A contrastive study of politeness principle in Chinese andEnglish culture汉英礼貌用语的对比研究【Abstract】With the development of society and culture, communicatio ns between people become more and more important. As we all know, dif ferent people hold different views about politeness and different cul tures may lead to pragmatic differences. Because of the cultural diff erences, sometimes what the Chinese people consider to be polite may not be true according to western culture. As a universal phenomenon, politeness is observed in every society, whose main functions are mai ntaining social order; maintaining friendly interpersonal relations; reducing conflicts and misunderstandings by means of polite speech ac ts so as to attain the aim of communication.To be polite, there are s ome principles to follow. This paper aims at describing these princip les, and also f ocusing on a comparative study on Politeness Principle in Chinese and English cultures.【Keyword】：Politeness Principle; difference; English culture; Chine se culture1. Overview of the Politeness PrincipleIn our daily life, we have to communicate with other people to get in formation, to gain knowledge about a topic or to reach a variety of g oals. To be successful, one has to follow some important strategies. Besides the rule--- the Cooperative Principle(abbrev. CP) of the Amer ican language philosopher and linguist, H.P. Grice, who thought that in order to make the conversation go on, we should obey some basic p rinciples, especially “Cooperative Principle”, bring ing about a gre at development in the concept of conversational implicate, there exis ts another concept --- the Politeness Principle (abbrev. PP), which h as above all been developed by Leech,a famous British linguist. In th e centre of this concept does not stand the information of a conversa tion, but the effect of what is said on the people.2.The basic contents of English and Chinese Politeness Principle2. 1.Theories of the Politeness PrincipleReferring to Searle`s categories of illocutionary acts, Leech points out a subdivision into negative and positive politeness. The negative politeness belongs eminently to the directive group, while positive politeness is dominant in the commissive and expressive group. He int roduces the term "impositives", too. Among those groups there existsa variety of theories and maxims which I’d like to deal with in the following essay.Following Grice’s example in dividing the CP, Leech divides the PP i nto six maxims, each consisting of two sub-maxims.(1) Tact Maxim (in impositives and commissives)a. Minimize cost to others;b. Maximize benefit to others.(2) Generosity Maxim (in impositives and commissives)a. Minimize benefit to self;b. Maximize cost to self.(3) Approbation Maxim (in expressives and assertives)a. Minimize dispraise of others;b. Maximize praise of others.(4)Modesty Maxim (in expressives and assertives)a. Minimize praise of self;b. Maximize dispraise of self.(5) Agreement Maxim (in assertives)a. Minimize disagreement between self and others;b. Maximize agreement between self and others.(6)Sympathy Maxim (in assertives)a. Minimize antipathy between self and others;b. Maximize sympathy between self and othe rs.”The PP’s function lies in that speakers should try to express themse lves in a polite way, in an indirect way and let the hearers sense th eir implication. The purpose of doing this is not to hurt others’ fe eling or make them lose face. So if there is the need of politeness, people in talking must observe PP. In observing the PP, speakers shou ld be always polite to others—minimize cost to other and maximize be nefit to other, so as to make a good impression on other and win the mutual respect.2.2. Chinese Politeness PrincipleWhen it comes to the Chinese scholars who have studied the Chinese Po liteness Principle and contributed significantly to the study of it, I would like to refer to Gu Yueguo , a professor of Beijing Foreign S tudies University. In his articles related to the study of politeness in modern Chinese, Prof. Gu has traced the origin of the motion of p oliteness in the Chinese culture, and has also formulated a different set of politeness maxims, which , he thinks, are more suitable to th e Chinese environment.Gu holds the view that there are basically four notions underlying th e Chinese conception of limao(礼貌)，which are respectfulness, modest y, attitudinal warmth and refinement. And he concludes five maxims of limao(礼貌) according to Leech’s Politeness Principle:(1) Respectfulness Maxim: self’s positive appreciation or admirationof others concerning the lat ter’s face, social status, and so on.(2). Appellation Maxim: use proper appellation to address others.(3) Refinement Maxim: self’s demonstration of kindness, consideratio n, and hospitality to others.(4) Consistency Maxim: self’s behaviour to other which meets certain standards.(5) Virtue, Speech and Behaviour Maxim: on motivation, minimize other s’ cost and maximize other s’ benefit; on verbalism, maximize benef it self received and minimize cost self paid out.”3. Comparison between Politeness Principles in English and Chinese We can see that there are some common points of Politeness Principle between English and Chinese. But because of the different culture bac kgrounds, English and Chinese people have different viewpoints on pol iteness. Therefore, when using Politeness Principle, they will have s ome differences.3.1 The difference in Tact MaximMany scholars regard Tact Maxim as the upmost maxim of Politeness Pri nciple, for Tact Maxim, in English culture, is one of the most import ant and useful maxim. when showing some imperatives Tact Maxim is oft en used. But we often speak indirectly to show our politeness, the mo re indirectly we speak the more politeness we are. In English-speakin g countries individualism is considered to be of great value, which i s closely related with the history and culture. It usually refers to the freedom, right and independency of an individual. Therefore, impe rative action is considered as an intrusion to others, even between s uperior and subordinate, eldership and junior, teacher and student. S o they will obey Tact Maxim when they communicate with each other and avoid imposition.To Chinese, who have been overwhelmed by feudalism for more than a th ousand years, it is hard for them to understand individualism. Impera tive action is very common in China. When they say or do something th ey often consider other s’ status and strictly obey the rule of resp ecting elders. For instance:(1) Close the door.(2) Give me a cup of tea.In these two examples, both use imperative sentences. They are consid ered to be polite in China, but westerners do not think so.3.2. The difference in Appellation MaximIn China, either in formal or informal occasions, people often addres s others by using other’s occupation to show respect, when their soc ial positions are considered to be high or respectful, such as Profes sor Li, Teacher Zhang, Dean Sun and so on. If their social positions are considered to be low, such as barber, cleaner, technical worker, cook, plumber and most other people in service profession, people will often call them “shifu”(师傅) instead of their occupations to be polite. To the people in English-speaking countries, this is not the same. In formal situations, they often address people with high socia l position with their professions, such as Professor Green, Chairman Johnson, etc. But they never address people with “teacher or manage r”. In informal occasions, even a professor or a chairman prefers hi mself to be called with his given name to show intimacy to others. An d they tend to call others like this while a Chinese may feel unpleas ant to be called in such a term by unfamiliar person. For example, if a girl named “Yang Sitong (杨丝彤) ” is called as “Sitong(丝彤)” or “tong(彤)” by an ordinary friend, she will look on it as an insu lt.3.3. The difference in Modesty MaximAs for modesty, people all over the world hold the same view that to show modesty is a way to be polite. Leech’s Mo desty Maxim runs as “Minimize praise of self (Maximize dispraise of self)”. But how thi s maxim is adhered to in different cultures is very much a matter of degree. When being complimented, an English-speaking person would rea dily accept the compliment by s aying something like “Thank you” to show his appreciation of the praise, but a Chinese speaker would try to deny the truth of the compliment. They both are being modest and t hey both think they are behaving properly. Yet either of them would t hink the other is being polite. For instance:(1)A: Oh, how beautiful your dress is! B: Thank you.(2)A: Your English is very good. B: Not at all. My English is very poor.In examples (1) and (2) are the typical answers to praise of Engl ish and Chine se people. “The English speaker is being polite to the extent that by accepting and showing appreciation of the compliment; while the Chinese speaker ignoring the factuality of the compliment p aid to him. Because self-denigration has been at the core of the Chin ese notion of politeness for over two thousand years, the Chinese in order to show modesty will go to such lengths as to underrate what he himself has achieved and deny the truth of a complimentary remark.3.4. The difference in Sympathy MaximRespecting old people is the virtue of China, for old people in Chin a are the symbol of wisdom. During communication Chinese people often show respect and regard to old people. However, the situation in wes t is just the opposite. In English-speaking countries old people do n ot want to be considered as old. They will do everything in themselve s to prove that they are still young. People in English-speaking coun tries consider old as useless, so they don’t like to be treated as o ld and don’t like to accept other’s sympathy and help. So don’t of fer help too actively when communicate with people in English-speaking countries unless they ask for your help.4. Summary of the comparisonThe comparison of pragmatic differences of politeness between Chinese and English demonstrates that this politeness phenomenon is universa l in all cultures, but its expressions and implications are different from culture to culture. So a good understanding of pragmatic differ ences in politeness can undoubtedly contribute to the avoidance of pr agmatic failures in cross-cultural exchange so as to attain the goal in communication.Besides, grammatical mistakes are easy to be forgiven during intercul tural communication, but improper language use may cause embarrassmen ts and misunderstandings. Therefore, the comparative study of Politen ess Principle in Chinese and English cultures becomes more important. Meanwhile, to be familiar with the different cultural backgrounds an d to choose the right politeness maxims during communication are also very important and useful to intercultural communication.Reference:George Leec h. Principles of Pragmatics. (London & New York: Longman, 1997) 107Jenny Thomas, Meaning in Interaction (London & New York: Longman, 199 7) 155Li Tong. Pragmatic Differences in Politeness Compared between English and Chinese[J] Journal of Xinzhou Teachers University,2003,12,Hu Shangtian. A Probe into the Relation between the Cooperative Princ iple and the Politeness Principle[J].1997,7He Zhaoxiong. Study of Politeness in Chinese and English Culture[J]. 1995,5。
