英汉礼貌用语比较

Contens
摘要 (1)
Abstract (2)
1 Introduction (3)
1.1 Origins of Politeness (3)
1.1.1 Origins of Politeness in English (3)
1.1.2 Origins of Politeness in Chinese (4)
1.2 The Definition of Polite Language (5)
1.3 Significances of the paper (5)
2 The Comparison of Polite Language in English and Chinese (5)
2.1 Comparisons in Norms (6)
2.1.1 Norms of Politeness in English (6)
2.1.2 Norms of Politeness in Chinese (8)
2.2 Comparison in Cultures (9)
2.3 Comparisons in Pragmatics (9)
2.3.1 The Comparison in Addressing (9)
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2.3.2 The Comparison in Acknowledgement (11)
2.3.3 The Comparison in apology (11)
2.3.4 The Comparison in Euphemism (12)
2.3.5 The Comparison in Taboo (13)
2.3.6 The Comparison in Greetings (14)
3 Conclusion and Implication (15)
Bibliography (17)
Acknowledgement (18)
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英汉礼貌用语比较
摘要
众所周知，英汉语言里面存在不同的礼貌用语，它们是人类社会文明的标志，因而理解英汉的礼貌用语是非常有必要的。

本文较系统地介绍了英汉礼貌用语及其起源，并且从准则，文化，语用学三个方面详细比较了英汉礼貌用语差异。

我们在与母语是英语的人交流时，应该注意他们的礼貌用语特点，运用这些特点来进行轻松愉快的交流，尽最大的努力去避免出现使用礼貌用语不当的情况来使交流和谐友好地进行下去。

关键词：礼貌用语；准则；语用学；交流
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The Comparison of Polite Language
in English and Chinese
Abstract
As everybody can see, there are different polite languages in English and Chinese, which symbolizes the civilization of human society. It is necessary to comprehend the polite languages in English and Chinese. This article introduces the polite languages in English and Chinese as well as their origins systematically, comparing the principles, cultures, and pragmatics of polite language in both of them. When we communicate with native English speakers, special attention to the properties of the polite languages in English needs to be paid. We should apply these properties to practical communication, to arrive at an easy and happy intercourse. In order to get a harmonious and friendly progressing of communication, we need to try best to avoid the emergence of improper use of polite languages.
Key words: polite language, principle, pragmatics, communication.
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The Comparison of Polite Language
in English and Chinese
1 Introduction
Because of cultural obstacle, we may frequently find that people misunderstand information each other, even hurt the other side in intercultural communication. Sometimes, kind words will make people feel embarrassed, courteous manners will be misunderstood as absurd and vulgar behaviors. Therefore, studying polite languages is essential. This part will talk about origins of politeness in English and in Chinese, the definition of politeness and the significance of the paper for the purpose to make the readers have a clear understanding of politeness in different languages and to improve people’s awareness of politeness.
1.1 Origins of Politeness
This part will focus on the origins of politeness in English and in Chinese to help the readers generally comprehend the origins of politeness in different languages.
1.1.1 Origins of Politeness in English
In English, the production and the development of the concept of politeness have seen a continual change. In English, politeness was connected with the court and the city at the early time. From the perspective of etymology, politeness is derived from polite, and polite was from the Latin word, politus, which means to smooth ,to polish.(Klein Ernest, 1966, p1210)[10]In some sense, being polite is polishing the person’s behavior to make the person more acceptable, or to show the respect. During the time between 1150 and 1500, any young man who sought to earn his living as a
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scribe learned Latin or French because there was no market for such services in English. (Zhang Weiyou，2004 ，p27) [12] Furthermore, from the perspective of root, the root, polit, of polite, has the direct relation with the Greek root, polis and politeia, which refer to the city or the government of city. (Cornog Mary wood, 2002, p45)[7] Words with this kind of root, mostly, express the good manners of the people in the city of the court. As He Zhaoxiong puts, “many scholars’findings have proved the link between politeness and the court and the city in vocabulary. Some time, the behavior of people in the court was regarded as polite, and some time in the city.”（何兆熊，2000,p15）[2]
1.1.2 Origins of Politeness in Chinese
When it comes to politeness in Chinese, a very long story will be pointed out, and a person mustn’t be neglected, that is, Confucius,an eminent Chinese philosopher and teacher who founded Confucianism. Sure enough, as a state of ceremonies, the politeness in Chinese is endless. In fact, before Confucius’ time, there had been some different so-called “rites”, such as rites in Xia, Shang, and Zhou Dynasties. Confucius just epitomized all kinds of the rites before him. The rite in old times is not completely the politeness right now. Its connotation has changed very much, more precisely, has become more elaborate. In other words, the current politeness is originated from the ancient rites. “The rites practiced by the kings in Xia, Shang, Zhou dynasties and five emperors is like many kinds of fruits, with different tastes, but suitable to their people.”(庄子，2008, p35)[6]From this it can be seen that the origins of politeness in Chinese have the similar paths to it in English. In order to govern the people, the kings designed some rules for the people’s daily behavior. They were spread from the chancellors to the common people.
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Overall, the origins of politeness in English and Chinese are similar. For the purpose to regulate the common people’s behavior, then more deeply to rule them, the politeness emerged at a historic moment. For this ulterior purpose, the emergence of the politeness has become a double-edged sword.
1.2 The Definition of Polite Language
What is Polite Language? Generally speaking, the courteous language, in the broadest sense of the word, means all the manners and the caused consequences by using polite language. While, the narrow one only means some special words expressing ceremony which are reasonable and acceptable in various communication occasions. To be polite not only demands the sentences “reasonable”, but also “acceptable” in the specific group. （胡文仲, 1996：p235-248）[4]
1.3 Significances of the paper
In theory, based on the former studies and findings, this paper illustrates many aspects in more details to make the readers to understand polite languages more distinctly, and adds some new ideas to the comparisons in polite languages in English and Chinese to bring this kind of study to a more complete stage. In practice, this paper clears up some doubts in a few confused comments which have lingered in people’s minds, in a good way. According to these points, which are as simple and luminous as can be put into effect completely, the reader can have a good control of their behaviors in daily life, to get a happy and perfect communication atmosphere.
2 The Comparison of Polite Language in English and Chinese
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As we all know, there are many differences in polite languages between different languages, but most of us just know that, not what. That is, most people only get the result, but do not get the reason. This part is going to make a comparison in polite languages between English and Chinese in detail to let the readers have a new and brand recognition of polite languages, which is beneficial to their social intercourse, bringing down the possibility of making mistakes in common sense
2.1 Comparisons in Norms
As a matter of fact, norms of politeness in different languages, in a large extent, decide the property of polite languages in different languages. This part will center on the norms of politeness in English and Chinese.
2.1.1 Norms of Politeness in English
Politeness is the attitude from one to the other, so it must cover two sides. Grice, a philosopher in America, deemed that in order to arrive at a certain goal in social intercourse, there was a kind of privities, or a kind of communication norms, which he called cooperative principles, between the two sides. The cooperative principles go as follows,
1 The maxim of Quality:
"Try to make your contribution one that is true, .specifically:
(i) do not say what you believe to be false.
(ii) do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence"
2 The maxim of Quantity:
"(i) Make your contribution as informative as is required for the current purposes of the exchange
(ii) Do not make your contribution more informative than is required"[
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3 The maxim of Relation:
"Make your contribution relevant."
4 The maxim of Manner:
"Be perspicuous and specifically:
(i) avoid obscurity of expression.
(ii) avoid ambiguity.
(iii) be brief
(iv) be orderly."(Grice H.P., 1975, p162)[9]
The cooperative principle explains the relation between the literal meaning of the word and the real meaning, and expounds the how the painting meaning comes and how to understand it, but there is still a question remaining, that is, why do people want to violate the principle, using a implicative and indirect way to express themselves? Leech reputes that the violation of the cooperative principle, sometimes has something with the politeness principle. He mentions the politeness principle so as to resolve the question which the cooperative principle left over. (何兆熊，2000,p91)[3] Leech’s politeness principle in detail,
1 Tact maxim (in directives [or impositives] and commissives): minimize cost to other; [maximize benefit to other]
2 Generosity maxim (in directives and commissives): minimize benefit to self; [maximize cost to self]
3 Approbation maxim (in expressives and representatives [assertives]): minimize dispraise of other; [maximize praise of other]
4 Modesty maxim (in expressives and representatives): minimize praise of self; [maximize dispraise of self]
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5 Agreement maxim (in representatives): minimize disagreement between self and other; [maximize agreement between self and other]
6 Sympathy maxim (in representatives): minimize antipathy between self and other; [maximize sympathy between self and other] (Geoffrey Leech, 1983, p56)[11]
2.1.2 Norms of Politeness in Chinese
Among the Chinese scholars who have contributed significantly to the study of politeness should be mentioned Prof. Gu Yueguo of Beijing Foreign Studies University. In his articles related to the study of politeness in modern Chinese, Prof. Gu has traced the origin of the motion of politeness in the Chinese culture, and has also formulated a different set of politeness maxims, which he thinks are more suitable to the Chinese environment.
“Gu holds that there are basically four notions underlying the Chinese conception of limao: respectfulness, modesty, attitudinal warmth and refinement. And he concluded five maxims of limao according to Leech’s Politeness Principle:
A. Respectfulness Maxim: s elf’s positive appreciation or admiration of other concerning the latter’s face, social status, and so on.
B. Appellation Maxim: use proper appellation to address other.
C. Refinement Maxim: self’s demonstration of kindness, consideration, and hospitality to other.
D. Consistency Maxim: self’s behavior to other which meets certain standards.
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E. Virtue, Speech and Behavior Maxim: on motivation, minimize other’s cost and maximize other’s benefit; on verbalism, maximize benefit self received and minimize cost self paid out.”(顾曰国，1992,p45)[1]
2.2 Comparison in Cultures
As far as politeness is concerned, the moral values play an important role in each other’s culture. In Chinese, the deed, playing oneself down and playing up the other, occupies a leading position, which is clearly embodied in the honorific and modest words. Only in this way can you be regarded as polite. On the contrary, in English, people are inclined to canonize and share the individualism, namely, advocate self-expression and self-affirmation emphasize the individual interest, and pursue equality, which inversely fosters people’s ability to survive in the fierce completion, to be independent, and to be oneself. When you take this spirit anytime and anywhere, you cannot be regarded as offensive.
2.3 Comparisons in Pragmatics
This part will talk about the politeness in all kinds of practical languages, such as addressing, acknowledgement, apology, euphemism, taboo, and greetings.
2.3.1 The Comparison in Addressing
Address reflects the relationship between people. In the intercultural communication, it is very important to address properly. Either on formal or informal occasions, Chinese usually get used to addressing one’s occupation to show respect, especially when his social status is considered to be high or respectful. For example, Zhao Engineer, Wang Doctor, etc. If their statuses are considered to be low, such as cleaner, plumber, blue-collar worker, people are likely to call them “shifu” to show
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polite instead of thei r occupations. Among all the examples, “surname + teacher” is a typical form of address in China. Thousands of years of Chinese traditional culture regard it as a virtue to show great respect to teachers and the elders in families. Chinese children seldom doubt their teachers, and express disagreements to parents, for they are considered as impolite behaviors. Although great changes have taken place nowadays, children are still taught to follow the traditional virtues. However, the English speakers are likely to minimize social or class inequality, and reduce hierarchical structures. On formal occasions, they address people of high statuses with Professor Smith, Chairman Brown, etc. But they never address them with “teacher or manager”. And on common occasio ns, everyone prefers himself to be called with his given name to show intimacy to others. But Chinese may feel unpleasant to be called such term by an unfamiliar person. For example, if an ordinary friend calls a Chinese girl named “Li Xiaoling” as “Xiaoling” or “ling”, the girl may think it as an insult.
Besides, there are many terms addressing relatives in China. Just for an “auntie” in English, there are “guma, yima, bomu” in Chinese. The ways to address strangers are also different. Chinese people prefer using family terms to address strangers or people elder than them. Students are taught to respect the old and cherish the young. For example, children are told to address adults “auntie” or “uncle” and address old people “granny” or “grandpa”, even at the first time they meet. But in the West, it is different to call a stranger. The terms “Mr.”, “Miss”, “Mrs.”, “sir” and “madam” are widely used among people. “Mr.”, “Miss”, “Mrs.” are used together with a surname while “sir” and “madam” are usually us ed alone.
“What is more, the attitudes on the title of old people between China and English-speaking countries are also different. In English-speaking countries, the old people do not like the word “old”. They think old is the meaning of “useless”。

So “old” is the taboo to them. Thus they often use elderly people or senior people instead
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of old people and use “get on year” instead of “become old”. Especially women are sensitive to age. On the contrary, in China old is the symbol of wisdom and experie nce. They call old people “laoyeye”、“laonainai”、“chenlao” and so on. Not only is it respect, but also kind.” (朱秀芝, 2007, p128)[5]
2.3.2 The Comparison in Acknowledgement
Acknowledgements also belong to the polite language. When somebody spares his or her time, efforts, or labor to give you some help, the acknowledgement is necessary. That is the basic politeness.
In respect of acknowledgement, the English speakers use “Thank you” more than the Chinese speakers. The English speakers always keep saying “Thank you “to others, including the families. Whereas, if the Chinese speakers say that between a spouse, they may feel it is time to spare efforts to think about their intimacy. And when been praised, the Chinese speakers usually don’t say “Thank you”, avoiding leaving a not modest impression. And for the merited services, thanks usually won’t be said out.
In the ways to say thanks, there are many differences between the two sides. The Chinese speakers like saying “Bring you so much trouble.”, “Make you tired.”and so on to express one’s gratitude. But the English speakers only say thank you, which can enough convey their ocean thanks.
2.3.3 The Comparison in apology
Apologizing is a speech act addressed to the offended person’s face-needed and intended to remedy an offense and thus to restore the friendship between the two.
For the Chinese, apology most often occurs between people of unequal social status and it is usually the person with less power apologizes to the person with more
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power, e.g. students to their teachers, employees to employers. But for the native English speakers, an apology is necessary whenever inconvenience or offence is made with little consideration of the status or social power of the people concerned. For example, a manager will say sorry if he or she has to answer a phone call during a conversation with his or her clerk.
In responding to an apology in both English and Chinese, one can reject the need for apologizing. But in English society, what the hearer can not do is accept the apology; whereas in Chinese society, it is perfectly polite to accept the apology by saying “I accept your apology.”
It’s obvious that there are different rules governing the apology behavior of the Chinese and English speakers. That is the reason for the fact that the Chinese may not seem polite enough to English speakers and the English speakers may seem too insincere to the Chinese.
2.3.4 The Comparison in Euphemism
In politeness, euphemism is also a good breakthrough point. Whenever the euphemism is mentioned, the honorific and modest words cannot be missed. During a conversation, the two sides may abide by the polite principles. Both of them choose to use some unobtrusive and courteous euphemism to keep a happy communication atmosphere. In Chinese, modest words may be spoken out frequently within the two sides with a six to one status, and modest words are used to show the respect to the other side. For example, the ideas from the other side are called brilliant ideas, from their own, called my humble opinions, the works from others, called great work, from their own, called my poor work and so on. In English, his, her and your are usually linked to Highness, Majesty, Lordship, Ladyship, Excellency, Honor and Humble,
Honorable to denote the courteousness and respect.
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2.3.5 The Comparison in Taboo
The existence to taboos is everywhere. Violating the taboos will be considered as impolite. For the sake of avoiding making unnecessary mistake, having a few understanding of taboos is helpful to you. The native English speaker place a high value on privacy. It is not appropriate to ask questions on personal information like age, family background, salary, or questions on personal activities. Unless they
indicate clearly that they do not mind or they talk about them first themselves. Some of these questions are listed below:
How old are you?
What are your wages?
How much do you earn?
You make a lot of money, don’t you?
What is your name?(Better say “May I know your name?”)
How much did that pair of shoes cost you?(Dai Weidong, He Zhaoxiong，2010,p131)[8]
In Chinese, these questions mentioned above aren’t avoided intendedly. Sometimes, in some situations, these may become the main topics. However, the number four is not very popular in Chinese. Because its pronunciation is like “death”. All the car, phone, and room numbers with four have few visitors.
2.3.6 The Comparison in Greetings
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In daily life, greeting is a polite language whenever one meets others and wherever he or she is. However, different cultures have different influences on greetings. Although both English and Chinese may also ask or comment on other things as a means of greeting, the two cultures differ in the ways they do this. For example, a Chinese and an English-speaker are acquaintances and came across on the way home one d ay. Chinese passed by and asked, “Have you eaten yet?” The English-speaker was offended by this question. This is a typically acceptable and polite greeting used by native Chinese people to show their concern for others, but it is peculiar and offensive to the Westerners. Because to some Westerners, this question might mean that, “I haven’t either. Come on, let’s go together and get something to eat” or “If you haven’t, I am just going to invite you to my place and have a dinner.” Although it takes a form of question, it is a common Chinese greeting around a mealtime, nothing more than “Hello” or “Hi” in English. There is another example as follows: Chinese people are likely to say, “Where are you going?” when they meet. But in the Western culture, people prefer to comment on the weather as a means of greeting, such as “Isn’t it a good day?”, but not on personal affairs as Chinese people do.
There are two common ways of greeting in China to state what someone is doing and to greet the other simply. For example, if a Chinese meet someone who is obviously going to the school or washing the clothes, he may say, “Going to study?” or “Washing your clothes?” But these words sound a little strange to the westerners, for they would not regard these as greetings. In such situations, they are likely to simply greet the person with a common greeting like “Hello”. But if people want to appear friendlier, they can say, “Hello. Have a nice dinner!” or “Hello. You’re doing a good job!”
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People should avoid Chinese greetings when they meet English-speakers. Because these greetings are considered as questions which invade their personal life rather than friendly greetings.
We can see that greetings in Chinese are mostly universal. Whereas those in English are generally such verba l routines as: “Good morning”; “Good afternoon”; “Good evening”; “Hi”; “Hello”; “How are you?” “How are things with you?” “How’s everything?” “How are you getting on?” “What a lovely day!” and so on. Greetings in Chinese and English are quite different in linguistic forms, but their pragmatic functions are similar. In modern Chinese, more and more people greet others by such routines as “ni hao” and “zao shang hao” and so on which are equivalent to “Hello”; “How do you do”; “Good morning” and so on in Engli sh.
3 Conclusion and Implication
From the above, we not only know some polite languages, but also learn the differences and similarities of polite languages in English and Chinese.How to cope with these?In my opinion, firstly, we should establish the awareness of being polite. Secondly, we should learn polite language in English from every aspect as possible as we can. We can read the foreign magazines, watch movies, and watch soap operas and so on. From these materials, we can learn more knowledge, besides polite language, and it takes good advantage to set up the thinking mode of native English speakers. Depending on my experience, I think watching soap operas is very useful. There are many good soap operas such as Friends, Desperate Housewives, and Prison Break etc. We can learn more genuine English. At last, we should practice more and more. There is a proverb, “Practice makes perfect.”When we speak English, we must imitate the thinking mode of the native English speakers as much as
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possible. If we are commander of the polite language, we will overcome the obstacle of across-communication.
In conclusion, I would like to remind you that this is only my own interpretation of the comparison of polite languages in English and Chinese. There must be some other aspects that I do not mention. How to apply these similarities and differences is rather important during the intercultural communication. I have discussed many modes of polite language in this essay. What I want to show here is that people cannot ignore or despise them. As intercultural communicator, we need respect and understand them so much so that to avoid cultural conflict. It is essential for us to keep these points in mind and pay attention to them when we are communicating with foreigners.
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[7] Cornog, Mary Wood. A Dictionary of Prefixes, Suffixes, and Combining Forms.
New York: Merriam-Webster, 2002.
[8] Dai, Weidong and He, Zhaoxiong. A New Concise Course in Linguistics for
Students of English. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Educational Press, 2010.
[9] Grice, H. P. Logic and Conversation. Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania University,
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[10] Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English
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[11] Leech, Geoffrey. Principles of Pragmatics. London: Longman,1983.
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Acknowledgement
I have acquired lots of benefits from the enlightenment of my supervisor Liu Yumin, whose inspiring insights, generous encouragements, and enthusiastic instructions have helped me much throughout my paper writing. She has been in constant concern about my paper, and makes efforts to help me complete my paper draft. I would also like to express my sincere thanks to the English Department of City College of Wuhan University of Science and Technology as well as all my teachers. Thanks to their instructive guidance and comprehensive education during the four years’ schooling, I can obtain the opportunity to study English. Finally, my great gratitude also goes to those writers and editors whose works I have perused and benefited greatly from, and without their work, the completion of the paper would not have been possible.
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