This paper explores similarities and differences in the application of positive and negative politeness strategies to English and Chinese business letters and illuminates underlying causes of such similarities and dif...This paper explores similarities and differences in the application of positive and negative politeness strategies to English and Chinese business letters and illuminates underlying causes of such similarities and differences.The results indicate that English and Chinese business letters have some common features and great discrepancies in categories and the distribution of positive and negative politeness strategies.It is argued that common situational factors,different cultural backgrounds and different syntactic features result in their similarities and differences.展开更多
文摘This paper explores similarities and differences in the application of positive and negative politeness strategies to English and Chinese business letters and illuminates underlying causes of such similarities and differences.The results indicate that English and Chinese business letters have some common features and great discrepancies in categories and the distribution of positive and negative politeness strategies.It is argued that common situational factors,different cultural backgrounds and different syntactic features result in their similarities and differences.