An Analysis of Speech Acts in Teahouse from the Perspective of Politeness Principle

Speech acts are acts performed by means of language, which are tightly associated with the Politeness Principle in some situations. Politeness Principle is mainly reflected in the social interaction, and the stage play Teahouse shows the life of Beijing's "nobodies" completely in the form of dialogue, whose language style has strong unique Chinese characteristics. So Teahouse is a good choice for the analysis of Politeness Principle. From the perspective of politeness principle, this paper will analyze the speech acts between the characters in Teahouse in order to find their conversational meanings deeply, deepen the understanding of the essence of communication, and help people finish successful social communication.