中英寒暄语对比研究

学科分类号050201 本科毕业论文(设计)

题目中英寒暄语对比研究

姓名学号

院（系）外国语学院

专业年级2011级

指导教师职称教授

二○一年月

DECLARATION

I, Yang Jing, the undersigned, hereby declare that this essay does not contain any material which has been accepted for the award of any other higher degree or graduate diploma in any tertiary institution and that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, this essay does not contain any material previously published or written by another person, except when due reference is made in the text of the essay.

Signed:

Dated:

CONTENTS

Abstract in English (1)

Abstract in Chinese (2)

Ⅰ.Introduction (3)

1.1 Research Background (3)

1.2 Research Purpose (3)

1.3 Research Significance (3)

Ⅱ.Theoretical F rameworks.............................................................................. (4)

2.1 The Definition of Phatic Communion (4)

2.2 The Origin of Phatic Communion (4)

Ⅲ. Differences between Chinese and English Phatic Communion (5)

3.1 Different Backgrounds of Different Phatic Communion between Chinese and Western

C ultures (5)

3.2 Chinese and Western Thinking in Different Ways on the Different Causes by the

Traditional G reetings (7)

3.3 Different Communicative Habits due to Differences in Greetings between China and

America (8)

Ⅳ.Conclusion (10)

Bibliography (11)

Acknowledgements (12)

Appendix (13)

Abstract

With the fast development of the economy, the global intercultural communication has become more and more frequent. Phatic communion, as a ministrant language to express negotiations and social engagement, is a well lube for the social relationship. Phatic Communion has many functions, such as to shorten the communication distance between people, to break the deadlock, and to show respect to other people. Also, it is a strategy to maintain comfortable interpersonal relationship. Phatic communion is important in intercultural communications. Therefore, the paper studies the differences of phatic communion between English and Chinese from different aspects, such as their mode of thinking, their cultural background, and their habits of communication.

Keywords:phatic communion; mode of thinking; background of culture; habit of communication; contrastive study

摘要

在当今这个经济飞速发展的时代，全球化跨文化交际活动越来越频繁。寒暄语，作为一种表示寒暄、应酬的辅助性语言，是维持良好社会关系的有效润滑剂。寒暄语具有缩短交际者之间的距离、打破僵局、表示敬意以及乐于与之结交等功能。寒暄语的多功能性决定了它在跨文化交际活动中的重要性。本文从中西思维方式、文化背景、交际习惯等各个层面研究了英汉寒暄语的差异，以期对跨文化交际做出些微贡献。

关键词：寒暄语;思维方式;文化背景;交际习惯;对比研究

Ⅰ. Introduction

With the fast growing of the intercultural communication activities, Chinese and western countries are getting to know more and more from each other about their history, culture, and customs. People always conjecture from many different angles for their different experiences. Phatic communion, as one function of language, has been used into solecism. After that, there are more and more studies about phatic communion. Different countries and customs have different expressions to perform phatic communion. The function of phatic communions is similar in Chinese and western countries, that is to keep comfortable relationship between people.

1.1 Research Purpose

To compare phatic communion between English and Chinese is to improve mutual understanding between people from the two different cultures. Phatic communions under different cultures of different countries are quite different. At the same time, different conditions such as different backgrounds, different thinking way, and different habits result in different phatic communion. All kinds of living ways make great influences on people?s mind. And people in different countries also have different ideas of phatic communion.

1.2 Research Significance

This paper analyzes the differences of phatic communion between English and Chinese language. Phatic communion?s emotional information is passed as a language method under the constraints of thinking, manners and customs and other factors, and the meaning and purpose of expression is different. After knowing these, we can make accurate and rational use of greetings at different occasions. In the 21st century global intercultural communication becomes more usual as the exchange of Chinese and Western trade has become more frequent. And the constant trade frictions between China and the West have a regulatory and eliminating role in promoting cross-cultural communication.

Ⅱ. Theoretical Frameworks

2.1 The Definition of Phatic Communion

Phatic communion, to make greetings when people meeting, is a lip service from the Word-Ocean. From Ci Hai, phatic communion was used to ask the weather whether it is warm

or cold. But O? Donnel and Todd have the relativel y broad division. They believe that takings can be seemed as phatic communion except the subject (Todd, 1980:124). Sun Xuemei said that greetings are used to produce a certain atmosphere or maintaining social contact (2009:122). Phatic communion is including two different sides---Language communication and non-language communication (Zhu, 1989:16). He said that language is not the only method to make the contracts between people. Sometimes, only a smile, a nodding, a shaking and a hug can achieve the same effect. And there is another definition of phatic communion. Phatic communion is an informal type of discourse that does not cover any functional topics of conversation or any transactions which need to be addressed (Wang, 2012:238).There are some definitions of the phatic communion in people?s daily life. Different nations and countries have different ways to perform the phatic communion. From here we can see that phatic communion is not only used to ask the weather, but also can be greeting words of communication with each other. Phatic communion on a certain occasion used properly or not will directly affect the following communication. Sometimes even can directly relates to whether the state and society harmonious development. Currently, deeply understand the definition of the phatic communion and properly use it is what the people need to do right now.

2.2 The Origin of Phatic Communion

Phatic communion is the prologue when people meet and a stepping stone for the communication. It as a conversational interaction between friends and acquaintances, often can only provide a little information, is driving the conversation to a great extent of the both sides. Norrick once said that from the pragmatic function of the speech acts, phatic communion acts as a sufficient amount of social roles. In order to show the good behavior from the speaker (Norrick, 1978:277).As people mention about the phatic communion, we can naturally think of a great British social anthropologist---Malinowski. He was the first man in the world who put forward the term-- phatic communion and start using it .Primitively, there is a study about social changes and cultural custom of Trobriand Islands in the west of Pacific. He ate with the local residents about two years while he lived there. Although it seems to have little useful purpose to maintain and establish the good relationships between themselves and the society, he found that there are many subtle words in the interpersonal communication between people.

Phatic communion in China is also known as socializing language, which refers to socializing general sense of language, rather than establishing and maintaining social ties associated with body language. According to Malinowski?s article “The Problem of Meaning in Primitive Language”, phatic communion is

divided into verbal communication and non-verbal communication aspects. It does not mean that all social situations need the help of language, but people can use a smile, a nod, a hug, shaking hands, kissing on the cheek to achieve expected communicative effect.

Clark suggested determine which was greetings are the three conditions:

(1) The particular situational context. (For example, a small talk at the bus station.)

(2) Language and paralanguage aspect of communicative behavior.(The use of the regular expression, such as discussing the weather.)

(3) Social function. (To avoid silence, establish and maintain a good atmosphere in some situations.)(Clark, 1990:165)

People can use the phatic communion reasonable after the understanding of the greetings and decision conditions. But just to know this is far to meet today?s communication of the international community. People need to understand further on the basis of different people in different places how to use different phatic communion.

Ⅲ. Different Phatic Communions between Chinese and Western People

Different phatic communion tends to convey different communicative purposes. Chinese and western culture and customs also influence the expression of the phatic communion. So people need to compare Chinese and western countries?phatic communion from different aspects. Here are there major aspects of the differences.

3.1 Different Phatic Communion due to Different Backgrounds of Chinese and Western Cultures

China is a state of ceremonies and also pays more attention to etiquette civilizations. So the phatic communion is very important in the Chinese speaking countries. When people get together, they will use some useful phatic communion words to show their respect to other people. Tak e “Have you eaten yet?” as an example, there are some fixed communications.

(1) A: Have you eaten yet?

B: No. How about you?

A: I have already had dinner with my family. It is my sister?s birthday today. So we had dinner together. (2) A: Where are you going?

B: I?m going to potter in the garden. Have you eaten yet?

From the two spectacles above, we can see, “Have you eaten yet?” is a special greeting in Chinese culture. Especially, this pattern was used frequently in rural area. This special phatic communion can be regarded as a greeting pattern of Chinese national cultural tradition. There are two original reasons; firstly, the lack of food and clothing in the past China was a long-term unsolved problem. Secondly, China cares about food very much, a “Bite of China” as it is called. So this sentence---Have you eaten yet, expresses the concern of other people, also, it reflects Chinese people?s hospitality. In English-speaking countries, phatic communions are legion. “Hello” is one of the most widely used one. English people always say hello with their friends and acquaintances. They use …Hello? at the beginning of a conversation. Some people also use other phatic communion instead, such as “How do you do”, “How are you? or “Good morning, Good afternoon , Good night” and so on and so forth. 3. 2 Different Traditional Greetings Caused by Different Thinking Ways

Nowadays, phatic communion plays an extremely important role in cross-cultural communication. The phatic communion likes a good lubricant. Before using the greetings directly, people need to know the different ways of thinking between Chinese and western. The most typical example is talking about age and wages. China is an ancient nation, has a laudatory name of “nation of the etiquette”. Polite ness is Chinese traditional moral excellence. Both the acquaintances and the strangers, the elders and the younger, men and women are never shy to talk about age and wages. Sometimes these topics are considered as a kind of care for others. For the elders, it is a natural topic –by asking people?s age to express their respect, for example, to wish the old that their happiness is like the East Sea and longevity over the southern hill. As it can be seen from these events, showing respect for the old man and care for children is a virtue of Chinese people. For Americans, like people in any other cultures, growing up is a wonderful process. But growing up is another different case. Growing up old is not exactly to be celebrated for people in youth-oriented American culture. Most Americans like to look young, act young and feel young. Although some people in some countries value the aged as a source of experience and wisdom. Americans seem to favor those who are young or at least “young at heart”. Many older Americans find the “golden years” to be anything but golden. Economically, “senior citizens” often struggle just to get by. Older people may suffer from poor nutrition, medical care and housing. Some even experience age discrimination. Despite the challenges they face, Americans in their “twilight years” generally refuse to give up on life. They find a variety of ways to keep themselves active. They really do not want to fell embarrassed in public. It is not only about their self-esteem but also about their human right. So people feel that their privacy is very important. They rarely talk about age, especially the women?s age.

3.3 Different Communicative Habits due to Differences on Greetings between Chinese and Western People

With the rapid development of intercultural communication activities, phatic communion plays an irreplaceable role between people from different cultures. China has an old saying, “To know the enemy and know you and you can fight a hundred battles with no danger of defeat.” So if people want to have a further relationship, they would better to know more about the different communicative habits.

Due to the different cultural backgrounds and different ways of thinking, the communication habits have many differences. Americans are always ta lking about what?s the weather like as the beginning of a conversation. Then they will have a transition to another topic. They believe that the topic of weather is more objective than others. And they would not involve the personal privacy issues.

Ⅳ. Conclusion

Language plays an important role in people?s daily life and keeps a close relation with culture, which determines the way people greet each other. Phatic communion, as an important part of language, has a close connection with human communication and development. In the above paper, we compared the different phatic communions caused by different Chinese and western cultural background, way of thinking and communication habits. Phatic communions are not only affected by the three aspects mentioned here but also by many other factors. Of course, it is not only used in cross-cultural communication but also indispensable in daily life. The reality is certainly much more complicated than the above study. People need to use phatic communion better in different situations or conditions with different speakers in different countries after a more comprehensive studies .The more comprehensive studies on it can provide people with more ways of communication in cross-cultural communication. Phatic communion plays the role of lubricant in the development of Chinese and western cross-cultural communication. Phatic communion, besides the influence of culture and thought, would be affected by other factors. For example, communicator can feel the need of phatic communion or not. That may be a vision. Then communicator need to kown the communication occasion whether allowed to be talk or not.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The completion of this essay would not have been possible without the encouragement, the guidance, and the support of many other people. First of all, I would extend my sincere and heartfelt thanks to my supervisor Professor Yang Xiulan, who has given me valuable suggestions and insightful comments in the essay writing. She has also spent much time going through brainstorming with me, put my work on the right track, read in great details every draft of every section of this essay, and helped improve the appropriateness of English used. My gratitude to Miss Yang knows no bound.

Special thanks also go to my family for their unfailing support and love throughout my university study.

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