Politeness is a universal phenomenon, for it can be observed in all languages and cultures. It plays an important role in human communication: it helps establish, maintain or consolidate harmonious interpersonal relat...Politeness is a universal phenomenon, for it can be observed in all languages and cultures. It plays an important role in human communication: it helps establish, maintain or consolidate harmonious interpersonal relationships and facilitate social interactions. Politeness as an observable phenomenon is something not only express by behaviors, but also by language. However,it's a reflection of culture rather than a independent part in the world. Therefore, we need to consider the feature of different culture in order to understand the politeness. The whole thesis is divided into five part, including the introduction and conclusion.The introduction deals with the definition of politeness, the importance of the study and the politeness rules. Part two reviews the studies of politeness by the Western and Chinese scholars, which serves as the theoretical framework for the whole thesis. It introduces the main ideas of two important theories of politeness proposed by three western linguists and five Chinese scholars.It involves Leech's Politeness Principle, Brown and Levinson's Face Theory, and Gu Yueguo's Chinese politeness principle and so on. Part two and part three contain the similarities and differences between Chinese and English politeness rules and its repesentation in daily interactions. Part three discuss the causes of these differences in three aspects: value, morality, and custom. And the final part talk about the significant influence of politeness in Chinese and English. Finally, the paper comes to the conclusion that the major difference is a matter of orientation rather than degree. Negative politeness orientation is in English culture and more positive politeness orientation is in Chinese culture.展开更多
文摘Politeness is a universal phenomenon, for it can be observed in all languages and cultures. It plays an important role in human communication: it helps establish, maintain or consolidate harmonious interpersonal relationships and facilitate social interactions. Politeness as an observable phenomenon is something not only express by behaviors, but also by language. However,it's a reflection of culture rather than a independent part in the world. Therefore, we need to consider the feature of different culture in order to understand the politeness. The whole thesis is divided into five part, including the introduction and conclusion.The introduction deals with the definition of politeness, the importance of the study and the politeness rules. Part two reviews the studies of politeness by the Western and Chinese scholars, which serves as the theoretical framework for the whole thesis. It introduces the main ideas of two important theories of politeness proposed by three western linguists and five Chinese scholars.It involves Leech's Politeness Principle, Brown and Levinson's Face Theory, and Gu Yueguo's Chinese politeness principle and so on. Part two and part three contain the similarities and differences between Chinese and English politeness rules and its repesentation in daily interactions. Part three discuss the causes of these differences in three aspects: value, morality, and custom. And the final part talk about the significant influence of politeness in Chinese and English. Finally, the paper comes to the conclusion that the major difference is a matter of orientation rather than degree. Negative politeness orientation is in English culture and more positive politeness orientation is in Chinese culture.
