Socio-cultural Factors in Analyzing the Pragmeme of Accommodation : A Case Study of the Official Online Eulogy Request System in Taiwan
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| Year of publication | 2017 |
| Type | Chapter of a book |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
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| Description | The paper reports an empirical study of the official online eulogy request system developed in Taiwan. Through a qualitative analysis of the request system, four extra-linguistic factors are identified as being crucial when analyzing the pragmeme of accommodation, including the affiliation and the job title of the mourner, the occupation of the deceased, the religion of the deceased, and the Taiwanese cultural practice of adopting an English nickname. The cultural meanings of the four variables are also discussed. It is argued that the Chinese concept of mianzi ‘face’ is a main force that not only historically led to the establishment of the request system but also fundamentally shaped the setup of the system. In addition, two linguistic factors are also found to be of relevance, including mode of communication (written) and length of expression (four characters). |