“Please Don’t Come Back”: A Pragmatic Study of Chinese Netizens’ Complaints Under Pandemic of COVID-19

Abstract

This article aims to analyze Chinese netizens’ speech act of complaints under pandemic of COVID-19 by Searl’s felicity condition of speech act (1969) and discuss with politeness theories. Researchers collected data from the comment area of a short video on Douyin in September 2021. The result shows that there are 11 strategies employed to complain about the returnees, namely Suggestion, Statement, Order, Irony, Expectation, Expressing negative emotions, Request, Criticism, Asking for reasons, Calling for empathy, and Exclaiming strategies according to the order of most to least. In uneasy situations, Chinese speakers still try to employ polite strategies to express their dissatisfaction, however, they may threaten listeners’ “face” inevitably.