A Study Of Politeness In The English And Chinese Cultures

Politeness as a social phenomenon can be observed in all languages and cultures,and it has long been made an important ohect of study of linguistics.The study of politeness in the Western linguistic circles can be traced back totl1e beginning of the twentieth celltury. In recent years, along with the raPidmovement towards pragmatics, politeness has become the central theme.Leech's Politeness Principle, and Brown and Levinson's Face Theory are nowtwo most influential and successful theories to account fOr linguistic politeness.In China, however, the serious study of politeness only began in the l980'swhen pragmatics was introduced into China. Some famous Chinese scholarshavc written somc insightful articles on politeness in Chinese. Among them, GuYueguo should be meniioned, who put forward his own set of politeness maximsin modern Chinese (l990, l992).This thesis introduces the main ideas of the theories concerned, namely,Brown and Levinson's Face Theory, Leech's Politeness Principle and GuYueguo's politeness maxims. It makes an attempt to discuss, from culturalperspectives, the interPretation of the following aspects f the notion of face,modesty, privacy, individualism and terms of address. It finally emphasizes theimportance of the tact of politeness.