密切的跨文化交际是当今世界的一个重要特征

密切的跨文化交际是当今世界的一个重要特征。沉默是跨文化交际中一种重要的非语言符号，包含多种程度不同的信息，常常与语言结合进行，在人际交往中起着重要的作用。随着中美两国人民交流的日益频繁，中美人民在跨文化交流中也必定会遇到沉默问题，如果不了解沉默在中美文化间所表示的不同意义及使用的语境，则会给跨文化交流带来障碍。

本文侧重讨论中美两国人民的沉默观点，在跨文化差异下探索这种沉默观如何形成，对比分析中美两国保持沉默的不同态度及表现，发现在政治时局这方面，中国人表现为勿谈时局，淡漠政治，以免惹火上身；而美国情况相反，人们在政治上的言论相当自由散漫，没有人害怕祸从口出。在商务谈判方面，中国人讲求以静制动，且认为保持沉默有利于思考问题；对于美国人来说，沉默代表较为消极的意义。另一方面，在日常生活中，中国人对沉默运用广泛，社会功能很多；而美国人几乎不使用。本文同时对中美两国表现出沉默差异的原因作了分析，分别从两国的历史文化背景，文化价值观，高语境与低语境三个原因进行阐述；在对待中美文化的沉默差异，我们要端正态度，采取正确的方法。

分析中美文化中的沉默差异有助于帮助人们理解它，减少不必要的误会，增加两国的跨文化交际的亲密度，提高人们的跨文化交际能力。

关建词：沉默，交流，中美文化

Close cross-cultural communication is a part of the important features of

present-day world.Silence is a form of nonverbal symbol which is important in

cross-cultural communication. Contain a variety of different levels of

information,often combined with language,plays an important role in interpersonal communication.Along with the increasingly frequent exchanges between the people

of China and America,silence problems must arise when they communicate through cross-cultural communication.The barriers will come to cross-cultural communication if we don’t understand the unique meaning and the use of context of silence come from Chinese and American culture.

In this essay,focusing on people’s attitude who are Chinese and Americans, explored the cross-cultural differences on how silence is defined and analyzed the different attitudes and performance of keeping silent by contrasting China and America,discover that in the area of politics,Chinese do not talk about current political situation lest be a troublemaker;while the action of Americans are totally

different,they act pretty freely and desultorily on the political speech,no one is afraid of being trouble.In business negotiations,take the quiet approach is Chinese strives for and they think keeping silent is beneficial to ponder the problems;but to keep silent is a negative way for Americans.On the other hand,in daily life,Chinese widely use the silence which possesses many functions;while Americans do not really use it.The reason that having the silence differences between China and America is analyzed in this essay,state respectively from the historical and cultural background,the cultural values,the high context and low context of the two countries.We need to correct attitude,take right approaches to handle the silent differences between Chinese and American culture.

Analyzing the silence differences between China and America culture help people to understand it,reduces the unnecessary misunderstanding,fortifies the intimacy of