Spoken BNC2014中please的使用:惯例与教学启示

doi:10.3969/j.issn.1674-8921.2025.04.005

摘要/Abstract

摘要：

Please作为表达请求的重要英语日常用语,常被中国学生忽视或误用。本着母语者的真实使用情况应当作为二语教学参考依据的理念,本研究利用Spoken BNC2014语料库,通过log-likelihood、Spearman相关分析和逻辑回归分析,探索性别、年龄和社会阶层等语言外部因素对英国英语母语者please使用频率、句型和句内位置选择的影响。结果发现,在语内,母语者使用疑问句更多搭配句末please,祈使句则搭配句首please;在语外,性别上女性please使用频率更高,而男性更多将please用在祈使句句首,年龄上未成年使用please最多,且偏好在请求中使用please疑问句,社会阶层上中层中产阶层使用please最多。本研究还基于真实语料please的使用位置选择与句型搭配的特点,为please的显性与隐性教学提出方案设计,对中国学生使用英语请求语的能力提升有一定指导意义。

关键词: please, 请求言语行为, 语用失误, BNC, 英语教学

Abstract:

As an important daily word to express requests and politeness, please is often ignored or improperly used by Chinese students due to cultural differences. Based on the idea that the actual use of please by native speakers should be taken as a reference in second language pedagogy, this study analyses data from the Spoken BNC2014. By statistical means including log-likelihood, Spearman correlation and logistic regression, this study explores the effects of gender, age and social class on the frequency of please usage, as well as British English speakers’ choice of sentence type and intra-sentence position. Results show that, intralinguistically, interrogative sentences tend to be paired with sentence-final please; while extralinguistically, females use please more frequently, while males tend to use please in the initial position of imperative sentences; teenagers use please most frequently and prefer to apply interrogative sentences; middle-class speakers use please more frequently than other classes. This study further elicits native English speakers’ choices of please sentential position and sentence type in real life, and proposes a teaching scheme of please explicit and implicit instruction, which shows significance in Chinese students’ pragmatic competence improvement in terms of English request.

Key words: please, request speech act, pragmatic failure, BNC, English pedagogy

中图分类号:

H030

张昱佳, 乐明. Spoken BNC2014中please的使用:惯例与教学启示[J]. 当代外语研究, 2025, 25(4): 54-67.

ZHANG Yujia, YUE Ming. Usage of Please in Spoken BNC2014: Regularities and Pedagogical Implications[J]. Contemporary Foreign Languages Studies, 2025, 25(4): 54-67.

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参考文献 41

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	祈使句	疑问句
句首please	( please collect your luggage.)	( please may I have an ice-cream?)
句中please	-	(May I please have a sip of your milk?)
句末please	(Have some fruit please.)	(Can you repeat that in English please?)

变量	Please使用频率(每百万词)
性别
Female	250.69
Male	234.54
年龄
0~18	1201.45
19~39	519.21
40~59	452.81
60+	521.96
社会阶层(剔除未成年)
上层中产阶层	149.85
中层中产阶层	702.21
下层阶层	515.33

		年龄	性别	社会阶层	句内位置	句型
年龄	相关系数	1	-0.043	0.329	0.046	0.046
年龄	p值		0.451	0.000	0.423	0.422
性别	相关系数	-0.043	1	-0.044	0.001	-0.058
性别	p值	0.451		0.444	0.990	0.315
社会阶层	相关系数	0.329	-0.044	1	0.042	-0.133
社会阶层	p值	0.000	0.444		0.461	0.020
句内位置	相关系数	0.046	0.001	0.042	1	-0.390
句内位置	p值	0.423	0.990	0.461		0.000
句型	相关系数	0.046	-0.058	-0.133	-0.390	1
句型	p值	0.422	0.315	0.020	0.000

		年龄	性别	社会阶层	句内位置	句型
年龄	相关系数	1	-0.115	-0.098	-0.061	-0.031
年龄	p值		0.063	0.114	0.326	0.619
性别	相关系数	-0.115	1	-0.017	0.027	-0.069
性别	p值	0.063		0.790	0.660	0.264
社会阶层	相关系数	-0.098	-0.017	1	0.11	-0.114
社会阶层	p值	0.114	0.790		0.077	0.065
句内位置	相关系数	-0.061	0.027	0.11	1	-0.428
句内位置	p值	0.326	0.660	0.077		0.000
句型	相关系数	-0.031	-0.069	-0.114	-0.428	1
句型	p值	0.619	0.264	0.065	0.000

	B值	p值
性别(男性)	0.437	0.140
年龄(未成年)	-1.262	0.003
please句内位置		0.000
please句内位置(句首)	2.398	0.000
please句内位置(句中)	-20.649	0.998
年龄*please句内位置		0.850
年龄*性别	-0.339	0.647
性别*please句内位置		0.001
性别(男性) by please句内位置(句首)	2.331	0.000
性别(男性) by please句内位置(句中)	-21.032	0.999
年龄性别please句内位置		0.306
截距	-0.731	0.000