patterns
汉语“请求”中的性别差异
Wei Hong 洪玮

Abstract 摘要
Vast literature on gender differences has shown that women are more polite generally than men in language. Men speak more directly or "bald on record" (Lakoff 1973, Brown and Levinson 1987). It has also been claimed that those differences are universal. By conducting a questionnaire survey, this paper presents the results of a statistical analysis (T-test) on gender differences in request pattern in Chinese. This study showed that gender differences in request patterns are closely related to social relations and request situations. The data shows that females are more polite in making requests than males in the relationships of higher-ranking to lower-ranking and equal-familiar. In the lower-ranking to higher-ranking relation, men are more polite than women by using compliments as lexical modifications to enhance the effectiveness of their requests.

大量的学术研究表明，女性在语言表达上通常要比男性礼貌。Lakoff 1973 和Brown/ Levinson 1987也提出，男性语言较女性语言更缺少修饰，他们往往趋向直接的表达方法。语言学家认为，这种差异是全球共有的。本论文通过一项问卷调查，以“T-test”统计分析了汉语“请求”表达中的性别差异。文章发现，“请求”中的性别差异与请求者的社会关系和请求环境有紧密的联系。问卷数据表明，在上对下和同等社会关系中，女性的请求语言比男性礼貌，而在下对上的关系中，以病人请医生开药方为例，男性则比女性更为礼貌，他们使用了恭维语言以提高其请求的礼貌程度和有效性。本论文从汉语和汉文化的角度证实了女性语言比男性语言礼貌的论点，并以“请求”为例，发现了中国男性语言在特定的语境下比女性语言礼貌的现象。

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