Research On Comparison Of Honoriifcs Between Chinese And Japanese

Honorific is a kind of linguistic form that the speaker uses to pay respect to the hearer based on thehearer’s ranks and the relationship with the speaker so as to ensure the success of a communication. TheAncient Chinese has a clear honorific systems, the ancient Chinese society is conscious of using honorifics.Influenced by political changes, the consciousness of using honorifics and the whole Chinese honorificsystem have changed, While Japanese has a strong sense of using honorifics. The language itself includes arigorous and complete system. Previous studies showed that, there are both similarities and differencesbetween the two honorific systems. Researches on the features of Chinese and Japanese honorific systemand their translation principles between Chinese and Japanese are not fully developed. Therefore, this thesiscompares the honorific system of Chinese and Japanese from synchronic aspects.The dissertation is divided into five chapters. The main contents are as follows:In the introduction part, it consists of the meaning, background and methods of the research. Thisthesis mainly adopts three research methods:(a) the method of comparative analysis;(b) the combinationof synchronic and diachronic research methods;(c) the descriptive method.There are four chapters in total.In Chapter one, Chinese and Japanese honorifics are rigorously defined based on the previous research,then, the construction of Chinese and Japanese honorifics is analyzed systematically. The Chinese honorificsystem includes honorific, modest and polite honorific. This classification is mainly based on the prototypecategory theory, and the type of polite, modest are typical members of the honorifics, whereas the politehonorific is an atypical one. In the Chinese honorific system, we turn the polite honorific into the "family"of Chinese honorifics, breaking the previous view (that honorifics include polite and modest one), andovercoming the limitation of the honorific in Chinese honorific mode classification.In Chapter two, with respect to the differences of social development and national awareness invarious countries, this paper analyzes the reasons that influence the development of honorific system inboth Chinese and Japanese, and then compares the characteristics of Chinese and Japanese honorifics fromvarious aspects, among which the ways of paying respects in Chinese and Japanese honorific system areincluded. Chapter three includes a comparative analysis of the degree of paying respect in Chinese referentialpolite and modest honorifics and Japanese honorifics, modest words I, modest words II, solemn language,and beautifying language. The analysis above shows the correspondence of using consciousness in Chineseand Japanese honorific system. The using of honorifics for different social ranks, non-acquaintances andbenefactors, for speaker himself and for keeping genteel in Japanese can be replaced by the correspondentcourteous, intimate and elegant polite ones in Chinese.Chapter four explains the application of new findings into the translation of Chinese and Japanesehonorifics which includes four translation principles: firstly, the personal pronoun it subordinated to, whichis to show politeness should be omitted or translated properly; secondly, to show polite asks for unity;thirdly, the degree of respect showing should abide by the key principles; fourthly, the principles of civility,intimacy, and decency. The words functions of showing respects in the process of translation are different.The function of showing respects in Chinese has the feature of independence, while Japanese has thefeature of coincidence.This thesis focuses on the comparison between the honorifics in Chinese and Japanese, through whichto set examples for the translation and the teaching in the honorifics in Chinese and Japanese, and to perfectthe social skills personally.