A Constructive Study of Politeness in Chinese and English Culture 英语毕业论文.doc

a constructive study of politeness in chinese and english culture 摘要 礼貌性语言已经成为一种广泛的社会现象；在人类社会交往中被广泛使用。它调节者人们的社会关系和交流活动；它已经成为维持人与人之间和谐和避免冲突的工具。随着中西方在政治、经济、文化中的交流变得越来越频繁，言语礼貌变得越来越重要和受重视。言语交流成功与否，很大程度上取决于选择合适的言语礼貌形式。此课题在比较中英语言之间的不同点的基础上，阐述中英文言语礼貌之间在不同的文化背景、不同的礼貌原则和各自的注重点下的异同点。这篇论文可以帮助人们在社会交往中，根据不同的情景，合适地运用礼貌性语言和避免由于不同语言习惯而引起的语言冲突。同时，英语学习者可以对外国文化有更深的了解，掌握言语交流。最后，在英语教学过程中，学生的理解能力和跨文化交际的能力会大大提高。关键词：礼貌性语言；文化；礼貌原则；abstractlinguistic politeness is a widespread social phenomenon; it is widely used in social life of human. it coordinates with peoples social relations and communication activities; its a tool for maintaining interpersonal harmony, and avoiding communication conflicts. china and western countries communication in politics, economy, and culture is becoming more and more frequent, polite language also appears more and more important. verbal communication successful or not, depends largely on whether to choose appropriate polite forms. this topic will be based on the comparative study of polite language in chinese and english to clarify the similarities and differences between chinese and western courtesy, and in different cultural background, the different politeness principle and their respective emphasis. the study of this issue can make people in the social process, according to different occasions, use the right polite language properly, and avoid conflicts because of different polite language under different cultures. at the same time, it can give the english learners a more thorough understanding of western culture, master the language communication. finally, if used in english teaching, it will improve the comprehensive quality of students, as well as the ability of cross-cultural communication.key words polite language; culture; politeness principle; 1 differentprinciplesofpolitenessinchineseandenglish politeness is a basic requirement in the communication of human beings; it is the symbol of civilization and a tool of maintaining harmony of interpersonal communication. it is a very important skill in daily communication.1.1 greeting greetings are important and frequent in everyday use and interactions over the world. proper use of greetings is critical for the maintenance and establishment of interpersonal communication. 1.2 different ways of opening a conversationin english culture, we often say “hello”, “how are you”, “nice to meet you”. but in china, people greet with each other like this to open a conversation: “你吃饭了吗？”， “你准备去哪？”. but if you say “have you eaten yet?” or “have you had you lunch?”, it will be very strange and not proper. and american would misunderstand that you have not had your lunch, and they can go somewhere to have something to eat.“good morning”, “good afternoon” is almost equal to “你好” in chinese. in english, people often say “nice to meet you”, “goodbye”, while chinese often say “走好”， “慢走”. but if you say “walk slowly”, “go slowly”, and people would be confused by you. 1.3 different topics of greeting of leaving-taking in english, people often start a conversation with the talk of weather, for example, “what a fine day today!”, while chinese often ask about peoples personal information, for example, “您贵姓？”， “你今年多大了？”， “你在哪高就？”. but if you ask foreign people some personal information, it would be regarded impolite. in western culture, it is common to indulge in a couple of minutes talk, as preparation for leaving. this maybe the along the lines of: “well, its been lovely to see you again, but i must be going soon. i hope well be able to get together again before long. while it is customary for the chinese guest to say “慢走”, “走好”, etc. the host usually insists on seeing his guest off, while the guest tries to decline. here again, what is considered as an act of politeness in chinese culture might be regarded as a face-threatening act in western culture. to westerners, a smile and a gesture of farewell would be enough.1.4 different ways of addressingin english, people often call peoples name directly, or use “mr.”, “ms.”. chinese often use “先生”， “小姐”， “周大伯”.when people call someone in position, chinese often use “经理”， “局长” while foreigner seldom say “manager jackson”, “principal”, and they just often use “governor”, “professor”.but we also need to pay attention to some usages of words. for example, “师傅”，some people translate it into “master”, but it reflects “主仆关系”.1.5 compliments how to give compliment and respond to it involves a lot of skills among the interaction, it is important to maintain and establish a good relationship with other people. in the west, it is very common for males to compliment females, for examples, the clothes, hairstyles and etc. “you look so great in this clothe”, “you are so beautiful when you smile”. and females will be pleased to receive such compliments. but you need to pay more attention when are going to compliment the opposite sex in china, if you say “you are so beautiful” to a strange girl, you may be regarded vulgar. the way of responding to the compliment is also different between china and english, for example, english respond to “you are pretty beautiful” is “thank you” which chinese will say “哪里哪里”.saying thanks is the primary consideration for the group of english when they respond to compliments. while the chinese answer reflects a conversational habit: when commenting on a purchase, we often ask or voluntarily tell whether the price is cheap or expensive. many westerners feel somewhat inhibited about talking about price of possessions. also, that is very likely to be taken as a rejection of native english speakers ability to judge. in giving compliments, frequency of the sentence pattern “i like/love it” in american english is much greater than that in chinese and “you” and “your” appear in most of the chinese compliments. overuse of “i” is marked by the chinese as a sign of arrogance or the intention of showing off, which is naturally avoided in complimenting others. in responding to compliments, americans tend to accept them as a kind of recognition of their individual efforts, whereas the chinese tend to efface themselves, for too much emphasis on individual efforts will not be socially acceptable, and regard those who praise themselves or simply accept compliments without hesitation as blowing ones own horn.1.6 thanks in the aspect of thanks, english people will say “thank you” more general than chinese. they often say “thank you”, even to the family or lover while chinese seem to use “thank you” not as frequent as westerners. both chinese and english language has clear differences in expressing “thank you”. chinese people take the expression of “给您添麻烦了”， “让您破费了”， “让您受累了” to express their thanks and politeness while english people just say “thank you very much”, “thanks a lot” to express their gratitude. also the way of responding is different. chinese people often say, “没什么”, “言重了” while english people often say “you are welcome”.to say that what you have done is what you should do shows that you are modesty and courteous, since the response indicates that one need not to be thanked for what one should do. in comparison, the modesty and courtesy that the english native speakers response reflect is not linked with moral obligation. english may feel upset and offended since englishs interpretation of chineses response is that chinese is obliged to do so rather than do it willingly.1.7 apologiesapologizing is a speech act addressed to the offended persons face-needs and intended to remedy an offense and thus to restore the friendship between the two. however, people in different cultures have different ways of expressing apology. for the chinese, apology most often occurs between people of unequal social status and it is usually the person with less power apologizes to the person with more power, e.g. students to their teachers, employees to employers. but for the native english speakers, an apology is necessary whenever inconvenience or offence is made with little consideration of the status or social power of the people concerned. for example, a manager will say sorry if s/he has to answer a phone call during a conversation.in responding to an apology in both english and chinese, one can reject the need for apologizing. but in english society, what the hearer can not do is to accept the apology; whereas in chinese society, it is perfectly polite to accept the apology by saying “我接受你的道歉”. its obvious that there are different rules governing the apology behavior of the chinese and english speakers. thats the reason for the fact that the chinese may not seem polite enough to english speakers and the english speakers may seem too insincere to the chinese.1.8 politeness on the table different country has different cooking culture and table manners. in china, people would like to create a wonderful and warm atmosphere for the guests, and it is not proper to talk with others during the dinner, especially in the formal dinner or party. it is impolite to speak with food in your mouth. in china, the host will say “没什么菜”，“大家随便吃”,“别客气”, and the guests will respond like this “哪里哪里，这么多菜了” to show their thanks to the host. while in west, people usually say “help yourself at home”. also we need to pay attention to the differences of the actions on table between chinese and english. most westerners do not rock back in the dining chair and do not prop themselves up with their elbows on the table. placing the forearm on the table edge is ok. when cutting the food, keep their elbows closed to their body. while in china we should not stick our chopsticks up right in the rice bowl, instead, lay them on you dish. make sure the spout of the teapot is not facing anyone. it is not polite to set the teapot down where the spout is facing towards somebody. dont tap on your bowl with your chopsticks. many westerners do not like to smock and drink in their dwelling. so out of politeness, it is always best to ask the host for permission. in china, sometime it is necessary to have a drink to show your politeness. we think that excessive drinking is never proper. when toasting, we often swallow a whole glass of whine by way of “bottoms-up”.2. reasons for the difference and politeness it is very important for us to have a better understanding of the reasons behind these differences, so that we can have a better performance among the communication and interaction.2.1 reasons for the differences different culture factors can result in the difference. so it is necessary for us to find out these reasons.2.1.1 confucianism and christianity trace back to the origin, it is very important to mention the confucianism and christianity. confucianism became the mainstream thought of chinese and has existed for thousands of years and has a great influence on chinas politics and economy. while christianity plays an important role in western world. 2.1.2 different historical backgrounds a country or a nations lifestyles and communicative behavior, to some extent, are influenced greatly by its geographical and other physical background. union and steadiness has always been the important thing in every dynasty of china. this kind of steadiness is accepted by almost all the members of family, society and even has a great influence on ones social status and relationships. because chinese families used to be very big and highly hieratical, to some extent，the politeness is a very important thing through the history.in contrast, the western countries usually rise in the oceanic environment. all these experiences formed their different mental attitudes and characteristics. in their mind, everyone is created equal, which has a great effect on peoples communicative behavior.2.1.3 different value orientation as we all know, individualism is the core of western cultural value, while collectivism is the core of eastern cultural value. people in western countries value freedom and places high priority on openness. the word privacy has positive connotation for people in english-speaking countries. they think of the privacy of their homes, the right to privacy, and the right to private property. so they pay more attention to their privacy and personal rights. the word exclusiveness indicates that a person withdrawal from a society, is a loner, or does not fit in. however, the traditional chinese did not have a concept of privacy. as a result, there is no corresponding word in the chinese language. typically privacy is translated exclusiveness, which brings up very different connotation in english from the word privacy. moreover, the chinese people, in general, place emphasis on relationships, group harmony, cooperation, and family. as a result, different value orientations might lead to different behaviors.2.2 reasons for the politenessit is true that the culture shapes the way of living. it is very obvious that the different cultures led to different communicative habits. the western culture is more open, and their conversation can be more open, sometimes they just call each others name directly. while in china, we pay more attention to the politeness when we appraise a person, especially the politeness to strangers and the old. our cultures are influenced by confucianism, which preaches politeness and respect to friend, the old and other people around us.3 conclusionsthis thesis mainly talks about the difference between polite language in chi