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1、TheComparativeAnalysisofPoliteness betweenChineseandEnglishAbstract: This paper holds the view that the concept of politeness varies in different cultures. The concept of politeness in the Chinese culture is closely tied with ethics and moral standards. But in the English culture, the concept of pol
2、iteness exists only in the immediate context that involves two conflict parties. Thus Chinese people have a different interpretation of what counts as a face-threatening act and what does not. Chinese modesty, which can be seen as another way of saying self-denigration, is a virtue of self-cultivati
3、on while the English modesty is a strategy of minimizing or avoiding self-praise. Privacy is valued in all cultures, but the applicable scope of it in the English culture is much larger than that in the Chinese culture. Attitudinal warmth is considered very polite in the Chinese culture. The differe
4、nt value systems, individualism in the English culture and collectivism in the Chinese culture, impose different rules of communication on their peoples. Politeness helps establish, maintain or consolidate harmonious interpersonal relationships and facilitate social interactions. Politeness as an ob
5、servable phenomenon is actually a reflection of specific cultural values in the language.Key Words: Politeness; face; difference; reason; principle1. IntroductionWhat exactly is politeness? In one sense, politeness can be viewed as deviation from maximally efficient communication. To perform an act
6、other than in the most clear and efficient manner possible is to implicate some degree of politeness on the part of the speaker. Politeness allows people to perform many inter-personally sensitive actions in a no threatening or less threatening manner. As a result, what is thought of as an act of po
7、liteness in the Chinese culture might simply be regarded as an intrusion upon a persons privacy by an English-speaking person? The different value systems, individualism in the English culture and collectivism in the Chinese culture, impose different rules of communication on their peoples. What is
8、regarded as an imposition in the English culture is considered as polite and sincere in the Chinese culture. Different ways of communication also influence peoples choice of ways of expression. 2. The Definition of PolitenessPoliteness is what people of different cultural background all try to obser
9、ve and maintain. As a social phenomenon, politeness is something superficial. To account for what is perceived at the surface we should delve into the depth where different cultural values are rooted. In China, the equivalent of politeness is limao, which is believed to have evolved in history from
10、li (the rules of proper conduct, the analects) advocated by the ancient Chinese philosopher and thinker Confucius who lived in a period when the slavery system had collapsed and constant wars occurred among feudal states. The purpose of the restoration of Li is to put every individual in his place a
11、ccording to his social rank and position. Consequently, social order and class hierarchy could be restored and maintained. After Confucius, the notion of li seemed to have deviated a little from the original sense of Confucianism but closer to its analogue in modern China, i.e., limao. By the time o
12、f Han Dynasty, the notion of li had evolved into social appropriacy. Speaking of li, humble yourself, but show respect to other. Ever since then, it has become a substantial feature of the Chinese notion of politeness and has remained at the core of politeness in Chinese culture, i.e., self-denigrat
13、ion and other-oriented. In Chinese culture, to address ones interlocutor is not simply a matter of uttering some sounds to draw the interlocutors attention. A failure to use an appropriate address term is a sign of rudeness or a signal of breakdown of established social order. Address terms can be s
14、aid to be the manifestations of power or solidarity relationship. The Chinese social structure is basically hierarchical or vertical in nature and the principle of仁and礼help reinforce the vertical relationship by advocating the maintenance of difference. Terms of address include several linguistic ty
15、pes. They may be personal names, titles，kinship terms, or personal pronouns that can be used separately or concomitantly. For example, kinship terms can be used in addressing people senior to themselves, either within their own generation or in ascending generations. To maintain the social relations
16、hip in interpersonal communication, people address each other in compliance with the traditional rule. Elder members of a family such as grandparents, parents, uncles and aunts etc. can generally first name family members of the younger generation, yet the latter cannot reciprocate. Age difference c
17、an also force an asymmetrical pattern on members of the same generation within a Chinese family. Chinese address forms whether as norms or strategies; perform an important role as mediator of social relations. Chinese system of address is deeply rooted in the social system which attaches great signi
18、ficance to kinship. Within the family, terms of address systematically identify whos who in terms of generation/age, sex, patrilineal kin, matrilineal kin and so on. The systematic distinctions are observed as a part of linguistic etiquette to ensure propriety and politeness. Precedence of age over
19、group consciousness and precedence of rank over age in formal settings are lexically encoded in the Chinese address system. The pragmatic value of麻烦你lies in its function, i.e. the speaker, redress the version of negative face of H by explicitly acknowledging imposition.劳驾，麻烦你，is a very polite term f
20、or making an excuse or asking an older for Hs co-operation or assistance. Comparatively speaking, each member of the Western society enjoys independence and equality, which lays the foundation for the establishment of solidarity relationship as the main relationship in sociolinguistic term referring
21、 the not social interactions in the West. Solidarity is the only to the equal and informal relationship, but also the desire for the setting up of equality, intimacy, common interest, sharing, etc. Whatever it may possibly mean, its core notion is equality. The emphasis on solidarity over power on t
22、he Western side can best be demonstrated in the use of first names in everyday interaction. Dominated by the use of proper names, given names and titles the English address system is comparatively impersonal contract social distance. For instance, it does not have fictive kin terms to contract socia
23、l distance.3. Deep-rooted Reasons for the Differences of Chinese and English Politeness in Cultural BackgroundAs we have mentioned before, value is the different views and attitudes of people regarding the matter. China is a traditional agricultural economy society, it is said that Chinese cultural
24、system emphasized the collectivism and authoritative character, using the natural value orientation. The Chinese nation has insists that the heaven and human units as the harmonious one. Han nationality affected by Confucian ideas is modest, introverted and conservative. Because of historical influe
25、nce, Chinese people formed a reserved, subtle character. They pay attention to diversity and changes of material, emphasis especially on the change and difference of the nature, stress that personal freedom, self-development and personal enterprise. The English culture takes more emphasis on indepen
26、dence and individuality.Generally speaking, westerners use politeness maxims less frequently than Chinese people. It can be attributed to two differences between Chinese and Western society Firstly, Western society highly promotes egalitarianism while Chinese society attaches more importance to hier
27、archy. The social relationship between Westerners is informal and they are most comfortable with their social equals. The importance of social rankings is minimizes in such a society Differently, the social relationship between Chinese people is formal and they are most comfortable in the presence o
28、f a hierarchy in which they know their position and the rules for behavior in the situation. The pan-familism, deep-rooted in Chinese culture, adjusted, restricted and defined the surface structure of the society language and the interpersonal relationship. The family philosophy of being loyal to th
29、e rulers and filial to the parents at the same time produced the corresponding people with distinctive features of ancient Chinese society. The humanist temper was one emphasizing distinctions of all kinds, distinctions between men and women, between ruling authority and subjects, and between the ol
30、d and the young. At home, one was always thinking whether his or her behavior accorded with his status in the family, afraid of violating the family disciplines. In society, rule determined the promotion and even fate of the people. They became circumspective and self-introspective, behaving rigorou
31、sly according to his position in society. Confucianism always imagines itself as a civilizing influence going about preaching these distinctions and establishing social order. It hopes to bind society together by a moral force, by teaching benevolence in the rulers and submission in the ruled, kindl
32、iness in the elders and respect for old age in the young, friendliness in the elder brother, and humility in the younger brother. Thus, the golden mean is most popular in Chinese society, which produces people with uniform characters. They adapt themselves to circumstances promptly and pursue a worl
33、d of compromise and pacification. Accordingly, they frequently follow the Self-denigration and Other-respecting, Elegancy, and Conforming Maxims of PP and violate the Quality and Manner Maxims of CP. Here, we can see that in Chinese society, people are more faith in personal relationships than in wr
34、itten rules and procedures for structuring interactions while in Western society such as in America, written rules presumably apply to everyone and are assumed to produce fair, reasonable procedures and decisions”. Westerners, promoting the equal rights and position of everyone, behave differently i
35、n their social relations, and their dictionary is short in words of dignity, and name of honor, that is, in terms through which the lower strata express their subservience to the higherSecondly, Western people have a self-centered culture while Chinese people embrace an others-oriented culture. In o
36、ther words, Western society is individualistic whereas Chinese society is collectivist. In the former one, higher value is placed on self-reliance and freedom from externally imposed constraints and self-promotion is more accepted. By contrast, in the latter one, higher value is placed on group coop
37、eration and interpersonal harmony is given the top priority. Modesty is just a maxim to help achieve this goal in Chinese society. There is an old Chinese saying Haughtiness invites losses while modesty brings profits满招损，谦受益. According to Confucius, a man of honor must have five cardinal qualities:
38、humility, magnanimity, sincerity, diligence graciousness with humility ranked first. If one accepted others praise without intention of denial, s/he would be considered self-arrogant. On the contrary, English-speaking people regard it as insincere to reject the deserved praise or to show too much fu
39、lsome modesty. For example, the common practice for a Chinese writer to end his presentation of his thesis at an international conference is Since my knowledge is limited, there must be lots of mistakes in my paper, so please give me your valuable suggestions. In Westerners eyes, if your thesis has
40、so many problems, why dont rectify them and improve it before the meeting? This different emphasis of modesty in each culture leads to the different address systems, compliments responses and so on. Moreover, Westerners have a high mobility in that they often change their jobs or move to new places
41、whereas Chinese people live more stably in comparatively narrow and fixed areas. Thus, comparatively speaking, Chinese people have more opportunities to meet each other in the neighborhood, at school, and at work, etc, for which it is more important to keep a harmonious relationship with each other.
42、 Therefore, it stands to reason that Chinese people are used to expressing their opinions in a periphrastic way and avoiding conflicts as much as they can.4. The Representations of Politeness between Chinese and English4.1 English Modesty and Chinese Self-denigrationIt is universally acknowledged th
43、at to show modesty is a way to be polite. But how this maxim is adhered to in different cultures is very much a matter of degree. The difficulty here is how to interpret the different connotation of Chinese谦虚and Leechs modesty in his Modesty Maxim. They are different in several ways: (1) Chinese谦虚is
44、 to put down self and to build up other; Modesty in the PP is to avoid self-praise. (2) Chinese谦虚is the core of Chinese politeness; Modesty Maxim is not as important as the other maxims in Leechs PP.(3) Chinese谦虚is a virtue of self-cultivation which is the foundation of Chinese politeness; English m
45、odesty is a strategy of minimizing praise of self. Self-denigration is to put down or denigrate while referring to self or self-related things and to elevate or respect others or other-related things. Self-denigration and other-elevation remains at the core of modern conception of礼貌in China. The rea
46、son of denigrating self is to show respect to other. Its essential characteristic is mutual respect and mutual care. When a Chinese gives a present to someone, he usually denigrates the gift in order to denigrate himself and to show respect to other. He will say: 礼物很轻.不成敬意，请笑纳. The reason for self-d
47、enigrating is to show respect to other. In the Chinese culture, the interests of others are thought to be more in-important than those own, and so the Chinese Culture is also called other-oriented culture.4.2 Direct Communication and Indirect CommunicationWesterners tend to assume that Communication
48、 is better when everyone involved knows exactly what is going on, and they assume that the best way to know that is to say it in words. They are generally polite according to their own standards, but they also value directness and think the best way to handle a sensitive situation is to give complet
49、e information in a direct (and hopefully gentle) way. Westerners also tend to assume that everyone else in the world is equally committed to directness. When Westerners encounter Chinese indirection they feel they are deliberately lied to. Often in China when someone answers, we must give it more thought to a request, he is refusing a request that cannot be met. He does not want to disrupt the relationship with the per