Abstract: As a kind of polite speech, sympathy discourses have the pragmatic function of enhancing rapport relationship(García, 2012). Based on García’s theory on sympathy discourses,  relational face concept by Spencer-Oatey(2002) and politeness maxims by GU Yueguo(1992), the article analyzes the sympathy discourses from Dream of the Red Chamber to show the discourses’ face-saving process, so as to explore their rapport-constructing mechanism. The article finds that in communication, sympathy discourses provide the addressees with the three association rights of interactional association/dissociation, affective association/dissociation and respect through three sympathetical strategies, which include involvement (the principle that people should have appropriate amounts and types of “activity” involvement with others), empathy (the belief that people should share appropriate concerns, feelings and interests with others) and respect (the belief that people should show appropriate amounts of respectfulness for others). Association rights act as the “access” to the addressees’ overall face. Through association rights, the addressees’ identity face is firstly enhanced and their behavioral expectations are satisfied. As a result of the process, the addressees’ two face elements at individual level-equality rights and quality face, and further their face as a whole are maintained so that their face sensitivity and interactional wants are satisfied in the end. Studying the sympathy discourses in Chinese, the article argues that, restricted by Chinese culture and its politeness maxims, the rapport-constructing process of the sympathy discourses and the communicative strategies in it show some Chinese cultural characteristics as well as the common ones.

Keywords: sympathy discourses; association rights; rapport relationship construction; Chinese cultural characteristics; Dream of the Red Chamber

摘要： 作为一种礼貌言语，同情话语具有增强和谐关系的语用功能。本文探索同情话语的和谐关系建构机制，运用同情话语理论、关系面子观和顾曰国的礼貌准则作为理论框架，通过分析选自《红楼梦》的同情话语语料，论证了同情话语的面子维护过程。在交际过程中，同情话语通过参与、移情和尊重3种策略来帮助受话人获得相应的3种交际权利，即参与权、情感权和尊重权，而交际权利又从不同方面增强了受话人的公平权利、身份面子和素质面子，从而使其整体面子和权利得到维护。本文分析汉语中的同情话语，认为在建构和谐关系时，受到中国文化和汉语言礼貌准则的制约，其建构过程和交际策略除了通用特征以外，还会呈现出某些特定汉语言文化特色。

关键词: 同情话语, 交际权利, 和谐关系建构, 文化特征, 《红楼梦》