A Study on The Usage and The Politeness Strategy of Negative Imperative Sentence in Modern Chinese

This study investigates the usage patterns and politeness strategies of negative imperative sentences(否定祈使句) in Modern Chinese. While previous research has largely focused on affirmative imperatives and their relation to politeness, studies on negative imperatives remain scarce. To address this gap, the present research analyzes corpus data from the film 『女人的天空』 and the Chinese language textbook series 『汉语口语』. The findings reveal that negative imperatives are used far less frequently than affirmative ones, with prohibitive forms(禁止句) such as ‘不能’ mainly expressing external constraints, and dissuasive forms(劝阻句) such as ‘別’ reflecting the speaker’s subjective stance. Statistical results show a ratio of approximately 3:7 between prohibitives and dissuasives, indicating that Chinese native speakers tend to prefer dissuasive expressions that mitigate imposition and preserve the hearer’s face. Drawing on Brown and Levinson’s(1987) politeness theory, the study further demonstrates that direct strategies(on-record) rely on adjusting the strength of prohibition or incorporating polite markers like ‘请’, while indirect strategies(off-record) employ declaratives, interrogatives, or exclamatives to soften imposition. From a pedagogical perspective, the study highlights the limited representation of negative imperatives in current teaching materials and suggests the need for pragmatic-oriented instructional approaches, such as situational simulations, to enhance learners’ communicative competence. This research contributes to both theoretical studies of Chinese imperatives and the practical improvement of Chinese language education.