A Contrastive Study of Chinese and English Greeting 英汉问候语对比研究.doc

A Contrastive Study of Chinese and English Greeting Abstract Language is the medium for human communication. Greeting, as a component of language, plays a most important role in the communication. It is one kind of speech act that frequently occurs in everyday life. Greetings are words used to start an everyday communicative interaction or acknowledge of the presence of other. Therefore, proper greeting behavior is crucial for the foundation and maintenance of interpersonal relationships. However, since China is totally different from the Western countries both in its history and its culture, it is undoubtedly that greeting, which is closely related to its culture, will be quite different from that in the Western countries. Misusing the greeting may easily lead to misunderstanding in the intercultural communication. Therefore, to acknowledge the differences existing in the greeting is the first step to achieve mutual understanding and respect. This paper, with some related theories presented, aims at making a contrastive study of greetings in English and in China. Some researches are also done with the greeting on its level, its functions and the elements influencing it. Key Words greeting; English; Chinese; cultural differences; cross-cultural communication英汉问候语对比研究【摘 要】语言是人们进行交流的媒介。问候语是语言的一个组成部分，也是社交礼仪的重要部分； 它是日常生活中频繁使用的言语行为之一，具有建立和延续各种人际关系的作用。在日常交际中，适当的问候举止是建立和维持人与人之间关系的关键。然而，由于中国的历史背景和文化背景与西方国家有着相当大的差异，存在于文化之中的问候语也随之有着相当大的差异。这种差异在跨文化交际中很容易引起误解。因此，为促进不同语言和文化背景下人们的相互沟通，有必要深入了解中西文化中问候语的差异。本文通过对中西方文化背景中一些典型问候语的对比研究，阐述了两种文化中关于问候语的相关理论，在层次、功能、根源等方面对问候语进行研究。【关键词】问候语；英语；汉语；文化差异；跨文化交际ContentsAbstract.I摘要.II1. Introduction.12. Varieties of Chinese and English greetings.22.1 Greetings classified according to time.22.2 Greetings classified according to formality.23. Differences in Chinese and English greetings.23.1 Difference in contents.23.2 Difference in semantics.53.3 Difference in syntax.54. Theories related to greetings in English culture and Chinese culture54.1 Politeness Theories in English culture.64.1.1 Leechs Politeness Principle.64.1.2 Brown and Levinsons Face Theory.64.2 Gu Yueguos Theory in Chinese culture.75. Three levels of greetings.76. The function of greetings.96.1 Greetings as communication function.96.2 Greetings as linguis tic routines of politeness function.96.3 Greetings as illocutionary acts.107. The influence of philosophical sources on Chinese and English greetings.117.1 The principle of the Westequality and human rights.117.2 The key principles of Confucianism.128. Conclusion.13Bibliography.151. Introduction  With the development of society and culture, communications between people become more and more important. When China implemented its reform and opening up policy, especially after China entered WTO, communication with other countries has become more important. However, people in different countries hold different beliefs and values, which result in misunderstanding. In order to avoid the embarrassment, we should know the cross-cultural communication greeting.      Greetings are important, because they frequently occur in everyday social interactions all over the world. Proper greeting behavior is crucial for the foundation and maintenance of interpersonal relationships. Greetings are words used to start an everyday communicative interaction or acknowledge of the presence of others. As an everyday practice that is routinized and happens at very low levels of awareness in interactions, greeting is seemingly a spontaneous reaction to the encountering of people. It is such a quick, simple, and conventionalized episode of communication that people usually give no thought to what happens during those few seconds of interaction. Being part of a culture that is very often seen in everyday life, such practices are important in understanding the structure and the essence of a society and culture.The study of greetings is important in the following three aspects.First, a theoretical study of greeting as an everyday practice can help people to realize that greetings in everyday life are important for the understanding of a culture and society. Although a seemingly minor episode of interaction, greeting has an important function in the management of human relations. It is by means of greeting that friends acknowledge, confirm, and strengthen their friendship. While performing greeting rituals, interactants signal to each other their respective social status, their degrees of familiarity, and the roles they will play in the coming encounter. A study of greetings thus contributes much to understanding the structure of the interpersonal relationship in a given social community.      Second, the study of greetings helps to develop a situational ap proach towards the study of cross-cultural communication. Generally speaking, greeting is a routinized situational frame transmitted in a given social cultural community. Like many other frames such as apologizing, complimenting, etc., greeting is one of the cultural blocks, which varies cross-culturally. A systematic study of greeting with sociocultural factors taken into account will tend to better understand the structure of a certain society and culture. Third, a contrastive study of greeting can help people to enhance their cross-cultural awareness. With the development of society and culture, especially the development of globalization, chances are that cultural clashes will inevitably arise between people with different cultural backgrounds. As a result, an urgent task confronted by people is to enhance people cross-cultural awareness for the purpose of avoiding or overcoming cultural clashes in cross-cultural communications. Since greetings occur among people all over the world, it appears to be an excellent unit of social behavior to study if one intends to make a contrastive study on what is universal, what is traditional, and what is distinctive in cross-cultural communications. A better understanding of cultural differences in greetings will surely boost the maintenance and improvement of human relations in cross-cultural communications. 2. Varieties of Chinese and English greetingsGreeting expressions are abundant in English and Chinese. They can be classified in various ways.2.1 Greetings classified according to timeGreetings in both languages seem to vary with time: some greetings can be used for any day or at any time of the day whereas others cannot. They can be divided into the following subcategories:   (1) All-time greetings,              (2) Real-time greetings   (3) Seasonal greetings,             (4) Introductory greetings,    (5) Ceremonial greetings.All-time greetings are those not contained in usage by the time: they can be used by for any and at any time of day. For example: Hello! /Hi! (你好!) /How are you? (你身体好吗?)Real-time are those used in close relation to the time of the day: each of them can only be used at a specific time of the day accordingly. For example: Good morning! (早上好!)/ Good afternoon! (下午好!)/Good evening! (晚上好!)Seaso nal greetings are those used only on some special days, such as Christmas, New Years Day. For example: Happy New Year! (新年好!) Merry Christmas! (圣诞节快乐!) Good luck for everything. (万事如意!)Introductory greetings are those used when two people are introduced to each other. For example: How do you do! Ceremonial greetings are those used at birthdays, wedding ceremonies, and other occasions. For example: Happy birthday! (生日快乐!) Congratulations! (恭喜!)2.2 Greetings classified according to formalityGreetings vary with speech style. They can be classified according to their formality of usages.    (1) Formal greetings             (2) Informal greetingsFormal greetings are those used on important occasions where maximum attention needs to be paid to speech and where speakers must be very polite. For example: How do you do? 您好！Informal greetings are those used in conversations to create a relaxed language environment. For example: Hello! 你好！ 3. Differences in Chinese and English greetings3.1 Difference in contents“Although one talks of culture in discrete terms, the fact is that there are cultural similarities which also minimize the potential problems of intercultural communication. Overlap in culture makes it possible for us to talk Western culture as opposed to African or Oriental culture. Within Western culture, one can proceed to further differentiate into European, English, German, French culture, etc. It is precise in those cases where the widest cultural divergence exists that greatest care needs to be taken to avoid conflict and breakdown in communication.”1 “In Chinese culture, four specific sentences occur more frequently among people based on where and when they meet. They are 你好! (How do you do?), 今天你忙吗? (Are you busy today?) 你去哪儿?(Where are you going?) 吃了吗?(Have you eaten yet?) Response to “你好” is its repetition “你好”. However, responses to the other greetings are normally answers on the basis of the real circumstance or position the addressee is in at the moment he/she is greeted.”2 你好!(How do you do?) is often used as a greeting among people who do not know each other or know one another but not very well, especially in the normal situation, for example,A teacher in languages department meets a teacher in history department on their way to wor k.A: 你好!(How do you do?) B: 你好!(How do you do?)  今天你忙吗?(Are you busy today?) is often used as a greeting between colleagues or acquaintances before, after or during the office hours, for example,Two people who know each other meet in the door of the office building when they go to their own offices.A:今天你忙吗? (Are you busy today?)B:很忙/不太忙。(Very busy/ Not very busy.)你去哪儿? (Where are you going?) is used as a greeting when two acquaintances meet on the street at any time of the day, for example,Two acquaintances meet on the street.A:刘老师,你去哪儿? (Mr. Liu, where are you going?)B:我去学校。(I am going to school.)吃了吗(Have you eaten yet?) is normally used among acquaintances around meal time, for example,Two acquaintances meet in the building of their working place at noon.A:吃了吗?(Have you eaten yet?)B:还没吃。(Not yet.)Although there are many ways to express greeting, they have one point in common, that is, the addresser shows his/her interest in and care for his/her addressee. Friendliness, concern and interest are contained in the greeting. However, from the perspective of English speaker, the above exchanges might not be considered appropriate because they have different patterns in terms of greeting. “How do you do?” “Good morning/afternoon/evening.” “Hi/Hello,” followed by “How are you?” or comment on weather such as “Beautiful weather isnt it?” or “How are things going/How are you doing?” are more frequently used. In responses to the greetings “How do you do?” and “Good morning/afternoon/evening”, mere repetitions are applied while in response to “How are you?” or “How are things going/How are you doing?” “Fine”, or “Good” or “Very well” are frequently used, followed by “Thank you “. When responding to the comment on weather as a greeting, the speaker normally responds positively, such as “Yes, it (really) is” or “Yes, I like/love it”.    “How do you do?” is generally used when people are first introduced to each other, for example:A is introduced to B by C in a party.C: Jim, this is Peter. This is Jim.A: How do you do?B: How do you do?face="Times New Roman">“Good morning/afternoon/evening” is often used among people who do not know each other or know one another but not very well or in formal occasions, for example,Two academics meet in one morning in their hurry to their offices in their office building.             A: Good morning, John.    B: Good morning, Peter.    “Hi/Hello,” followed by “How are you?” or comment on the weather can be used both among strangers and acquaintances whereas “Hi/Hello”, followed by “How are things going? How are you doing?” are generally applied by close acquaintances or friends, for example,    Two acquaintances meet in the corridor of the building of their working place.A: David, how are you?    B: Fine, thank you.    Two strangers meet on the street on a fine day.    A: Hello, beautiful weather, isnt it?    B: Yes, I love it.    Two friends meet in a cinema.    A: Hi, Lucy, How are you doing?    B: Hi, Sam. Pretty well.The above examples show that despite some similarities, the differences between Chinese and English greetings are obvious. So if the Chinese native speaker who learns English as a foreign language communicates with English speakers, it is easier for him/her to transfer Chinese rules into English, especially when he/she has little knowledge about the differences of English and Chinese culture, thus causing misunderstandings or jokes during cross-cultural communications.For example, “Are you busy today?” is often used as a greeting in Chinese culture, but a requesting in English culture.A Chinese student meets his teacher on the campus.A: Hello, Mr. White, are you busy today?B: Not really. Anything I can do for you?A: Oh nothing.In this situation, “A” feels curious because he/she didnt expect any further move from “B” and didnt know how to respond. However, “B” regard As greeting “Are you busy today?” as an indirect requesting rather than s imply a greeting, and would wonder, “Why did he ask me if I were busy?” In English culture, personal matters are regarded as ones privacy which people do not like to talk about with other people except intimate friends. Chinese greetings such as “Where are you going?” or “what are you doing?” which show consideration toward others may not be proper to most of English speakers. They consider Chinese greetings as impolite ones, which intrude their privacy. Obviously, people in English culture as well as in Chinese culture attach great importance to “speaking politely”. Yet some people in English culture may find Chinese greetings unacceptable or even offensive for these greetings seem to be concerned more about personal matters although they are quite appropriate and friendly in Chinese culture. This fact may account for neutral character in the content of many English