Cover not available
Article published In:
Pragmatics and Society
Vol. 13:4 (2022) ► pp.625–643

The performance and relational role of toast intervention in Chinese dining contexts

| Nanjing University
| Nanjing University

This study explores the performance and relational role of toast intervention in Chinese dining contexts. The analysis of both interactional data and post-event interview data indicates that the detection of moral transgression and moral identification may outweigh the power relationship and social distance in the interactional practice, and that toast intervention, by default, is relationally constructive even in seemingly conflictive situations. As a complement to previous research on ritual communication, such as countering the heckler and bystander intervention which focus on genuine aggression, this study sheds light on the ritual act of toast intervention as ‘mock intervention’, which is a form of ‘mock moral aggression’ similar to ritual teasing. Thus, this study reveals the greater significance of moral identification compared to other contextual factors, and its role in explaining the relational consequences of toast intervention in Chinese dining contexts.

Keywords: ritual, ‘mock intervention’, moral identification, toast, toast intervention, Chinese dining context
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Toast intervention as a form of ‘Mock moral aggression’
  • 3.Methodology
  • 4.Detection of moral transgression as a trigger of toast intervention
  • 5.Relational consequences of toast intervention
  • 6.Discussion
  • 7.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 4 November 2022
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ps.19047.li
References
Bax, Marcel
1999 “Ritual levelling: The balance between the eristic and contractual motive in hostile verbal encounters in Medieval romance and early modern drama.” In Historical Dialogue Analysis, ed. by Andreas Jucker, Gerd Fritz, and Franz Lebsanft, 35–80. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2010 “Epistolary presentation rituals: Face-work, politeness, and ritual display in early-modern Dutch letter writing.” In Historical (Im)Politeness, ed. by Jonathan Culpeper and Dániel Z. Kádár, 37–86. Bern: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Chao, Yuen-ren
1956 “Chinese terms of address.” Language 32(1): 217–241. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Chen, Xinren
2019a ““Family-culture” and Chinese politeness: An emancipatory pragmatic account.” Acta Linguistica Academica 66(2): 1–20. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2019b “You’re a nuisance! Patch-up jocular abuse in Chinese fiction”. Journal of Pragmatics 1391: 52–63. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Collins, Randall
2004 Interaction Ritual Chains. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dai, Sheng
2010 The Book of Rites. Zhengzhou: Zhongzhou Classics Publishing House.Google Scholar
Du, Juan
2019 The Alcohol Culture of China. Beijing: Current Affairs Press.Google Scholar
Goffman, Erving
1955 “On face-work: An analysis of ritual elements in social interaction.” Psychiatry 18(3): 213–231. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1967 Interaction Ritual: Essays on Face-to-Face Behavior. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday.Google Scholar
1979 “Footing.” Semiotica 25(1): 1–29. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1981 Forms of Talk. Philadelphia: The University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Grabenhorst, Fabian, Edmund T. Rolls, and Benjamin A. Parris
2008 “From affective value to decision-making in the prefrontal cortex.” European Journal of Neuroscience 281: 1930–1939. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gu, Yueguo
1990 “Politeness phenomenon in modern Chinese.” Journal of Pragmatics 141: 237–257. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hu, Xiaowei
2011 The Chinese Alcohol Culture. Beijing: China International Broadcast Press.Google Scholar
Ide, Risako
1998 “ ‘Sorry for your kindness’: Japanese interactional ritual in public discourse.” Journal of Pragmatics 291: 509–529. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Jiang, Yanfeng
2006 The Study of Chinese Alcohol Culture. Changsha: Hunan Normal University Press.Google Scholar
Kádár, Dániel Z.
2012 “Relational ritual.” In The Handbook of Pragmatics, ed. by Jef Verschueren and Jan-Ola Östman, 1–48. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2013 Relational Rituals and Communication: Ritual Interaction in Groups. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2014 “Heckling: A mimetic-interpersonal perspective.” Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict 2(1): 1–35. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2017 Politeness, Impoliteness and Ritual: Maintaining the Moral Order in Interpersonal Interaction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kecskes, Istvan
2016 Situation-bound utterances in Chinese. East Asian Pragmatics 1 (1): 107–126. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Koutlaki, Sofia A.
2002 “Offers and expressions of thanks as face enhancing acts: Tæ’arof in Persian.” Journal of Pragmatics 341: 1733–1756. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kramer, Roderick M., and David M. Messick
1998 “Getting by with a little help from our enemies: Collective paranoia and its role in intergroup relations.” In Intergroup Cognition and Intergroup Behaviour, ed. by Constantine Sedikides, John Schopler, and Chester A. Insko, 233–256. Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Ma, Meihui
2013 The History of Chinese Civilization: The Volume of Alcohol Culture. Beijing: Beijing University of Technology Press.Google Scholar
Meng, Ke
2008 Meng Zi (‘Master Xun’). Guangzhou: Flower City Publishing House.Google Scholar
Nunner-Winkler, Gertrud, and Beate Sodian
1988 “Children’s understanding of moral emotions.” Child Development 59(5): 1323–1338. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pan, Yuling, and Daniel Z. Kádár
2011 Politeness in Historical and Contemporary Chinese. London: Continuum.Google Scholar
Ren, Juanjuan, and Xinren Chen
2019 “Kinship term generalization as a cultural pragmatic strategy among Chinese graduate students.” Pragmatics and Society 10(4): 613–638. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rubin, Nissan, Carmella Shimilovitz, and Meira Weiss
1993 “From fat to thin: Informal rites affirming identity change.” Symbolic Interaction 16(1): 1–17. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Spencer-Oatey, Helen & Dániel Kádár
2016 The bases of (im)politeness evaluations: Culture, the moral order and the East-West debate. East Asian Pragmatics 1 (1), 73–106. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sun, Jiazhou, and Liqing Ma
2019 The Study of History and Culture of Alcohol. Beijing: Social Sciences Academic Press.Google Scholar
Tang, Kang, and Jixiang Liu
2010 The Alcohol Culture in China. Beijing: China Travel & Tourism Press.Google Scholar
Turner, Victor
1969 The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure. New Brunswick and London: Transactions.Google Scholar
Wang, Ludi
2008 The Appreciation of Chinese Alcohol Culture. Jinan: Shandong University Press.Google Scholar
Wang, Saishi
2010 The History of Alcohol in China. Jinan: Shangdong University Press.Google Scholar
Wang, Shaoliang
2009 The Review of Ancient Chinese Alcohol Culture. Harbin: Heilongjiang People’s Publishing House.Google Scholar
Wang, Yongjun
2007 The Story of Alcohol in China. Beijing: China Three Gorges Publishing House.Google Scholar
Xiao, Jiacheng
2007 The Alcohol Culture of the Chinese Nation. Beijing: Hualing Publishing House.Google Scholar
Xun, Kuang
2008 Xun Zi. Kaifeng: Henan University Press.Google Scholar
Zhou, Fengwu
1986 The Study of the Dunhuang Version of Family Instructions from Great Grandfather. Taipei: Ming Wen Book Co.Google Scholar