The Pragmatic Failure Of Politeness In Cross-cultural Communication

Politeness is universal, since it can be observed in all human interactions, it is resorted to by speakers of different languages as a means to avoid social conflict, and it is recognized as a social contract in all cultures. Politeness, as a symbol of human civilization, is a social-cultural as well as linguistic phenomenon that can be found in all societies all over the world. It has drawn much attention from linguists, psychologists, anthropologists and sociologists since 1960s. As a result of the rapid development of the study of cross-cultural communication, people are now getting more and more interested in investigating what politeness is and how to be polite in cross-cultural interactions. As people from different cultures may have different views on what politeness is and how to be polite, misunderstanding, pragmatic failure or even breakdown may occur if the cultural differences of politeness are neglected in cross-cultural communication. Therefore, it is necessary and of great significance for the people to have a good knowledge of politeness in both Chinese and English.This thesis is intended to make a study of politeness pragmatic failure between English and Chinese from the perspectives of both the theoretical principles and the manifestations of politeness, and analyze that the different cultural values between them are the main cause of such differences. The comparative study and analysis of polite behavior and politeness principles between English and Chinese are expected to be of some help to avoid misunderstanding and breakdown in cross-culture communication.