中英礼貌用语差异对比研究毕业论文.doc

毕业设计 论文 毕业设计 论文 题目 题目 中英文化中礼貌语的对比研究 A Constructive Study of Politeness in Chinese And English Culture 学生姓名 学生姓名 蔡美玲蔡美玲 学学 号 号 08070601280807060128 专业班级 专业班级 B08B08 英语 国际商务 英语 国际商务 1 1 班班 指导教师 指导教师 唐红梅唐红梅 学学 院 院 外国语学院外国语学院 20122012 年年 4 4 月月 A Constructive Study of Politeness in Chinese and English Culture 中英文化中礼貌语的对比研究 摘要 语言礼貌是一种普遍的社会现象 广泛地存在于人类社会生活之中 它协调着人 们的社会关系和交际活动 是维系人际和谐的工具 避免交际冲突的手段 随着中 国加入WTO 中国与西方国家在政治 经济 文化方面的联系变得越来越紧密 社交越来越频繁 礼貌用语也显得越来越重要 在此过程中 言语交际成功与否 在 很大程度上取决于能否选用恰当的礼貌表现形式 本课题将通过对中英文化中礼貌 语的对比研究 阐明中西礼貌用语的共性和差异性 以及在不同文化背景下 中英 不同的礼貌原则和各自的侧重点 通过对此课题的研究 使人们在社交过程中 根 据不同的场合 正确的使用合适的礼貌语 避免不同文化下不同礼貌用语带来的 各种冲突 同时 能使英语学习者更加透彻的了解西方文化 掌握交际语言 最 后 若用于英语教学中 将提高学生的综合素质 以及跨文化交际能力 关键词 礼貌用语 礼貌原则 文化 差异对比 可编辑修改 A A CONSTRUCTIVECONSTRUCTIVE STUDYSTUDY OFOF POLITENESSPOLITENESS ININ CHINESECHINESE ANDAND ENGLISHENGLISH CULTURECULTURE ABSTRACTABSTRACT Language Courtesy is a kind of common social phenomenon which widely occurs in the human society of life coordinating the people s social relationships and communication activity maintaining interpersonal harmony and avoiding the communication conflicts As China entering the WTO and the forming of the globalized market the relationship between China and the western countries has become closer with more frequent activities in politics economy and culture So language courtesy is taking a more important role in our social life In this process the successful cross cultural communication to a great extent depends on the selection of the appropriate politeness This paper expounds the common features and different courtesy between Chinese and the western through a constructive study of politeness in Chinese and English culture On the other hand the paper expounds different politeness principle and the emphasis of the respective in different cultural background Therefore the study of this subject can conduct people to use the right polite language avoiding the conflict that brings about the different culture courtesy and different culture according to the different occasions in the social process At the same time the paper can make the reader understand and master the western culture and the right way of communication Finally if the politeness principles are used in the English teaching and Learning it will improve the students comprehensive quality and the ability of cross cultural communication 可编辑修改 KeyKey words words polite language politeness principle culture 可编辑修改 Contents 1 Introduction 1 2 Different Principles of Politeness in Chinese and English 1 2 1 Politeness Principles of English 1 2 1 1 Brown and Levinson s face theory 1 2 1 2 Grice Cooperative Principle 2 2 1 3 Leech s Politeness Principle 2 2 2 Politeness Principles of Chinese 3 3 A Comparison between Chinese and English Politeness 5 3 1 Terms of Address 5 3 2 Humility Language and Formal Language 5 3 3 Terms of Privacy 6 3 4 Terms of Greeting 6 3 5 Terms of Thanks 7 3 6 Terms of 可编辑修改 Goodbye 8 3 7 Terms of Invitation 8 3 8 Differences Politeness of Cooking Culture 8 3 8 1 The Politeness of Atmosphere on Table 8 3 8 2 The Politeness of Customary Actions on Table 9 4 Reasons for the different its main functions are maintaining social order maintaining friendly interpersonal relations reducing conflicts and misunderstandings by means of polite speech acts so as to attain the aim of communication 1 Both English and Chinese language has much different restriction in the pragmatic among which the most important is the restriction of cultural factors British linguists Leech listed the six politeness principles according to the English culture characteristic while Gu YueGuo analysed Chinese culture characteristic and had conclude five politeness principles in his work Politeness Pragmatics and Culture Comparing the politeness principles of Gu YueGuo and Leech we can find that there are many politeness norms of differences It is an effective way to prevent pragmatic failures and promote the communication smoothly by analyzing and comparing these differences scientifically 2 Different Principles of Politeness in Chinese and English Politeness is the common phenomenon existing in social and group which is the symbol of human civilization and the tool of maintaining interpersonal harmony People should comply with the politeness principles in order to avoid the failures that cause by different politeness 2 1 Politeness Principles of English 2 1 1 Brown and Levinson s face theory Politeness in the interaction can then be defined as the means employed to show awareness of another person s face 2 可编辑修改 Early in the 1950s E Goffman the United States Scholar had put forward the Face Behavior Theory from sociology Then in 1978 Brown and Levinson had further put forward the Mature Face Theory which tried to take face as a common language phenomenon to research on the basis of Goffman in their work of Universals in Language Usage Politeness Phenomena The Mature Face Theory of Brown and Levinson is the first time to discuss the face problems of politeness systematically from anthropology and philosophy They thought that face is for every social member wanted to gain for the public self image of them In the process of interaction people hope each other can maintain each other s face Along with the face threat increasing people use the higher politeness strategies to maintain their face The face threat level depends on the difference of social distance and social power between the communications Brown and Levinson divided the face into positive face and negative face Then politeness is also divided into the positive manner and negative manner 3 2 1 2 Grice Cooperative Principle Grice an American linguist has put forward the Cooperative Principle in people s conversation He thought that in all the communication the speaker and listener should follow some principles which make the process of communication develop toward the tacit understanding and cooperation There are four maxims to embody the Cooperative Principle 1 Quantity Maxim the information you offer should accord with the conversation just the right amount 2 Quality maxim what you said should be reasonable and true 3 Relevant maxim what you said should be related to the content of the front 4 Manner maxim the word you said should be terse clear and systematical 4 But some people do not comply with this social principle even some of 可编辑修改 them violate those in social communication In other words the Cooperative Principle can t completely contain the kinds of conversation According to this the English linguist Leech thought the root of people violating the Cooperative Principle is that they want to comply with another principles Politeness Principle From the Pragmatics and Interpersonal Rhetoric Leech summed up and classified the Politeness Principle during the social communication Leech pointed that the Cooperative Principle guides what we should say so as to meet the expectations However the politeness principle can be maintained the friendship So the Cooperation Principles and politeness principles can make a supplement each other which restrict people s conversation behaviors 2 1 3 Leech s Politeness Principle English scholar Leech in his principles of pragmatics put forward his politeness principle on the basis of Gricean framework He believed that besides Cooperative Principle Politeness Principle guides and constrains rational people s conversation as well It is closely connected with Cooperative Principle Yet on the other hand it solves the problem why people prefer to use indirect speech in conversation which cooperative principle can not explain Leech s Politeness Principle is elaborated into six maxims 1 Maxim of tact minimize cost to other maximize benefit to other 2 Maxim of generosity minimize benefit to yourself maximize cost to yourself 3 Maxim of approbation minimize dispraise to other maximize praise to other 4 Maxim of modesty minimize praise of self maximize dispraise of self 5 Maxim of agreement minimize disagreement between self and other maximize agreement between self and other 6 Maxim of sympathy minimize antipathy between self and other 可编辑修改 maximize sympathy between self and other 5 This is the main content of Leech s politeness principles The above criteria have the different emphasis For example the maxim of tact and the maxim of generosity maxim of approbation and maxim of modesty which is the same have two different aspects The maxim of tact is referring to how to treat others which is applied to causative Verbal Behavior request But the maxim of generosity is referring to how to treat self which is applied to commitment Verbal Behavior promise to help Analogously Approbation maxim is referring to how to treat others while Modesty maxim is referring to how to treat self The Agreement maxim points out that it is not suitable to express directly the diversity viewpoint with other person The last maxim sympathy stresses out that we should express common mood with others when people are in bad mood 2 2 Politeness Principles of Chinese Like the English speaking countries the ancient Chinese have made an important discussion on politeness 道德仁义非礼不成 人有礼则安 无礼则 危 故曰 礼者不可不学也 6 鹦鹉能言 不离飞鸟 猩猩能言 不离禽兽 今人而 无礼 不亦禽兽之心乎 夫惟禽兽无礼 6 There is the stander that 夫礼者 自卑而尊人 in the early work 6 Recently the study of politeness principle had made great improvement in China Professor Hu Wenzhong and professor He Ziran make an important discussion in intercultural communication politeness principle Then Gu Yueguo pointed out four politeness traits in communication according to the culture background of China s history and daily communication of chinese people That is respectfulness modesty attitude warmth and refindment At the same time Gu Yueguo put forward five politeness principles on the basis of Leech s 1 The self denigration maxim Gu thought that the most trait of Chinese politeness is Fu Li Zhe Zi Bei Er Zun Ren The maxim points out 可编辑修改 that we must Bian and Qian when we do something for ourselves On the other hand we should Tai and Zun when something is related to the listener 2 The address maxim This maxim points out the traditions that Hhang Xia You Yi Gui Jian You Feng Zhang Yao You Xu which embodies the social relations in the interpersonal communication when people address each other 3 The tact maxim In the Chinese culture Bin Bin You Li is considered the politeness and cultivated The basic content is genteelism chose bawdry forbidden multi purpose tactful less with the truth avoiding mention the unpleasant or embarrassing things 4 The agreement maxim This criterion refers to caring each other s identity and status in society respecting each other s face which makes each other harmony in many aspects When we must criticize others or publish the different opinion we can take the strategy that Xian Li Hou Bin Xian Bao Hou Bian 5 The generosity maxim Minimize cost to others maximizes benefit to other in the behavior of motivation Maximize the benefit that you gain from others minimizing the cost you pay in the words 7 From the above there are many similar Politeness Principle and different emphases between Chinese and English The different emphasis reflects precisely the different culture background The Chinese culture attaches importance to the self denigration maxim and the address maxim for the self denigration maxim plays an important role in the Chinese culture The address maxim also reflects the politeness habit in Chinese culture In other words the address maxim is the typical characteristics of Chinese culture In the Chinese culture the address maxim is the important characteristics while in English culture it is not enough to become the politeness principle during to the tact maxim In English culture the 可编辑修改 tact maxim is the common principle when people take the indicative Verbal Behavior such as instruct commands warning suggest advice 3 A Comparison between Chinese and English Politeness Brown and Levinson thought different culture have the different politeness principles 8 In their view the face is something that is emotionally invested and that can be lost maintained or enhanced and must be constantly attended to in interaction 8 This different is influenced by the society culture religion and geography chronically Chinese and English choose the different strategy which embodies their different National culture feature to express the different politeness principle So people will choose the proper politeness principle in cross cultural communication 3 1 Terms of Address In the modern Chinese people pay great attention to the other s status or career This is the symbol of Vertical social relations which shows a power orientation While in English country people are affected by the social relation and personal standard So they show equal cultural orientation in the terms of address 9 For example in the Chinese culture the subordinate can t call the name of the supervisor students may not call a teacher s name directly and the children do not call the parents name which is showing the politeness and upbringing While in English culture the address shows equal cultural orientation which makes each other closer In the English country generally speaking no matter how old the others are and how high the other s social status and level is people 可编辑修改 would like to call their name This is the symbol of equal social relation Another difference is about the form of addressing Chinese often use title surname to address other rather than call them surnames Such as 张经理 But in English speaking country people can not be tolerated with the addressing of Chinese such as 李老师 李师傅 in addition to several traditional called in west That is Doctor doctor judges and professor 3 2 Humility Language and Formal Language The self denigration is the polite phenomenon of richest Chinese culture characteristics 10 When Chinese gain the praise or congratulations from others they usually take the expression like Nali Nali Guo Jiang Le Can Kui Cang Kui Cha Yuan Le to show their modesty But if we communicate with the westerners in the Chinese habits the result of communication would fail For westerns it s offensive to deny others praise However the Chinese people think the westerns are too confident not enough modest to show the politeness For example Chinese A 你的饭菜太香了 Chinese B 献丑了 British A You are very beautiful British B Thank you Chinese B 过奖了 From the above we can make a conclusion that the compliment of Chinese and British has the same common But Chinese express their politeness through modesty and lower themselves While British just take the expression of Thank you On the other hand there are more distinguishing in honorific of Chinese and English language For example the Chinese 请教 高见 贵姓 拜读 鄙人 拙作 愚见 驾到 贵干 寒舍 are difficult to find the corresponding expression in English But there are many words to show the 可编辑修改 respect and politeness in English such as will would can could 3 3 Terms of Privacy There exits the Value difference in Personal privacy between English and Chinese culture Chinese interpersonal relationship highlights the sociality which emphasizes on social group for personal constraint and emphasizes the collective action people cannot feel the privacy While the westerns emphasize the individualism and personal interests they try to get rid of social bondage for not to exposure their own privacy to the public So the Wage income age and marital status is the privacy of westerns In Chinese culture Chinese people will take the expression how much is your salary how old are you to show their care and enthusiasm But the same topic will become the threat in English privacy 3 4 Terms of Greeting The difference of communication reflects the nation s cultural characteristics In most cases they are highly conventional behavior and comply with the standardized routine 11 Saying hello is the conversation activities between friend and acquaintance The aim is to make each other closer through the less information For example firstly the Chinese say hello will use the 您好 干啥去 吃了没 If we use the same language to say hello with westerns they will feel sick They will think this is impolite to pry about others privacy So when we talk with the westerns we should talk about the weather hobbies or events Secondly Chinese would like to praise others that 你发福了 as if people find some good event But in Britain it is impolite to take the words You are getting fat Thirdly the Chinese people see the guests out always say 慢慢走 On the other hand Chinese people often take some discourse of concern Such as 天气冷 多穿些衣服 All is unreadable in the western 3 5 Terms of Thanks In the aspect of thanks people in the English speaking countries will 可编辑修改 say thank you more general than Chinese They often say thank you no exception between family members or lovers While in China Chinese people do not take the expression of thank you frequently like the westerns In China Chinese people always use less the politeness thank you among the acquaintance friends relative husband and wife sister and brother because it is considered for an unfamiliar or for a stranger But for the western they think they should show their politeness between those people in any case In addition 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 politeness While people of English just say Thank you very much Thanks a lot All is enough to express their gratitude On the other hand Chinese and British have a different answer when they had heard politeness Thank you For example Visitor Thank you for your excellent service and introduction Guide Chinese Why do you say so This is what I should do Guide British You are welcome From the above we can make a conclusion that the Chinese visitor and British visitor s answer is consistent in semantics and Pragmatics which is the maxim of tact of Leech An