从称赞应答语看中美文化差异.doc

Title: An Analysis on Comparison Between China and America on Culture From Compliment Responses题 目: 从称赞应答语看中美文化差异摘要语言是社会交际的工具，语言的使用反映着一个社会文化生活的方方面面。任何语言不仅体现该民族的风土人情、文化习惯以及历史的演变和发展，而且还蕴藏着该民族的人生观、生活方式和思维模式。简而言之，根植于不同社会文化历史背景下的不同民族，其语言习惯相差甚远。其中，称赞语作为一种社交语言即社会交际用语，不同文化背景自然产生不同的称赞语模式。同时，作为一种配对性结构，称赞与回应的共现又反映着不同的文化渊源。也就是说：被称赞人必须对称赞做出回应接受或拒绝。在不同文化背景的影响下，人们的称赞内容、运用的场合及对象、形式对比、价值观念、采取的礼貌原则以及应答语的模式也会存在着差异。如果不了解文化之间的差异，跨文化交际就会因语用失误产生交际障碍，甚至导致交际失败。因此，文章拟从中美两国的称赞语及其应答模式，看中美文化的差异。以其能尽量避免语用失误，更好地促进两国人民的交流。关键词：称赞语；应答语；模式；文化对比；分析iiAbstractLanguage is a tool of social communication, whose use reflects various aspects of the cultural life of a specific society. Any language not only embodies the customs, cultural habits, historical evolution and development of the race speaking that language, but also contains the philosophy, life style and way of thinking of that race. Simply put, different races, based on different social cultures and historical backgrounds, will produce different languages. It is also natural that compliments deriving from different cultural backgrounds will generate different patterns in terms of their use and responses. Meanwhile, as an adjacency pair, the coexistence of compliments and responses in turn reflects different cultural backgrounds. In other words, person complimented must respondeither accept or refuse. Under different cultural backgrounds, the contents, contexts and objects forms, concept of value, the principle of politeness of compliments and their responses differ. A misunderstanding of the difference between cultures will lead to conflicts even failure in communication. So, this paper tries to make an elementary probe into the similarity and difference of Sino-US compliments and their responses from the perspective of social culture with the hope that pragmatic mistakes could be avoided to facilitate the communication between people of the two countries.Key words: compliment; response; pattern; cultural contrast; analysisContents摘要iAbstractiiChapter 1 Introduction.1Chapter 2 Concept of Compliment Responses.2Chapter 3 Comparisons Between Chinese and American Compliment Responses in Different Context.43.1 Comparison Between Chinese and American Compliments at Home.43.1.1 Chinese Compliments at Home43.1.2 American Compliments at Home.53.2 Comparison Between Chinese and American Compliments at School.6 3.3 Comparison Between Chinese and American Compliments in Workplace8Chapter 4 Cultural Differences Between China and America on Compliment Responses.104.1 Compliment Object Differences Between China and America.104.1.1 The Object of Compliment Response in America.104.1.2 The Object of Compliment Response in China.104.2 Expressions Differences Between China and America.114.3 Value Differences Between China and America.124.4 Difference in Social Functions Between China and America.134.5 Answering Style Differences Between China and America.14Chapter 5 Conclusion.16Bibliography.17Acknowledgements.18An Analysis on Comparison Between China and America on Culture From Compliment ResponsesChapter 1 IntroductionAs we all know, different countries have different culture. Culture is the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one category of people from another and represents their own characteristic. In terms of the different process of the social development between China and America, the culture of each other represents their own characteristic, especially in the language use. Language culture is the one point. Language is the reaction of the culture and the reflection of the culture and the reflection of values. Compliment responses is the frequently language which is used in our daily life and familiar to people, it is easy for people to understand the culture difference from compliment responses. During the process of cross-cultural communication, Chinese and American usually misunderstand each other for unknowing others own culture. This essay lists a lot of examples to analyze the cultural difference from compliment responses between China and America in order to make people understand the cultural difference better and improve the ability of cross-cultural communication. Thus it can be seen that Chinese and American compliments reflect the culture and are restricted by culture at the same time. Only by understanding the cultural differences between the two countries, can we use the compliment better-this positive non-verbal communication behavior so as to achieve the expected effect of communication.Chapter 2 Concept of Compliment ResponsesCompliments have been said to grease the social wheels and thus to serve as social lubricants. We all have given compliments and we all receive them occasionally. Compliments are primarily aimed at maintaining, enhancing, or supporting the addressees face .Herbert argues that there seems to be a widespread popular agreement over what it is that constitutes a compliment. He notes that most definitions of compliment, particularly those based on studies of Western languages, specify two conditions: the first one is that compliments must contain an expression of admiration on the part of the speaker, the other one is that they must concern a possession, accomplishment, or personal quality of the addressee.Contrastive studies have been conducted comparing compliment responses in different languages and language varieties with (mostly American) English. These studies illustrate a clear contrast among different languages. On the one hand, Arabic and South African English are more likely to prefer acceptance of compliments and less likely to reject to them than American English. On the other hand, speakers of Asian languages (Chinese, Japanese, Malay, and Thai) tend to avoid accepting compliments but rather reject them compared to English.The speech act of compliment responses is selected simply for two reasons. First, studies on it in several varieties of English, as well as in other languages and other politeness formulae are many, which provide a basis for comparative analysis. However, the present study seeks to address an important omission in previous scholarly analyses, as there have been very few Chinese and American English cross-cultural studies on the compliment responses speech act set. Indeed, the relevant literature is confined to a couple of studies on mainly American and European languages. Second, compliment responses provide an invaluable but under-utilized insight into speakers reaction to external appraisals of their personal and social identity.The data of the study come from the result of the present research works, which examine the similarities and differences between the compliment responses strategies of Chinese native speakers and American native speakers and to reveal the inter language characteristics of Chinese native speakers in responding to compliments.Chapter 3 Comparisons Between Chinese and American Compliment Responses in Different Context Due to the different history and concept, China and America compliment response is undeniably distinct from each other. Context is very important for language learners to learn a language. We do need to consider the different contexts in the use of American and Chinese compliments. This part will mainly talk about the comparisons between American and Chinese compliments.3.1 Comparison Between Chinese and American Compliments at Home3.1.1 Chinese Compliments at HomeAmerican couples and Chinese couples are similar. They both are advocated to constancy for love and undying loyalty to lovers. The fundamental difference is that their cultural backgrounds are different. They are living in different countries. Different culture background is the key reason for their different language patterns. Tolstoy once said, All happy families are alike one another, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. The question what is a happy family usually comes to our mind: mutual trust, understanding and communication, compromise, tolerance, management and so on. Traditionally the love between Chinese husband and wife is implied. Ashamed, they could not tell the spouse of their love, especially in old China, they did not say I love you or You are the one I love best over the course of the whole lifetime. Compliment is a kind of the embodiment of the love. For most Chinese people, compliment usually occurs in love period or new marriage. A man in love will take every opportunity to give compliments to his girlfriend. They do so because they want to impress his girlfriend or make her happy. As for an old-married couple, they seldom compliment each other. They think the love is needless to say out. They pay more attention to using actions to express their love. Sometimes Chinese speech community ignores their family members, seldom use complimentary words to praise them for appreciation. But this is not to say that emotion between Chinese family members is indifferent. Just the way they express emotions is implicit, is love you more than I can say. In fact, the Chinese kinship is much stronger than the American people; and the family consciousness is even more intense. The Chinese people take more care and support obligations than the American people.But with the opening of ideas, Chinese couples begin to be bold and brave to speak their love, especially the young couples. They begin to take a variety of ways to show their love in the bottom of their heart boldly to their lovers.3.1.2 American Compliments at HomeIts society with individualism popular, marriage is just a combination of two individuals. And marriage is based on love and sex in their opinion; marriage without love is immoral and of low quality. So we say that western wedding is a human right and the Chinese wedding is more like an obligation for family. Respect and freedom is the most basic principle in the relationship of marriage. No matter how deep the marital love is, the American couples do not ignore these two principles, respect and freedom. They know the importance to hold on the two basic bottom lines if they want to make a lasting marriage.Because of the differences of Chinese and western culture, people have different views and means of expressions for the same things. In the aspect of expressing compliments, the Chinese language is implicit and euphemistic; the American language is enthusiastic and straightforward. Most westerners with strong sense of self concept would like to pay the best compliments to their family members. They know spousal relationship is the most fundamental and important interpersonal relationship, which concerns the happiness of life, family harmony and career success. So a husband often says to his wife, “Oh, your dress is elegant.”, “You have such a gorgeous smile” and “You are unique”. I am proud of you, my darling. ” Similarly a wife will say to her husband, “Your handwriting is so perfect.”, “You look very cool today, honey.”, “I like your sense of humor.” American compliments are reflected in every aspect of life and every moment. That is why we see the American couples are more loving and connected.Comparatively speaking, American couples understand the significance of marriage and manage marriage better than Chinese couples. The most important change of Chinese married couples after marriage is that they no longer appreciate each other and ignore each others advantages. There is no compliment, only sarcasm and irony. They ignore each other for everything they have done, and take everything for granted, not from the heart of thanksgiving. However, the British couple is exactly the opposite. They take everything their lover has done in the eyes and in the mind. They duly give compliments and thanks to their lover, which makes the relationship sweeter and more harmonious. Happiness and foundation in the marriage, of course, is love and loyalty.Whether the couples can finally get real happiness depends on the good habits of feelings between husband and wife. So we say good habits determine a happy marriage. The big difference between Chinese families and American families is American families has formed the good habit of expressing the love and compliments. Love is an art; love is two people grow together. It must have communication. There will be a deeper love if there is a communication to understand.3.2 Comparisons Between Chinese and American Compliments at SchoolThe healthy growth of students can not go without teachers proper guidance. Every student has a tendency to pursue progress, has a good side: positive, smart and studious. At the same time, teachers must be common in mind to look at their each merit and regard their every progress as positive. Naturally, the teachers will be good at discovering students merits; appreciating their value, so as to establish the students self-confidence and pride. It requires that teachers should see beauty of human nature, and making compliments towards students is the penetration in the process of the humanistic spirit in the education teaching, embodies the equality of the personality and dignity between the students and teachers. If we can treat the students failures and mistakes with a broad mind and understanding with tolerance and encouragement, at the same time, point out the solution to correct the wrong doing for them. Teachers will provide a harmonious atmosphere of mutual trust for a long time; it is good for students to form a positive healthy psychology and an active attitude to learn new knowledge and explore new methods to study the new problem. In this way, the life journey will be full of laughter, applause; full of determination and confidence. Specialty is the childrens shines. The teachers must be good at catching the students bright spots, give timely compliments in order to set up their confidence. When being complimented, the students will feel a sense of satisfaction, can make a comprehensive analysis of him, and can realize his insufficiency. At the same time, he can also accept the opinions of others, gradually perfecting his wish.A philosopher said: only the truest compliment will touch the heart of a person. The teachers compliments should start from the students trivial life, seek truth from facts and do not simply say to the student, “You are a good student. You are great. You are so smart.” The more specific your compliment is, the more clear the students will feel about his good behavior and so is the more possibly the students will obey the rules of such behaviors. For the young children, the teachers should give timely compliment for every small progress. For example, the teacher can compliment a student like you make the classroom so clean, or you make your handbag so tidy, or you are excellent that you can solve the classmates difficulties, etc. If you are a teacher, please do not make compliment stingy, for compliment is spring breeze, which makes students filled with warmth and gratitude; please do not look down compliments, for compliment is a fire, which can light the longing and hope in the heart of students. If every teacher is full of spirit to enjoy encouraging word to students, compliments will be able to moisten everything silently. We sincerely hope that the students can healthily grow in the teaching with correct compliments.3.3 Comparison Between Chinese and American Compliments in WorkplaceAccording to analysis, there are three major topics in complimenting in American. Ability and traits are often referred to in daily communication, sharing the highest proportion, appearance ranks second only a little lower than ability and traits, and then possessions rank third. In the American culture, the positive comments on looks or appearance occupy a very large proportion because they like to compliment mutually. If others appearance has any change, it is deserved to be complimented in order to show ones care or respect to others. In this part we mainly talk about the gender difference in the use of compliments. A lot of research and experiment show that there are many differences between women and men in the use of topic, syntax, vocabulary, strategy and function about compliment. Much corpus finds compliment is unevenly distributed in men and women. Women use compliments more than men do. In English-speaking countries, the content of compliments more focus on intelligence, skills, performance, clothing, furniture cars, on such good quality and vessels with high quality. In western culture, individual struggle and personality reflection is an important notion which pursues the self value performance. Thus, positive compliment on appearance and hairstyle occupies the main and the most prominent position. The compliment recipients are mainly women. Women often receive the compliments from men, “You look nice today!”, “You look sexy!” Women will be pleased to say “Thank you” on hearing such compliments. In China, men do not often compliment womens appearance directly, otherwise they will be regarded to be frivolous or have ulterior motives. Influenced by deep-rooted orthodox culture, men often use such adjectives to compliment women as virtuous, gentle, beautiful, intelligent, highly cultured and steeped in propriety; educated and reasonable and so on