A Contrastive Study Of Courtesy Language In English And Chinese

This thesis is an attempt to make a contrastive study of courtesy language in English and Chinese.With the increasing contact between our country and foreign countries, people's interests in learning foreign languages and communicating with foreigners have developed quickly. But if people are not aware of the similarities and the differences between the two languages, especially in courtesy language, it will cause misunderstanding in interaction, which not only hinders their communication with foreigners, but also influences their foreign language learning.Politeness is a social phenomenon, generally existing in every language. But due to the differences of cultural values and conventions, people from different culture may have different understandings about the definition of politeness, and they deal with politeness in different ways. When communicating with people from different cultures, one should pay close attention to the connotation due to different culture values, otherwise it will lead to pragmatic failures in communications.Chinese culture and English culture are regarded as representatives of the East and the West. Chinese culture, influenced by Confucianism, underlines human sociality and collectivity; while in the English-speaking countries, individualism is the center of social life. People pursue individual rights and freedom, which are holy and inviolable.Language, as part of culture, is influenced by culture. So is courtesy language. Different cultures lead to different politeness principles. The primary characteristic of Chinese politeness principle is "to denigrate self and to respect others"; English politeness principle has six pairs of "maximize" and "minimize". The most obvious difference between the two kinds of politeness principle is that English does not have the address maxim. Influenced by Christianity, westerners stress equality and egoism,...