Abstract

As a kind of social speech acts to maintain and improve human relationships, the compliments have been widely accepted. The application of compliments can make the communication move forward in a harmony atmosphere, shorten the social distance between different communicators and then improve the normal human relationships, so as to achieve the high quality of communication. However, compared with the researches of compliments at abroad, the domestic studies start relatively late and most of them are the introduction to the research results of English compliments. There are few systematic researches of Chinese compliments. Therefore, on the basis of previous researches, this paper will make a comparative study on the similarities and differences of the compliments as well as their responses between English and Chinese from the cross-cultural perspective. Besides, it will explore the reasons that hidden behind the differences, so as to promote the cross-cultural communication.

Key Words: China; western; cultural differences; the compliments and their responds; comparative study

Contents

Abstract

摘要

1.Introduction-1

2.Literature Review-2

3.The Relationship Between Compliment Speech and Culture-4

3.1Cooperation principle-5

3.2Politeness principle-6

4.The Comparison Between Chinese and Western Compliment Speech Acts-7

4.1The similarities of compliment speech acts in different cultures-7

4.2The differences of compliment speech acts in different cultures-8

5.The Causes of Different Compliment Speech Acts-11

5.1Collectivism and individualism-12

5.2Introversion and extroversion-14

5.3Hierarchy and democracy-14

6.The Strategies of Confronting Different Compliment Speech Acts-15

6.1Having sufficient linguistic and pragmatic knowledge-15

6.2Recognizing their different cultural background-16

7.Conclusion-16

Works Cited-18