中英文礼貌用语的差异-毕业论文.

X Xx xx xx x 学学校校 本本科科生生毕毕业业论论文文 题目Different Expression Between Chinese and English on Politeness 中英文礼貌用语的差异 学生姓名 学号 专业班级 指导教师 完成时间 DIFFERENT EXPRESSION BETWEEN CHINESE AND ENGLISH ON POLITENESS THESIS Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for The degree of Bachelor ofArts In xxxxx University By xxx Supervisor xxx May 2014 XxxxxxUniversity i 摘摘 要要 礼貌 作为一种普遍的社会现象 它的主要功能是维护社会秩序 维护友好的人际的联系 减少冲突和误解并通过礼貌的言语行为获得 交流 使用礼貌语是不同的社会群体共有的普遍现象 是人类社会文 明的标志 然而由于受不同文化的制约 英汉礼貌用语也有所不同 本文试从英汉两种不同语言的礼貌原则入手 通过对英汉礼貌用语的 语用差异进行对比 分析其产生的原因 避免因文化差异而带来的跨 文化语用失误 减少跨文化交际过程中的误解和文化冲突 使说话者 成功进行跨文化交际交流 关键词 差异 礼貌用语 礼貌原则 跨文化交际 ii ii Abstract Politeness is a kind of common social phenomenon whose main function is to maintain social order and interpersonal contact friendly reducing conflicts and misunderstandings and to get the purpose of the communication by the polite speech act Using the polite language is the common phenomenon in different social groups and it is a sign of human civilization However due to the restriction of the different cultures there are also some different polite language on English and Chinese This article tries to begin with the politeness principle of the two different languages English and Chinese Through a comparative analysis of the pragmatic differences on polite language between English and Chinese it analyzes the reasons how to avoid the failure brought by the cultural differences and how to reduce the misunderstanding and cultural conflict in the process of cross cultural communication so as to help speakers to succeed in cross cultural communication Key words differences polite language politeness principle cross cultural communication iii Contents 摘摘 要要 i Abstract ii Introduction 1 Chapter 1 A Comparative Analysis of Politeness Maxims in English and Chinese 2 1 1 English Politeness Maxims 2 1 2 Chinese Politeness Maxims 3 Chapter 2 The Main Performance of Different Expression Between Chinese and English on Politeness 5 2 1 Terms ofAddress 5 2 2 Terms of Greetings and Farewells 7 2 3 Terms in Compliments and the Responses to Compliments 9 2 4 Terms of Euphemism and Taboo 13 Chapter 3 The Reasons Effects and Strategies of Different Expression Between Chinese and English on Politeness 18 3 1 The Reasons of Different Expression Between Chinese and English on Politeness 18 3 2 The Influence of the Different Expression Between Chinese and English on Politeness 22 3 3 The Strategies to the Different Expression Between Chinese and English on Politeness 24 Conclusion 26 Bibliography 27 Acknowledgement 1 Introduction When we communicate with other people we have to obey a lot of rules of manners which have rooted in our daily life If not there would appear many misunderstandings Every nation has its politeness People use different politeness language in different situations And we can say politeness language plays an important role in our communication with people around us People from different countries may have different manners thus they could encounter difficulties in their communication As the development of our country the internationalism is becoming more and more rapidly We need to communicate with people of the world But they have their own attitudes towards things which maybe a little bit different or totally different from ours If we do not understand the cultures of them absolutely we will have a lot of difficulties in this process Sometimes we are likely to understand one thing in our own perspective Today a better understanding of people who come from otherculturesisveryimportant Especiallyinthecross culture communication This article is written to introduce the different expression between Chinese and English on politeness from different perspectives B A ThesisChapter 1 A Comparative Analysis of Politeness Maxims in English and Chinese 2 Chapter 1 A Comparative Analysis of Politeness Maxims in English and Chinese In the past decades researchers focused on the politeness principle as an important pragmatic principle The function of politeness as a social phenomenon is maintaining social order reducing conflicts and misunderstanding in communications We can make our behavior polite with the help of some politeness maxims such as Crice s Cooperative Principle Leech s politeness principles and Gu Yueguo s politeness principles 1 1 English Politeness Maxims Among the principles proposed by pragmaticists to explain the phenomena in the use of language in conversation Crice s Cooperative Principle is one of the basic ones But Leech thinks that it fails to explain all the phenomena in language use especially fails to explain why people tend to use many indirect speech acts to violate Cooperative Principle so he puts forward the Politeness Principle Here are his six politeness maxims 1 Tact Maxim It means minimize cost and maximize benefit to others B A ThesisChapter 1 A Comparative Analysis of Politeness Maxims in English and Chinese 3 2 Generosity Maxim It means minimize benefit and maximize cost to selfs 3 Approbation Maxim It means minimize dispraise and maximize praise of others 4 Modesty Maxim It means minimize praise and maximize dispraise of self 5 Agreement Maxim It means minimize disagreement between self and others while maximize agreement between self and others 6 Sympathy Maxim It means minimize antipathy between self and others while maximize sympathy between self and other 1 2 Chinese Politeness Maxims In China the real study of politeness only began in the 1980s when pragmatics was introduced into China The most important figure in this area is Gu Yueguo He is a student of Leech and comes from Beijing Foreign Studies University On the basis of Chinese culture Gu used Leech s principle of politeness for reference and summed up four features of Chinese politeness and later developed them into five politeness maxims which he thinks are more suitable to the Chinese environment Here are his five politeness maxims 1 Self denigration Maxim It means that we should denigrate ourselves and be modest for things relevant to us while we should lift and B A ThesisChapter 1 A Comparative Analysis of Politeness Maxims in English and Chinese 4 respect listeners when things relevant to them 2 The maxim of using address terms It means that mutual salutation should be reflected in the interpersonal relationships according to status or ages in order to be polite 3 Elegant maxim It means that elegant language and well mannered behaviors are often regarded to be polite and educated The basic principle is to choose decent words forbid using bawdry and use more tactful and less outspoken words 4 The maxim of seeking common ground It relates to face problem We should note each other s identity and social status and respect each other s face 5 Morality words and behaviors On behavior motivations to minimize the price of others maximize the benefits of others in words to exaggerate the benefits of others to their own and the costs that they pay as little as possible B A ThesisChapter 2 The Main Performance of Different Expression Between Chinese and English on Politeness 5 Chapter 2 The Main Performance of Different Expression Between Chinese and English on Politeness We can see that there are many common points of politeness maxims between English and Chinese from Chapter1 But on account of the different culture environment it is unavoidable that they definitely have different expression on politeness So we will discuss the different expression in the following four aspects 2 1 Terms of Address As we all know addressing forms play an important role in our daily life to forming a good relationship People are all sensitive to the terms of address especially Chinese people When an addressing form is appropriate it can help the speakers to begin a good relationship If the addressing form is inappropriate for the situation it would affect the relationship The concrete addressing form is determined by sex age culture belief education and the society Chinese people have the degree concept kinship concept and family concept rooted in their mind So the very systematic addressing forms developed in Chinese language While English speaking people are mostly from nucleus families and they don t B A ThesisChapter 2 The Main Performance of Different Expression Between Chinese and English on Politeness 6 have the family membership like China as their members only include two generations parents and children This kind of reason makes the addressing forms very different For example in China no matter in formal situation or informal situation people are accustomed to addressing someone with his or her professional title to show the respect For the high social statues person we sometimes address others like Manage Zhang President Lei and Teacher Liu And for the lower social statues person people like to use 师傅 to address them in order to be polite But in English things are very different People address others with professional titles only in formal situations for the high social statues person such as Profess Smith President James but they would never address others with Manage Lily or Teacher Henry While in informal situations people would like others to address them by their first name to show the intimacy between the speakers even the professors and presidents However it would make the situation and relationship awkwardness in China What s more in China calling others as Little Zhang or old Li is also a good way to show the close relationship but we can t address English people in this way and it would make them at sea There are also some differences on addressing strangers between Chinese and English Chinese like to extend the kinship in addressing B A ThesisChapter 2 The Main Performance of Different Expression Between Chinese and English on Politeness 7 strangers or someone who is older than themselves For example children like to address the adults as uncle or aunt the aged as grandmother or grandfather even when they meet the first time But English would never address others as uncle or aunt except their kinships They like to address others as sir madam and miss and sometimes use them with the family name Moreover when we want to greet to the passersby we can call them as 同志 or 师傅 in Chinese while they are not used in English So the English would greet the passersby with Pardon me madam or Excuse me sir 2 2 Terms of Greetings and Farewells It is quite natured that people greet each other to show politeness when they meet and it is important in our society You would be regarded as rude if you met someone older than you and you did not greet him or her Because of the culture differences greeting are not conducted in the same way in English and Chinese speakers For most of the English they would be confused and wouldn t acceptthe ways of greeting in Chinese In China people would greet like Have you eaten yet Where are you going What are you doing or What brings you here For English greeting in these way is difficult to understand as they would violate privacy They greet like B A ThesisChapter 2 The Main Performance of Different Expression Between Chinese and English on Politeness 8 Hello How are you or discuss the weather condition Because of the different cultural background there would be different understanding for some terms in greeting for English especially to some ways with Chinese features For example it is common to greeting in China Have you eaten yet around meal times But for English this greeting way might mean that I haven t either come on let s go together and get something to eat or if you haven t I am just going to invite you to my place In other words it could indicate an invitation to a meal There is a similar Chinese greeting such as Where are you going or Where have you been The natural reaction of most English speaking people to this greeting would most likely be It s none of your business Then let s come to farewells In Chinese When the visit is over and the guest is seen to the door or gateway by the host an exchange of walk well please utterances like stay here and go slowly walk slowly come again are very natural but they sound strange and absurd to Englishspeakers WhenEnglishspeakerspart theyusually say good bye bye bye so long or see you later tomorrow next Monday The foreign hosts don t accompany guests to the gate upon leave taking B A ThesisChapter 2 The Main Performance of Different Expression Between Chinese and English on Politeness 9 2 3 Terms in Compliments and the Responses to Compliments In English speaking countries some topics such as age salary or martial status are unlikely to be the objects of compliments Without the awareness of this point misunderstandings or even disputes may result from giving compliments on taboo subjects In Chinese there are two concepts about topics in Chinese compliment study public topic and non public topic Pubic topic includes topics which can be freely talked in public while non public topics are taboos for public discussion It is very interesting that almost all non public topics in American English fall into the category of public topics in Chinese Some private topics believed to bring benefit and happiness to the hearer can be chosen as the subjects of compliments in the Chinese culture For example the compliment as You earn highest salary among all our classmates you are so capable will not make the Chinese hearer s unhappy in most cases but when English people hear they would be unhappy However some public topics in English turn out to be non public topics in Chinese It is not appropriate for a Chinese male to compliment on the shape appearance or beauty of a Chinese female But in American society the appearance of females is most likely to be the objects of compliments As observed by Wolfson in a small restaurant in Philadelphia s Chinatown a complete male stranger addressed one of the women on his way out of the restaurant saying I have been watching B A ThesisChapter 2 The Main Performance of Different Expression Between Chinese and English on Politeness 10 you all through lunch You have a beautiful smile It lights up the whole room It is impossible to find compliments like this in China for these kinds of self revealing praise for a lady as it is not acceptable in traditional Chinese culture Although in modern China this situation is undergoing great changes people are still reluctant to compliment on the attractiveness of the other gender The notion Men and women should keep distance in case of the occurrence of love affairs is still influential in Chinese mentally Thefactthatcomplimentsareeasilyheardineveryday conversations indicates that responding to compliments is a common feature of discourse activities However due to the fact that compliments can be threatening to the addressee s face as they like criticism are an act of judgment on the other person people may feel uneasy defensive or even cynical with regard to the compliments they receive and thus have trouble responding to such compliments appropriately As for Chinese responses for the compliment one of Chinese researchers made a list of strategies of fifty students from Xi an Foreign Language University 1 Disagreeing and denigrating the subject said no to the compliment disagreeing with the complimenter on the praise worthiness of the object of the complimenter Your coat is so beautiful B A ThesisChapter 2 The Main Performance of Different Expression Between Chinese and English on Politeness 11 No yours are really beautiful 2 Expressingembarrassment thesubjectopenlyexpressedher embarrassmentoverthecomplimentafterdisagreeingwiththe complimenter You have a good handwriting No you made an overstatement 3 Explaining the subject would offer some explanations about the object of compliment after disagreeing with the complimenter You bag is really beautiful My mother bought it for me 4 Thanking and Denigrating The subject first expresses gratitude and then offers disagreement You are a good cook Just so so I m really far from you 5 Thanking You sing well Thank you According to the researcher the disagreeing and denigrating type 1 accounts for 65 7 and the accepting type 5 only makes up 5 However another famous researcher summarized the western response for the compliment as follows B A ThesisChapter 2 The Main Performance of Different Expression Between Chinese and English on Politeness 12 1 Acceptance strategies Utterance that recognize the status of a proceeding remark as a compliment such as Thank you Yeah I think it went well too I am glad you like it 2 Amendment strategies Cases where while recognizing the preceding remark as a compliment the speaker tries to amend its complimentary force by uttering you play very well too It just so so or I put a lot of work into it last night 3 Non acceptance strategies Utterances that deny question or joke about the content of the compliment or avoid responding directly to the praise such as No actually I think it sort of dragged out and Stop making fun of me 4 Face relationship related response strategies Utterances that do not appear to accept amend or reject the compliment In essence this kind of metacommunicative response does not address the propositional content of the compliment within the interaction such as I am embarrassed 5 Combination strategies The case in which the addressee s response combines two or more of the four strategies described above such as thank you did you really think it is good 6 No acknowledgement The case in which the speaker chooses not to respond to the compliment His statistics show that the strategies expressing agreement with the compliment make up 64 9 of the total occurrence And the former B A ThesisChapter 2 The Main Performance of Different Expression Between Chinese and English on Politeness 13 researcher also found that the acceptance strategies in American students responses account for 57 8 of the total Fromtheabovematerialswecanseethatpeoplefrom En