Chinese College Students' Compoliment Discourse Analysis

As an important vehicle of communication, compliment has become a key point in studying pragmatics these years. People from different countries act differently in compliment and response due to different social factors. Based on Leech's new politeness principle-Grand Strategy of Politeness proposed in 2005, this thesis analyzes the questionnaire completed by 384 students who come from different grades and different majors in Changchun University of Science and Technology. The questionnaire shows that students in Grade One and Grade Three act differently in compliment and compliment response; at the same time, it also reflects that the data of this research is similar to Herbert's data, which shows Chinese college students and Americans both follow Leech's Grand Strategy of Politeness when paying compliment or being complimented. The major finding is Chinese college students'compliment and response similarly to Americans. Being post-80s and post-90s, modern Chinese college students have a strong capability to accept new things, while we also have a five-thousand-year history which is rooted deeply in every Chinese's mind, which makes the college students'compliment and response a little different from these of Americans. Thus, sometimes there will be slight difference in compliment and response.