Different Expression Between Chinese and English on Politeness-中英文礼貌用语的差异.docx

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1、 毕业论文题 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 IIDIFFERENT EXPRESSION BETWEEN CHINESE AND ENGLISH ON POLITENESSTHESISSubmitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements forThe degree of Bachelor of ArtsIn xxxxx University By Supervisor: Ma

2、y 2014 摘 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i Abstract Politeness is a kind of common soc

3、ial 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

4、 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

5、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 suc

6、ceed in cross-cultural communication,Key words: differences; polite language; politeness principle;cross-cultural communicationiiii Contents摘 要.iAbstract.iiIntroduction.1Chapter 1 A Comparative Analysis of Politeness Maxims in English and Chinese.21.1 English Politeness Maxims.21.2 Chinese Politenes

7、s Maxims.3 Chapter 2 The Main Performance of Different Expression Between Chinese and English on Politeness.5 2.1 Terms of Address.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.13Chapter 3 The Reasons, Effects an

8、d Strategies of Different ExpressionBetween Chinese and English on Politeness.183.1 The Reasons of Different Expression Between Chinese and English on Politeness.183.2 The Influence of the Different Expression Between Chinese and English on Politeness.223.3 The Strategies to the Different Expression

9、 Between Chinese and English on Politeness.24Conclusion.26Bibliography. .27Acknowledgement26Introduction 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 polit

10、eness. 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. A

11、s 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,

12、 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 other cultures is very important. Especially in the cross-culture communication. This article is written to

13、introduce the different expression between Chinese and English on politeness from different perspectives. B.A. Thesis Chapter 1 A Comparative Analysis of Politeness Maxims in English and Chinese Chapter 1 A Comparative Analysis of Politeness Maxims in English and ChineseIn the past decades, research

14、ers 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 Cr

15、ices Cooperative Principle, Leechs politeness principles and Gu Yueguos politeness principles.1.1 English Politeness MaximsAmong the principles proposed by pragmaticists to explain the phenomena in the use of language in conversation, Crices Cooperative Principle is one of the basic ones. But Leech

16、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

17、 maximize benefit to others.(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 d

18、isagreement 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 whe

19、n 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 Leechs principle of politeness for reference and summed up four features of Chinese polite

20、ness, 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 respe

21、ct 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 o

22、ften 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 others identity and social status and respect each others

23、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. Thesis Chapter 2 The Main Performance of Different Expre

24、ssion Between Chinese and English on PolitenessChapter 2The 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 environm

25、ent, 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 AddressAs we all know, addressing forms play an important role in our daily life to forming a good relationship. People are all

26、 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

27、, 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 dont hav

28、e 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 he

29、r 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 dif

30、ferent. 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

31、 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. Whats more, in China, calling others as “Little Zhang” or “old Li” is also a good way to show the close relationship, b

32、ut we cant 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 strangers or someone who is older than themselves. For example, children like to address

33、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 w

34、e 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 politene

35、ss 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

36、 be confused and wouldnt accept the 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

37、like “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

38、” around meal times. But for English, this greeting way might mean that “ I havent either, come on , lets go together and get something to eat” or “if you havent, 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 greetin

39、g, 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 “Its none of your business !”Then lets come to farewells. In Chinese. When the visit is over and the guest is seen to the door or gateway by the hos

40、t, 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 English speakers. When English speakers part, they usually say“ good-bye, bye-bye, so long or see you later / tomorrow / next Monday.”T

41、he foreign hosts dont accompany guests to the gate upon leave-taking. 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, misunde

42、rstandings 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 pub

43、lic 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,

44、 the compliment as “You earn highest salary among all our classmates, you are so capable!” will not make the Chinese hearers 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 Philadelphias Chinatown, a complete male stra