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1、A Constructive Study of Politeness in Chinese and English Culture 摘要 禮貌性語言已經(jīng)成為一種廣泛的社會(huì)現(xiàn)象；在人類社會(huì)交往中被廣泛使用。它調(diào)節(jié)者人們的社會(huì)關(guān)系和交流活動(dòng)；它已經(jīng)成為維持人與人之間和諧和避免沖突的工具。隨著中西方在政治、經(jīng)濟(jì)、文化中的交流變得越來越頻繁，言語禮貌變得越來越重要和受重視。言語交流成功與否，很大程度上取決于選擇合適的言語禮貌形式。此課題在比較中英語言之間的不同點(diǎn)的基礎(chǔ)上，闡述中英文言語禮貌之間在不同的文化背景、不同的禮貌原則和各自的注重點(diǎn)下的異同點(diǎn)。這篇論文可以幫助人們?cè)谏鐣?huì)交往中，

2、根據(jù)不同的情景，合適地運(yùn)用禮貌性語言和避免由于不同語言習(xí)慣而引起的語言沖突。同時(shí)，英語學(xué)習(xí)者可以對(duì)外國文化有更深的了解，掌握言語交流。最后，在英語教學(xué)過程中，學(xué)生的理解能力和跨文化交際的能力會(huì)大大提高。 關(guān)鍵詞：禮貌性語言；文化；禮貌原則； Abstract Linguistic politeness is a widespread social phenomenon; it is widely used in social life of human. It coordinates with people’s social relations and communication act

3、ivities; it’s a tool for maintaining interpersonal harmony, and avoiding communication conflicts. China and western countries’ communication in politics, economy, and culture is becoming more and more frequent, polite language also appears more and more important. Verbal communication successful or

4、not, depends largely on whether to choose appropriate polite forms. This topic will be based on the comparative study of polite language in Chinese and English to clarify the similarities and differences between Chinese and western courtesy, and in different cultural background, the different polite

5、ness principle and their respective emphasis. The study of this issue can make people in the social process, according to different occasions, use the right polite language properly, and avoid conflicts because of different polite language under different cultures. At the same time, it can give the

6、English learners a more thorough understanding of western culture, master the language communication. Finally, if used in English teaching, it will improve the comprehensive quality of students, as well as the ability of cross-cultural communication. Key Words Polite Language; Culture; Politene

7、ss Principle; 1 DifferentPrinciplesofPolitenessinChineseandEnglish Politeness is a basic requirement in the communication of human beings; it is the symbol of civilization and a tool of maintaining harmony of interpersonal communication. It is a very important skill in daily communicatio

8、n. 1.1 Greeting Greetings are important and frequent in everyday use and interactions over the world. Proper use of greetings is critical for the maintenance and establishment of interpersonal communication. 1.2 Different ways of opening a conversation In English culture, we often say “hel

9、lo”, “how are you”, “nice to meet you”. But in China, people greet with each other like this to open a conversation: “你吃飯了嗎？”， “你準(zhǔn)備去哪？”. But if you say “have you eaten yet?” or “have you had you lunch?”, it will be very strange and not proper. And American would misunderstand that you have not had y

10、our lunch, and they can go somewhere to have something to eat. “good morning”, “good afternoon” is almost equal to “你好” in Chinese. In English, people often say “nice to meet you”, “goodbye”, while Chinese often say “走好”， “慢走”. But if you say “walk slowly”, “go slowly”, and people would be confused

11、 by you. 1.3 Different topics of greeting of leaving-taking In English, people often start a conversation with the talk of weather, for example, “what a fine day today!”, while Chinese often ask about people’s personal information, for example, “您貴姓？”， “你今年多大了？”， “你在哪高就？”. But if you ask foreign

12、 people some personal information, it would be regarded impolite. In Western culture, it is common to indulge in a couple of minutes’ talk, as preparation for leaving. This maybe the along the lines of: “Well, it’s been lovely to see you again, but I must be going soon. I hope we’ll be able to get

13、 together again before long. While it is customary for the Chinese guest to say “慢走”, “走好”, etc. The host usually insists on seeing his guest off, while the guest tries to decline. Here again, what is considered as an act of politeness in Chinese culture might be regarded as a face-threatening act i

14、n Western culture. To Westerners, a smile and a gesture of farewell would be enough. 1.4 Different ways of addressing In English, people often call people’s name directly, or use “Mr.”, “Ms.”. Chinese often use “先生”， “小姐”， “周大伯”. When people call someone in position, Chinese often use “經(jīng)理”， “局長”

15、while foreigner seldom say “Manager Jackson”, “Principal”, and they just often use “Governor”, “professor”. But we also need to pay attention to some usages of words. For example, “師傅”，some people translate it into “master”, but it reflects “主仆關(guān)系”. 1.5 Compliments How to give compliment and re

16、spond to it involves a lot of skills among the interaction, it is important to maintain and establish a good relationship with other people. In the west, it is very common for males to compliment females, for examples, the clothes, hairstyles and etc. “you look so great in this clothe”, “you are

17、 so beautiful when you smile”. And females will be pleased to receive such compliments. But you need to pay more attention when are going to compliment the opposite sex in China, if you say “you are so beautiful” to a strange girl, you may be regarded vulgar. The way of responding to the complime

18、nt is also different between China and English, for example, English respond to “you are pretty beautiful” is “thank you” which Chinese will say “哪里哪里”. Saying thanks is the primary consideration for the group of English when they respond to compliments. While the Chinese answer reflects a conversa

19、tional habit: when commenting on a purchase, we often ask or voluntarily tell whether the price is cheap or expensive. Many Westerners feel somewhat inhibited about talking about price of possessions. Also, that is very likely to be taken as a rejection of native English speakers’ ability to judge.

20、 In giving compliments, frequency of the sentence pattern “I like/love it” in American English is much greater than that in Chinese and “you” and “your” appear in most of the Chinese compliments. Overuse of “I” is marked by the Chinese as a sign of arrogance or the intention of showing off, which i

21、s naturally avoided in complimenting others. In responding to compliments, Americans tend to accept them as a kind of recognition of their individual efforts, whereas the Chinese tend to efface themselves, for too much emphasis on individual efforts will not be socially acceptable, and regard those

22、who praise themselves or simply accept compliments without hesitation as blowing one’s own horn. 1.6 Thanks In the aspect of thanks, English people will say “thank you” more general than Chinese. They often say “thank you”, even to the family or lover while Chinese seem to use “thank you” not

23、 as frequent as westerners. Both Chinese and English language has clear differences in expressing “thank you”. Chinese people take the expression of “給您添麻煩了”， “讓您破費(fèi)了”， “讓您受累了” to express their thanks and politeness while English people just say “thank you very much”, “thanks a lot” to express their

24、gratitude. Also the way of responding is different. Chinese people often say, “沒什么”, “言重了” while English people often say “you are welcome”. To say that what you have done is what you should do shows that you are modesty and courteous, since the response indicates that one need not to be thanked

25、 for what one should do. In comparison, the modesty and courtesy that the English native speaker’s response reflect is not linked with moral obligation. English may feel upset and offended since English’s interpretation of Chinese’s response is that Chinese is obliged to do so rather than do it will

26、ingly. 1.7 Apologies Apologizing is a speech act addressed to the offended person’s face-needs and intended to remedy an offense and thus to restore the friendship between the two. However, people in different cultures have different ways of expressing apology. For the Chinese, apology most ofte

27、n occurs between people of unequal social status and it is usually the person with less power apologizes to the person with more power, e.g. students to their teachers, employees to employers. But for the native English speakers, an apology is necessary whenever inconvenience or offence is made with

28、 little consideration of the status or social power of the people concerned. For example, a manager will say sorry if s/he has to answer a phone call during a conversation. In responding to an apology in both English and Chinese, one can reject the need for apologizing. But in English society, what

29、 the hearer can not do is to accept the apology; whereas in Chinese society, it is perfectly polite to accept the apology by saying “我接受你的道歉”. It’s obvious that there are different rules governing the apology behavior of the Chinese and English speakers. That’s the reason for the fact that the Chi

30、nese may not seem polite enough to English speakers and the English speakers may seem too insincere to the Chinese. 1.8 Politeness on the table Different country has different cooking culture and table manners. In China, people would like to create a wonderful and warm atmosphere for the gues

31、ts, and it is not proper to talk with others during the dinner, especially in the formal dinner or party. It is impolite to speak with food in your mouth. In China, the host will say “沒什么菜”，“大家隨便吃”,“別客氣”, and the guests will respond like this “哪里哪里，這么多菜了” to show their thanks to the host. Whil

32、e in west, people usually say “help yourself at home”. Also we need to pay attention to the differences of the actions on table between Chinese and English. Most westerners do not rock back in the dining chair and do not prop themselves up with their elbows on the table. Placing the forearm on t

33、he table edge is OK. When cutting the food, keep their elbows closed to their body. While in China we should not stick our chopsticks up right in the rice bowl, instead, lay them on you dish. Make sure the spout of the teapot is not facing anyone. It is not polite to set the teapot down where the sp

34、out is facing towards somebody. Don’t tap on your bowl with your chopsticks. Many westerners do not like to smock and drink in their dwelling. So out of politeness, it is always best to ask the host for permission. In China, sometime it is necessary to have a drink to show your politeness. We thi

35、nk that excessive drinking is never proper. When toasting, we often swallow a whole glass of whine by way of “bottoms-up”. 2. Reasons for the difference and politeness It is very important for us to have a better understanding of the reasons behind these differences, so that we can have a bett

36、er performance among the communication and interaction. 2.1 Reasons for the Differences Different culture factors can result in the difference. So it is necessary for us to find out these reasons. 2.1.1 Confucianism and Christianity Trace back to the origin, it is very important to menti

37、on the Confucianism and Christianity. Confucianism became the mainstream thought of Chinese and has existed for thousands of years and has a great influence on China’s politics and economy. While Christianity plays an important role in western world. 2.1.2 Different historical backgrounds A co

38、untry or a nation’s lifestyles and communicative behavior, to some extent, are influenced greatly by its geographical and other physical background. Union and steadiness has always been the important thing in every dynasty of China. This kind of steadiness is accepted by almost all the members of fa

39、mily, society and even has a great influence on one’s social status and relationships. Because Chinese families used to be very big and highly hieratical, to some extent，the politeness is a very important thing through the history. In contrast, the Western countries usually rise in the oceanic envi

40、ronment. All these experiences formed their different mental attitudes and characteristics. In their mind, everyone is created equal, which has a great effect on people’s communicative behavior. 2.1.3 Different value orientation As we all know, individualism is the core of Western cultural value,

41、 while collectivism is the core of Eastern cultural value. People in Western countries value freedom and places high priority on openness. The word privacy has positive connotation for people in English-speaking countries. They think of the privacy of their homes, the right to privacy, and the right

42、 to private property. So they pay more attention to their privacy and personal rights. The word exclusiveness indicates that a person withdrawal from a society, is a loner, or does not fit in. However, the traditional Chinese did not have a concept of privacy. As a result, there is no corresponding

43、word in the Chinese language. Typically privacy is translated exclusiveness, which brings up very different connotation in English from the word privacy. Moreover, the Chinese people, in general, place emphasis on relationships, group harmony, cooperation, and family. As a result, different value or

44、ientations might lead to different behaviors. 2.2 Reasons for the politeness It is true that the culture shapes the way of living. It is very obvious that the different cultures led to different communicative habits. The western culture is more open, and their conversation can be more open, so

45、metimes they just call each other’s name directly. While in China, we pay more attention to the politeness when we appraise a person, especially the politeness to strangers and the old. Our cultures are influenced by Confucianism, which preaches politeness and respect to friend, the old and other

46、 people around us. 3 Conclusions This thesis mainly talks about the difference between polite language in Chinese and English and reasons behind the differences. The expressive ways of politeness are different from culture to culture and are closely associated with the typical behaviors of some

47、particular social groups. Generally, polite discourses such as address, greeting and leave-taking, thanks, apology and compliment play a vital role in people’s daily life. In the first part, it talks about the difference from eight aspects. It can help people get a better understanding of the polite

48、 language both in Chinese and English. In the second part, it analyzes the reasons of the differences of people’s communicative habit from different countries. It will be more and more important for people to know the difference between Chinese people and western people, especially about the po

49、liteness in such a globalized world. We need pay more attention to the polite language study and use in the daily life. Most importantly, the language learners also can learn to see world as native speakers of that language see it as well as learn the ways in which their language reflects the ideas,

50、 cultures, customs, and behavior of society, so as to understand their “l(fā)anguage of the mind”. 參考文獻(xiàn) [1] Davis, L. Doing Culture: Cross-cultural Communication in Action. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 2001. [2] 謝水蘭 A Constructive Study of Politeness in Chinese and English Culture，2008 [3] 胡文仲. 文化與交際, 北京, 外語教學(xué)與研究出版社, 1994. [4] Davis, K. Human Behavior at Work (5th Ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill, 1997.