论文 英汉称赞语及其应答的对比.doc

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1、JIUJIANG UNIVERSITY毕 业 论 文 题 目 英汉称赞语及其应答的对比 英文题目 Comparison of Compliments and Compliments Responses in Chinese and English 院 系 继续教育学院 专 业 英语教育 姓 名 葛耘 年 级 2014级 指导教师 王赛凤 二零*年十一月摘 要 在人类的语言交际中，称赞语是一种使用频率较高的礼貌言语行为。它是说话者明白地或者曲折地赞誉说话者以外的对象，通常指的是受话者或者是受话者有关的事物，赞美的内容往往是对方一些好的方面（如成功，财产等）。在人际交往中，称赞语主要起着创造或者保

2、持和谐的人际关系这一社会功能，它壳用来打招呼，致谢，表示鼓励和祝贺，开始话题，缓解矛盾等。称赞语虽是世界共有一种的言语交际行为，但它却受着特定的社会文化背景，价值观念所影响。因此，英汉称赞语也必定存在着较大的差异。 这篇论文主要是通过比较和分析英汉称赞语及其应答的不同，指出英汉称赞语的差异主要是源于两种不同的文化背景和文化价值观。研究的目的旨在寻找不同文化背景下如何恰当地给予和接受称赞语的有效途径。这篇论文总结了英汉称赞语的不同，关注它们的不同，能够避免误会和尴尬。除此之外，在跨文化交际中，学习更多的有用的交际技巧能够获得建立和保持良好的人际关系。关键字：称赞语；称赞语应答语；跨文化交际Abs

3、tract Compliment is a polite act that is frequently used in peoples daily verbal interaction. It is a speech act which explicitly or implicitly attributes credit to someone other than the speaker, usually the person addressed or the things related to the person addressed, for some “good” (achievemen

4、ts, possession, etc.). A compliment event has the social function of establishing and maintaining harmonious interpersonal relations in interpersonal communications .It can contribute to greet , thank, encourage, and congratulate, open conversations and erase conflicts, etc. Compliment is common all

5、 around the world, but is influenced by social backgrounds, cultural values. Therefore, there exist great difference between in Chinese and English. The thesis centers on comparing and analyzing Chinese and English compliments and compliments response. It can be concluded that the indifferences betw

6、een English compliments and Chinese compliments arise from the different cultural backgrounds and cultural values in both language. The study aims to provide a good understanding of how to perform and accept compliments appropriately in different cultural background. This thesis makes a conclusion a

7、nd tells that the difference between English compliments and Chinese compliments. Paying more attention to the difference can avoid the misunderstanding and embarrassment .Besides, learning some useful communicative skills could establish and maintain harmonious interpersonal relations in cross- cul

8、tural communication.Key Words: Compliments; compliments responses; cross cultural communication ContentsAbstracti摘 要ii1. Introduction12.Compliments and Compliments Responses22.1 The definition of compliments and compliments responses22.2 Functions of compliments32.3 English compliments and complimen

9、ts responses42.4 Chinese compliments and compliments responses53. Comparison of English and Chinese Compliments and compliments responses63.1 Comparison of compliments in Chinese and English63.1.1 Topic categories 83.1.2 Linguistic forms63.2 Comparison of conpliments responses in Chinese and English

10、 93.2.1 Compliments response strategies in English 93.2.2 Compliments response strategies in Chinese 104. Reasons for Different Compliments and Compliments Responses of Chinese and English114.1 Self-worth VS Modesty124.2 Individualism VS Collective124.3 Directness VS Indirectness125. Conclusion13Bib

11、liography14Appendix15Acknowledgements181. IntroductionAs is known to all, compliments are frequently used in daily social communication. How to give compliments and response to them is a part of communicative competence. Owing to different cultural backgrounds, there are many differences between Chi

12、nese compliments and English compliments. Chinese speakers are often embarrassed by English compliments. Also, English speakers often misunderstood Chinese. They dont know how to give and response compliments.The thesis tries to make a comparison between Chinese compliments and English compliments.

13、Chinese compliments favor the topics on achievements and ability. While, English compliments concentrate on the topics on appearance and possession. As for responding, In Chinese compliments, modesty is more frequently used, whereas acceptance and return are common in English compliments. Trying to

14、find the cultural difference and background between Chinese and English help people understand compliments and improve intercultural communicative competence. From the analysis, the study aims to provide a good understanding of how to perform and accept compliments appropriately in different cultura

15、l background.2. Compliments and Compliments Responses2.1 Definition of Compliments and Compliments Responses2.1.1 The Definition of Compliments Many scholars at home and board have studied compliments; therefore, there are many definitions as follows. In Oxford Advanced learners Dictionary of curren

16、t English with Chinese translation (Third edition, 1987), the word “compliments” is interpreted in two aspects when it is used as a noun. First, “compliments” means “an expression of admiration, approval ,etc, either in words or by action, e.g. by asking somebody for his advice or opinions, or by im

17、itating him”. Second, in its plural form, “compliments” means “greetings”. Of course, compliments in this thesis falls into the first category.From the point of view the applied linguistics, many linguistics scholars have given definitions to compliments. Daikuhara (1986) investigated the speech act

18、 of compliments from the perspective of actual speech communication. In describing the meaning of compliments in speech communication, he wrote as follows: Compliment is used express positive feeling of approval of the hearer of something. Compliments does not necessarily relate to something done by

19、 the hearer, since we may compliments someone on his intelligence, ability , for which he is not responsible, as well as for his act of courage for which he is responsible. Holmes (1986) offered a broad definition of compliment as follows: A compliment is a speech act which explicitly or implicitly

20、attributes credit to someone other than the speaker, usually the person addressed, for some “good” (possession, characteristic, skill, etc.) which is positively valued by the speaker and hearer. Hebert (1989) noted that compliments are either explicit or implicit, corresponding in part to the distin

21、ction between direct and indirect speech act. From different definitions noted above, everyone can find that the compliments are a polite act that frequently occurs in peoples daily verbal interaction.2.1.2 The Definition of Compliments Responses Unlike the definitions of compliments, there are few

22、linguists who have given an adequate definition of compliments responses. We cite Nelsons definition as follows: “A compliment response is a verbal acknowledgement that the respondent of the compliment heard and reacted to the compliments”(Nelson,et.al.1996 :413). We can conclude that compliment res

23、ponses can be said to act as the first reaction of the complimentee to the complimenter. 2.2 Functions of Compliments Many scholars study compliments to facilitate peoples communication with others because of the important functions in peoples daily life. Just as “social lubricants”, there are many

24、kinds of functions of compliments, such as encourages, approves, thanks, congratulates and greetings.To express encouragements For example: “Well done”, “You are doing well”, “Good work” are often heard in the classroom to encourage the students.To express admiration or approval For example: I like

25、your new hairstyle. 你女儿的学习成绩真好。.To express gratitude or congratulations For example: Thats delicious dinner. Thank you! 今天玩得很开心，谢谢你的热情招待。 For example: What an amazing performance! Congratulations! 这次的活动真成功，祝贺你！.To open or sustain conversation For example: A: Hi, Jack, how are you? B: Fine. A: What a

26、 beautiful shirt! B: Oh, thanks. A:小王，吃饭了没？ B:吃了。 A:你的包包真好看！ B:真的吗？在网上买的哦，很划算哦。As we can see, in English compliments are used to encourage, approve, congratulate, thank others, to open a conversation and so on. At the same time, we have found that compliments have the similar function in Chinese. Re

27、inforcement or creation of solidarity is one of the social functions of compliments in the Chinese society .They are used in greeting, thanking, and initiating conversation. 2.3 English compliments and compliments responsesIn the past thirty years, many linguists have drawn attention to the speech e

28、vent which is compliment. In the 1970s some linguists (Turner, 1974; Wolfsan, 1976; Pomerantz, 1978) began their studies on compliments. Since the 1980s the studied compliments from the perspective of pragmatics or the perspective of cross-cultural communication.Wolfsan and Manes (1981) made an infl

29、uential investigation into the use of compliments among the middle class Americans. The result of their research is that compliments are highly formula. The content of compliments includes ones appearance, achievements, possession， character and so on.Pomerantz, Herbert and other scholars made syste

30、matic studies on responses to compliments. Pomerantz was the first researcher to the topic of compliments responses. Herbert（1986） distinguished 12 types of compliment responses. He then provided a quantitative analysis of compliments response types and frequency (1989) .In the analysis; he grouped

31、the responses as (a) Agreement, (b) Nonagreement, (c) request interpretation.Herbert (1990) and Holmes (1998) made important studies on gender differences in complimenting. They suggested that for women compliments are primarily offers of solidarity, while for males, their functions are more often a

32、s actual assertions of praise. We can conclude that much linguistics abroad has researched compliments and they got satisfactory results.2.4 Chinese compliments and compliments responses In china, many scholars also study compliments. While, it is rather late compared with the study abroad. In the 1

33、990s Chinese scholars began their study mainly on English compliments. ZouWeicheng (1990) introduced the structure of the compliment speech act, topic distribution and general response patterns of English compliments.A few Chinese scholars made the cross-cultural study on Chinese and English complim

34、ents. Zuo Huanqi (1998) made a brief comparison on the linguistic formulas, the response formulas and function between Chinese and English compliments. As for the vocabulary, 80% are adjectives, 16% are verbs. However, 46% are adjectives and 43% are verbs in Chinese.Cheng Rong (1993) analyzed differ

35、ent responding to compliments in Chinese and English contexts. Shi Ning (1997) made a cross-cultural study with respect to the topic distribution, the compliment form, and the response pattern. Yuan Lei (2002) got some new points in his research. He found that in American culture compliments often o

36、ccur among family members, which is scarce in Chinese culture. Chinese people tend to compliment the hearers family members. He also gave the cultural reason for the difference. He also found that female tend to use more subjective compliments while the male use more objective and simple patterns.Fr

37、om these results of china, we can found that compliments draw many scholars attention and a lot of researches have been made. We believe that in the next few years, the compliments will be studied more thoroughly and accelerate the development of cross-cultural communication.3. Comparison of English

38、 and Chinese Compliments and Compliments Responses 3.1 Comparison of compliments in Chinese and English3.1.1 Topic categoriesFrankly speaking, people may give compliments about everything that is positive. In fact, studies have shown that most compliments in both languages focus mainly on four categ

39、ories, that is: appearance, possession, ability and achievement. In English, a great number of compliments are on personal appearance. “You are so beautiful”! “You look very elegant today”! These compliments often can be used .When the American female received such compliments, they feel pleased. In

40、 china, the topic of appearance is not preferential. If a boy compliment a girls appearance, he will be regard as vulgar and harboring no good intentions. Possession refers to home, furniture, cars, and other possessions as well as children and relatives. In western, it is natural to compliments oth

41、ers possessions. While, in china, it is not natural to compliment others possessions. Especially between close relationships, for the compliments will be probably regard as a request for possessions and may lead to embarrassment. In my questionnaire, topics on possession show low frequency in Chines

42、e compliments.English compliments on achievement lay emphasis on the result of individual effort. Compliments of “ability” and “achievements” are usually from super ordinate to subordinate in western countries in order to keep a good team between employers and employees. But in china, many young peo

43、ple compliment on their superiors ability or achievements in order to get appreciation. In English, appearance and possession are two most frequently compliment topics, as shown by Wolfsan (1983) and Manes (1983). Chinese compliments focus mainly on ability and achievements.3.1.2 Linguistic formsLex

44、ical Forms Since compliments are expressions of postive evaluations ,every compliments must include at least one term carrying positive semantic load .Data from Manes & Wolfson (1981) have demonstrated that 80% of English compliments depend upon an adjective to carry the positive semantic load. Howe

45、ver,we all know that the number of positive adjective may be used is numerous .Two- thirds of all adjectival compliments made use of only five adjective:“nice, good ,beautiful, pretty and great”(1981).Specifically ,nice and good are by far the most common.For example: Lily, you look so nice today. Y

46、ou did a good job. Its a pretty cloth. What a beantiful hat! That book you lent me was great.In addition, Manes & Wolfson also indicated that the two most frequently used verbs “like” and “love” account for 86% of all verbal compliments.For example:I like your haircut.I love your glasses. In contras

47、t with the fact that great majority of American adjectival compliments make full use of only five different adjectives “good, nice ,great ,beautiful, pretty,”the choice of lexical term in chinese compliments occurs in a wide variety. Frequently occurred adjective are:好，行，能干，不错，棒，酷 and so on“好”can be ued alomost every aspect of life,such as clothes,hair, dishes,skills and achievements. There are many other