1 A Comparative Study of Polite Discourses between Chinese and Western Cultures

闫晶 2010103010231

摘 要：礼貌的表现方式在不同的文化中是达不相同的，它与某一特定社会群体的典型行为密切相关。总的来说，礼貌用语中的称呼语、问候语与告别语、致谢语、道歉语以及赞扬语在人们的日常生活中扮演着重要角色。本文对中西礼貌用语进行了具体而详尽的对比与分析，并概括了不同文化之间的礼貌用语存在差异的原因，即是由于不同的历史文化背景和不同的价值取向造成的。通过分析比较中西文化下的礼貌用语差异，人们可以更好的学习英语，同时对于跨文化交际有一个更深层次的了解。 关键词：礼貌用语；文化；价值取向

Abstract: The expressive ways of politeness are different from culture to culture and are closely associated with the typical behaviors of some particular social groups. Generally, polite discourses such as address, greeting and leave-taking, thanks, apology and compliment play a vital role in people’s daily life. This paper makes a detailed contrast and analysis to the polite discourses between Chinese and English cultures, and summarizes the reasons for the differences of the polite discourses— different historical and cultural background and different value orientation. According to the analysis, people can learn English better as well as have a deeper understanding of cross-cultural communication. Key words: polite discourses; culture; value orientation

Introduction People all communicate with others all the time. No matter how well they understand each other, communication is hard. “Culture” is often at the root of communication challenges. The culture influences how people approach problems, and how they participate in groups and in communities. When they participate in groups they are often surprised at how differently people approach their work together. People’s histories are a critical piece of their culture. Historical experience—whether of 2

five years ago or of ten generation back—shape who they are. Knowledge of your history can help you understand yourself and one another better. Exploring the ways in which various groups with our society have related to each other is the key to opening channels for cross-cultural communication. This thesis is intended to compare different expressive ways of politeness in Chinese culture with that in English culture to have a better understanding of the polite discourses with different cultures. Through the brief analysis, it can be concluded that it is the historical and cultural background and different value orientation that determines the dissimilarities of polite discourses under different cultural contexts. Learning the relationship between language and culture and how that influences communication and understanding will help people participate in groups in an easy and friendly way.

1. The different expressive ways of polite discourses There are various languages with different meanings in the world. People from different cultures might misunderstand each other because they don’t have a good knowledge of the differences of politeness. Here are some detailed examples of polite discourses to analyze the behaviors in different cultures by which people can improve their ability to communicate with others. 1.1 Address

The forms of address in every language reflect social status of the speaker, of the addressee, of the relationship between them. As far as English and Chinese forms of address are concerned, each has a system of its own due to the different cultures they have derived from. Generally speaking, there three noticeable differences between Chinese and English address systems which are likely to cause problems for intercultural communication. First, a proper Chinese name is arranged in the order of surname plus given name(s). An English name, however, is arranged in reverse order from the Chinese. The English first name (equivalent to the Chinese given name), is a non-kin public address term. So, in English, the usual forms of address for the English teacher are as follows: Mr. Lewis, or Andrew. (not: Teacher Lewis, Mr. Andrew, etc ) Second, some Chinese kinship terms have extended and generalized usage. This is not the 3

case of English counterparts. For example, a child may call a policeman 警察叔叔 (police uncle), a young street peddler may address a middle-aged female customer as 大姐. Yeye (grandpa), nainai (grandma) can be used to address people who have no familiar relation with the addresser. We may say that in Chinese culture kin terms are widely used to address known or unknown people, with the appropriate use of kin terms reflecting a person’s politeness, respectfulness, and friendliness. The third difference is that most occupational titles can be used as address terms in Chinese, but their English equivalents are not necessarily used in the same manner. Look at a talk exchange which actually occurred between a Chinese student (C) and an English teacher (E): C: Teacher, how do you do? E: How do you do? Where do you teach? C: No, I’m not a teacher. I’m a student. Here, C was using “teacher” as an address term, which was interpreted by E as a self-introduction. The three differences also reveal the Chinese system of forms of address has been dominated by status and politeness norms for many years. In contrast, with the gradual rise of domestic ideology, and equality increasingly become prevalent in forms of address in English. 1.2 Greeting and leave-taking