Being Polite in Intercultural Communication: A Case Study of Self and Addressee References in Mandarin Chinese

The following research examines the politeness strategies manifested in the use of personal pronouns in intergenerational and intercultural conversations in Mandarin Chinese. Six one-hour conversations between Mandarin native speakers (NSs) and Australian Chinese language school students with different family backgrounds (Chinese heritage and non-Chinese) were analyzed. It is revealed that the first and second pronoun variations in Mandarin Chinese are integral to the speakers’ perception of politeness in relation to the positioning of their conversational partners. Taking a discursive approach that prioritizes an interlocutor’s politeness acts, it was found that the speaker’s insider/outsider positioning of one another constitutes an important basis in evaluating the discourse context, lest they should be perceived as impolite in an intercultural interaction. The findings suggest a close relationship between Mandarin NSs’ perception of social distance with the interlocutors and their continuous implementation of the rite of politeness in intercultural communication.