3日常言语交际

Unit 3

Daily Communication (II)

•Case Analysis

•Compliments and Compliment Responses •Gift-giving and gift-receiving •Exercises

Case Analysis

•An Invitation to Dinner

•The Cancellation of the Dinner Party •Why should they do like this •The Embarrassment Caused by “No Etiquette”

Compliments and Compliment Responses

•Main point: Chinese modesty

•Social functions of compliments •Differences between Chinese compliments and English compliments

•Cultural assumption

•Expressions for gratitude in English and Chinese

•Common expressions for apology in

Chinese Modesty

•Oh, it’s an ordinary dress I bought in China.•Should I blush, or should I tell him you don’t really mean it?

•Growing flowers is my hobby, but I’m not much good at it.

•I really know so little about the subject.•...

Social functions of compliments

•Creating or reinforcing solidarity •greeting people

•expressing thanks

•congratulation

•encouraging people

•softening criticism

•starting a conversation

•getting over embarrassment

Differences between Chinese compliments and English compliments

•The Semantic formula

•The Syntactic Formula

•Common responses formula in E-and C-compliments

The Semantic Formula

•English:

•This was a great meal.•Bill, you look so nice today.

•I love your dresses.•About 80% adj. 16%verbs •Chinese:

•你的房间不错。•你待人真好。•你该受表扬。.•Mainly adj. Adv. verbs

The Syntactic formula

English:

•NP is/looks adj. 53% e.g.You are so efficient.•I like/love NP. 16.2% e.g. I really like your hardwood floors.•PRO is (really) (a) ADJ NP (14.9%) That’s really a beautiful car.•Chinese compliments •You V ADV.41%

你干得不错！•(You)NP is ADV Adj 35% 你穿这件外套真漂亮。

•PRO is ADJ NP (9%)那是一幅不错的画。•PRO (you) V NP Y 5%你该受表彰。•PRO (I) V (like) NP 4%.我喜欢你的房子。

Common Responses Formula in English and Chinese Compliment •American English •A: This is really a nice

sweater.

•B: I’m glad you like it.•A: You did a good job.•B: Thank you/Thanks.•Chinese

•A:Your sweater is

very good.你的毛衣不错。•B: I bought is only for

ten yuan.才花了我十

元钱。•A: You did the job very well.你干得不错。

•B: That’s the result of

joint efforts.大家努力

Cultural Assumption

•You have lost weight.

•You’ve put on weight./You’ve gained weight.

Expressions for gratitude in English and Chinese

•English:

•Thanks/Many thanks/Thanks a lot./Thank you very much./Thank you very much indeed./I really don’t know how to thank you enough./I’m thankful to you for all your kindness./ I greatly appreciate your timely help