The Comparative Analysis of Politeness between Chinese and English (2).doc

thecomparativeanalysisofpoliteness betweenchineseandenglishabstract: this paper holds the view that the concept of politeness varies in different cultures. the concept of politeness in the chinese culture is closely tied with ethics and moral standards. but in the english culture, the concept of politeness exists only in the immediate context that involves two conflict parties. thus chinese people have a different interpretation of what counts as a face-threatening act and what does not. chinese modesty, which can be seen as another way of saying self-denigration, is a virtue of self-cultivation while the english modesty is a strategy of minimizing or avoiding self-praise. privacy is valued in all cultures, but the applicable scope of it in the english culture is much larger than that in the chinese culture. attitudinal warmth is considered very polite in the chinese culture. the different value systems, individualism in the english culture and collectivism in the chinese culture, impose different rules of communication on their peoples. politeness helps establish, maintain or consolidate harmonious interpersonal relationships and facilitate social interactions. politeness as an observable phenomenon is actually a reflection of specific cultural values in the language.key words: politeness; face; difference; reason; principle中文摘要摘要：礼貌因不同的文化而不同。汉语文化中的礼貌与道德标准有密切联系。而在英语文化中，礼貌只存在于交流双方。所以中国人对于什么是威胁面子行为与英语文化中的人有不同的理解。中国人的谦虚，也可以说是自贬，是自身的教养，而英式的谦虚是减少自夸的一种策略。隐私在英语文化中囊括的范围比汉语文化囊括的范围广得多。而态度热情在汉语文化中被认为是非常有礼貌的。这样，汉语文化中的礼貌行为可能会被英语文化中的人认为是侵犯个人隐私。不同的文化价值系统，即英语文化中的个人主义和汉语文化的集体主义，使各自的语言有不同的交际法则。英语文化中强加于人的行为在汉语文化中可能代表着礼貌和真诚。礼貌有助于建立、维持和巩固和谐的人际关系，促进社会交往。关键字：礼貌 面子 差异 原因 原则1. introductionwhat exactly is politeness? in one sense, politeness can be viewed as deviation from maximally efficient communication. to perform an act other than in the most clear and efficient manner possible is to implicate some degree of politeness on the part of the speaker. politeness allows people to perform many inter-personally sensitive actions in a no threatening or less threatening manner. as a result, what is thought of as an act of politeness in the chinese culture might simply be regarded as an intrusion upon a persons privacy by an english-speaking person? the different value systems, individualism in the english culture and collectivism in the chinese culture, impose different rules of communication on their peoples. what is regarded as an imposition in the english culture is considered as polite and sincere in the chinese culture. different ways of communication also influence peoples choice of ways of expression. 2. the definition of politenesspoliteness is what people of different cultural background all try to observe and maintain. as a social phenomenon, politeness is something superficial. to account for what is perceived at the surface we should delve into the depth where different cultural values are rooted. in china, the equivalent of politeness is limao, which is believed to have evolved in history from li (the rules of proper conduct, the analects) advocated by the ancient chinese philosopher and thinker confucius who lived in a period when the slavery system had collapsed and constant wars occurred among feudal states. the purpose of the restoration of li is to put every individual in his place according to his social rank and position. consequently, social order and class hierarchy could be restored and maintained. after confucius, the notion of li seemed to have deviated a little from the original sense of confucianism but closer to its analogue in modern china, i.e., limao. by the time of han dynasty, the notion of li had evolved into social appropriacy. speaking of li, humble yourself, but show respect to other. ever since then, it has become a substantial feature of the chinese notion of politeness and has remained at the core of politeness in chinese culture, i.e., self-denigration and other-oriented. in chinese culture, to address ones interlocutor is not simply a matter of uttering some sounds to draw the interlocutors attention. a failure to use an appropriate address term is a sign of rudeness or a signal of breakdown of established social order. address terms can be said to be the manifestations of power or solidarity relationship. the chinese social structure is basically hierarchical or vertical in nature and the principle of仁and礼help reinforce the vertical relationship by advocating the maintenance of difference. terms of address include several linguistic types. they may be personal names, titles，kinship terms, or personal pronouns that can be used separately or concomitantly. for example, kinship terms can be used in addressing people senior to themselves, either within their own generation or in ascending generations. to maintain the social relationship in interpersonal communication, people address each other in compliance with the traditional rule. elder members of a family such as grandparents, parents, uncles and aunts etc. can generally first name family members of the younger generation, yet the latter cannot reciprocate. age difference can also force an asymmetrical pattern on members of the same generation within a chinese family. chinese address forms whether as norms or strategies; perform an important role as mediator of social relations. chinese system of address is deeply rooted in the social system which attaches great significance to kinship. within the family, terms of address systematically identify whos who in terms of generation/age, sex, patrilineal kin, matrilineal kin and so on. the systematic distinctions are observed as a part of linguistic etiquette to ensure propriety and politeness. precedence of age over group consciousness and precedence of rank over age in formal settings are lexically encoded in the chinese address system. the pragmatic value of麻烦你lies in its function, i.e. the speaker, redress the version of negative face of h by explicitly acknowledging imposition.劳驾，麻烦你，is a very polite term for making an excuse or asking an older for hs co-operation or assistance. comparatively speaking, each member of the western society enjoys independence and equality, which lays the foundation for the establishment of solidarity relationship as the main relationship in sociolinguistic term referring the not social interactions in the west. solidarity is the only to the equal and informal relationship, but also the desire for the setting up of equality, intimacy, common interest, sharing, etc. whatever it may possibly mean, its core notion is equality. the emphasis on solidarity over power on the western side can best be demonstrated in the use of first names in everyday interaction. dominated by the use of proper names, given names and titles the english address system is comparatively impersonal contract social distance. for instance, it does not have fictive kin terms to contract social distance.3. deep-rooted reasons for the differences of chinese and english politeness in cultural backgroundas we have mentioned before, value is the different views and attitudes of people regarding the matter. china is a traditional agricultural economy society, it is said that chinese cultural system emphasized the collectivism and authoritative character, using the natural value orientation. the chinese nation has insists that the heaven and human units as the harmonious one. han nationality affected by confucian ideas is modest, introverted and conservative. because of historical influence, chinese people formed a reserved, subtle character. they pay attention to diversity and changes of material, emphasis especially on the change and difference of the nature, stress that personal freedom, self-development and personal enterprise. the english culture takes more emphasis on independence and individuality.generally speaking, westerners use politeness maxims less frequently than chinese people. it can be attributed to two differences between chinese and western society firstly, western society highly promotes egalitarianism while chinese society attaches more importance to hierarchy. the social relationship between westerners is informal and they are most comfortable with their social equals. the importance of social rankings is minimizes in such a society differently, the social relationship between chinese people is formal and they are most comfortable in the presence of a hierarchy in which they know their position and the rules for behavior in the situation. the pan-familism, deep-rooted in chinese culture, adjusted, restricted and defined the surface structure of the society language and the interpersonal relationship. the family philosophy of being loyal to the rulers and filial to the parents at the same time produced the corresponding people with distinctive features of ancient chinese society. the humanist temper was one emphasizing distinctions of all kinds, distinctions between men and women, between ruling authority and subjects, and between the old and the young. at home, one was always thinking whether his or her behavior accorded with his status in the family, afraid of violating the family disciplines. in society, rule determined the promotion and even fate of the people. they became circumspective and self-introspective, behaving rigorously according to his position in society. confucianism always imagines itself as a civilizing influence going about preaching these distinctions and establishing social order. it hopes to bind society together by a moral force, by teaching benevolence in the rulers and submission in the ruled, kindliness in the elders and respect for old age in the young, friendliness in the elder brother, and humility in the younger brother. thus, the golden mean is most popular in chinese society, which produces people with uniform characters. they adapt themselves to circumstances promptly and pursue a world of compromise and pacification. accordingly, they frequently follow the self-denigration and other-respecting, elegancy, and conforming maxims of pp and violate the quality and manner maxims of cp. here, we can see that in chinese society, people are more faith in personal relationships than in written rules and procedures for structuring interactions while in western society such as in america, written rules presumably apply to everyone and are assumed to produce fair, reasonable procedures and decisions”. westerners, promoting the equal rights and position of everyone, behave differently in their social relations, and their dictionary is short in words of dignity, and name of honor, that is, in terms through which the lower strata express their subservience to the highersecondly, western people have a self-centered culture while chinese people embrace an others-oriented culture. in other words, western society is individualistic whereas chinese society is collectivist. in the former one, higher value is placed on self-reliance and freedom from externally imposed constraints and self-promotion is more accepted. by contrast, in the latter one, higher value is placed on group cooperation and interpersonal harmony is given the top priority. modesty is just a maxim to help achieve this goal in chinese society. there is an old chinese saying haughtiness invites losses while modesty brings profits满招损，谦受益. according to confucius, a man of honor must have five cardinal qualities: humility, magnanimity, sincerity, diligence graciousness with humility ranked first. if one accepted others praise without intention of denial, s/he would be considered self-arrogant. on the contrary, english-speaking people regard it as insincere to reject the deserved praise or to show too much fulsome modesty. for example, the common practice for a chinese writer to end his presentation of his thesis at an international conference is since my knowledge is limited, there must be lots of mistakes in my paper, so please give me your valuable suggestions. in westerners eyes, if your thesis has so many problems, why dont rectify them and improve it before the meeting? this different emphasis of modesty in each culture leads to the different address systems, compliments responses and so on. moreover, westerners have a high mobility in that they often change their jobs or move to new places whereas chinese people live more stably in comparatively narrow and fixed areas. thus, comparatively speaking, chinese people have more opportunities to meet each other in the neighborhood, at school, and at work, etc, for which it is more important to keep a harmonious relationship with each other. therefore, it stands to reason that chinese people are used to expressing their opinions in a periphrastic way and avoiding conflicts as much as they can.4. the representations of politeness between chinese and english4.1 english modesty and chinese self-denigrationit is universally acknowledged that to show modesty is a way to be polite. but how this maxim is adhered to in different cultures is very much a matter of degree. the difficulty here is how to interpret the different connotation of chinese谦虚and leechs modesty in his modesty maxim. they are different in several ways: (1) chinese谦虚is to put down self and to build up other; modesty in the pp is to avoid self-praise. (2) chinese谦虚is the core of chinese politeness; modesty maxim is not as important as the other maxims in leechs pp.(3) chinese谦虚is a virtue of self-cultivation which is the foundation of chinese politeness; english modesty is a strategy of minimizing praise of self. self-denigration is to put down or denigrate while referring to self or self-related things and to elevate or respect others or other-related things. self-denigration and other-elevation remains at the core of modern conception of礼貌in china. the reason of denigrating self is to show respect to other. its essential characteristic is mutual respect and mutual care. when a chinese gives a present to someone, he usually denigrates the gift in order to denigrate himself and to show respect to other. he will say: 礼物很轻.不成敬意，请笑纳. the reason for self-denigrating is to show respect to other. in the chinese culture, the interests of others are thought to be more in-important than those own, and so the chinese culture is also called other-oriented culture.4.2 direct communication and indirect communicationwesterners tend to assume that communication is better when everyone involved knows exactly what is going on, and they assume that the best way to know that is to say it in words. they are generally polite according to their own standards, but they also value directness and think the best way to handle a sensitive situation is to give complete information in a direct (and hopefully gentle) way. westerners also tend to assume that everyone else in the world is equally committed to directness. when westerners encounter chinese indirection they feel they are deliberately lied to. often in china when someone answers, we must give it more thought to a request, he is refusing a request that cannot be met. he does not want to disrupt the relationship with the person making the request and expects the other person to interpret his answer for what it is, a polite refusal. in a similar situation, many westerners would not hesitate to say, sorry, it cant be done. in chinese guest-host relationship, it is the duty of the host to plan and direct the guests activities. westerner guests normally do not expect their hosts to make as many decisions for them as chinese guests do. they are more comfortable when a host suggests an activity or gives the guest a-choice of activities. when a chinese host says, “now we will do this.” the westerner guest may think that he is being too direct. he would rather hear, we have planned an activity we hope you will like. if you would rather not do it, please say no. imposition is socially acceptable if it is mitigated by politeness and reasonableness. from the western speakers view point, there is considerable cultural value attached to the maintenance of physical and mental space-that of non-infringement regardless of who the interactants are. chinese prefer the use of a direct bald on-record strategy in most face-to-face interactions. the preference for on-record rather than off record strategies shows that chinese speakers as a group prefer a level of directness that is in keeping with their emphasis on clarity, explicitness and upfront sincerity in daily face-to-face requisites. from the above discussion, we can see that whether the westerners or the chinese are more direct or indirect depends on the specific speech acts.4.3 english concept of privacy and chinese concept of attitudinal warmthprivacy is valued in all cultures, but it is more highly valued in the english culture. members of individualistic cultures tend to engage in environmental control to assert their unique identity and to claim private space than members of collectivistic cultures do. the chinese attach great importance to mutual care, which is equally important as modesty. for example, the chinese sometimes like to make direct comments on some personal matters or to give direct advice to show concern for others welfare. gu yue-guo has rightly included attitudinal warmth, a highly valued trait in the chinese culture, as one of the four notions underlying the chinese conception of礼貌.showing warmth and concern is regarded as a polite act in the chinese culture. thats why when two chinese meet each other even for the first time they might ask each others age, marital status, offspring, occupation, and income. this conflicts with the peoples individual privacy of english culture. native speakers of english have such a strong sense of privac