3.1.1 Subjects
Forty-three Taiwanese participants who are Chinese native speakers were recruited, including 22 males and 21 females in the age range of 18 to 36 years old.
Part of the subjects were college students at a northern university in Taiwan; the others were office workers in Taipei. According to the previous relevant research, the variables of age, and gender may have potential impact on the performances of threatening; therefore, the present study will examine its correspondence with the aim of Chinese language usage in Taiwan.
Table 3.1 Subjects for the pre-test
Gender (N) Age
Male (22) 18 – 36
Female (21)
3.1.2 Instruments
In order to obtain the profile of threatening acts, the quantitative research of Discourse Completion Test (DCT) was applied. The pilot study was designed to investigate how Taiwanese subjects produce Chinese sentences under threatening circumstances in 18 scenarios of varying social power and distance.
Table 3.2 The six situations signifying the combinations of social power and social distance variables
Situation Variables Description
1 +distance, high to low The speaker does not know the hearer and the speaker is high in status.
2 -distance, high to low The speaker knows the hearer and the speaker is higher in status.
3 +distance, equal to equal The speaker does not know the hearer and the speaker is equal in status.
4 -distance, equal to equal The speaker knows the hearer and the speaker is equal in status.
5 +distance, low to high The speaker does not know the hearer and the speaker is lower in status.
6 -distance, low to high The speaker knows the hearer and the speaker is lower in status.
The six situations listed in Table 3.2 cover [+distance, high to low], [-distance, high to low], [+distance, low to high] and [-distance, low to high], [+distance, equal to equal] and [-distance, equal to equal]. For the purpose of increasing the validity, the
literature showed that threatening acts are frequently accompanied by conflicts, the eighteen scenarios are constructed of bust-up contexts as follows:
Scenario 1: waimian heng leng xiaohai chumen mei chuan waitao ni yao ta chuanhao zai chumen
‘It is cold outside, your child wants to go out without wearing a jacket, and you try to tell him to wear one before going out.’
Ni: ni chuan zheyang hui leng waitao chuanhao zai chumen
‘You: You’ll be cold if you go out dressed like that, put on a jacket before you go out.’
Xiaohai: ni buyao guan la
‘Child: Don’t tell me what to do.’
Ni：＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿
‘You: ____________________________________________________________’
ruguo ni shi mama ni hui dui xiaohai shuo shenme
‘If you were the mother, what would you say to the child?’
The scenarios in the pilot study were randomly geared to test subjects’ reactions to the presumed daily settings. See Table 3.3.
Table 3.3 Arrangement of scenarios in the pilot study
Scenario Topic Setting Interlocutor Social Power
Social Distance S1 Reminder Home Mom vs. child H to L Intimate
S2 Work Office Supervisor vs.
Subordinate H to L Acquainted
S3 Drunk
Driver Street Policeman vs.
Drunk Driver H to L Strange S4 Tidying Up Bedroom Child vs. Mom L to H Intimate S5 Term Paper School Student vs.
Teacher
L to H Acquainted S6 Injection Hospital Patient vs.
Nurse
L to H Strange S7 Late Arrival Outside Boyfriend vs.
Girlfriend
Line Night Market Customer vs.
Customer Equal Strange
S14 Bonus Office Subordinate vs.
Supervisor L to H Acquainted S15 Accusation Law Court Citizen vs.
Judge L to H Strange
S16 Dinner Home Wife vs.
Husband Equal Intimate S17 Noise Neighborhood Neighbor vs.
Neighbor
Equal Acquainted S18 Parking Parking Space Stranger vs.
Stranger
Equal Strange
3.1.3 Results of pre-test
The preliminary results show that participants infrequently adopt the strategies of
phenomenon could be ascribed to the following practical reasons. Firstly, culturally speaking, Asians avoid face-threatening acts, let alone threatening remarks. Secondly, low frequency of conflicts in real life drives participants to respond to certain
hypothetical scenarios with imagination, and in fact the strategies of threat are rarely employed verbally and non-verbally (e.g., gestures) in the interaction. Last, varied individual backgrounds account for different strategies in threatening contexts.
Despite the fact that the authentic utterances were intellectually demanding to elicit from these contexts on the Google form, valuable findings were yielded for the subsequent formal test.
The results of tentative study suggest that the variables of social power and social distance affect the participants’ performances in conflict. The subtle differences in utterances with intimates of varying social status are particularly obvious. When the threatenable (the situation which incurs the threatening act) involves intimate relationships of unequal social status, the tendency of specific strategies can be observed. In the case between a parent and a child for example, there is a greater likelihood that a parent goes on record baldly, but different from typical threatening, the intention is concern-oriented, irrelevant to interest. However, when the
threatenable involves intimate relationships of equal status, that is, the conflict is between a boyfriend and a girlfriend, or a wife and a husband, the DCT respondents
would choose a lenient answer. On the other hand, when the threatenable involves acquaintances and strangers with unequal social power, the strategies of threat are salient in conflict, e.g. public power, and similarly, the strategies of threat are not common among interlocutors of equal social status. Thus, the strategies that intimates and acquaintances may adopt in threatening circumstances will be further explored.
Moreover, following the definition of threatening given in Chapter Two that threatening causes unfavorable consequences, the formal test will examine the performance with the variable of social power and discuss their differences between unilateral conflicts and mutual conflicts. Finally, given that previous research has found that gender in a decisive factor in distinguishing threatening strategies, it will also be thoroughly investigated in this study.