Abstract

A compliment is a polite remark that one says something good about someone or something, expressing admiration or approval. Compliments and responses as a kind of social communication, can not only shorten the social distance between the communicators, but also can convey feelings, to maintain normal social relationships. This thesis is an attempt to have a comparison between Chinese compliments and English compliments. Because different cultures have different  contents, form, response patterns, people of different cultural background using the same language, due to the differences in their cultural roots, respond to the same linguistic phenomenon in different ways. These responses are acceptable in some cultures, but for some kind of culture may be unacceptable. The analysis of the patterns of Chinese and western compliments show that the Chinese and western have typical differences in the use of compliment. At the same time, the differences of the conversational mode to a great extent, reflects the westerners are under the influence of the different culture reflecting the Chinese and British and American people have different attitude and values. Understanding the differences between Chinese compliments and English compliments such as compliment topic, compliment response can help us reduce and avoid the embarrassment and misunderstanding in the cross-cultural communication so that pragmatic failure in the cross-cultural communication can be avoided in some degree . Successfully communicating with people from different cultures or different countries requires in a degree communication competence. With the background of rapid growth of the modern society, the benefits of avoiding pragmatic failure in intercultural communication are even greater. It can promote the understanding among peoples on earth as well as the development of world economy, keeping the world in peace to some extent.

Key words: politeness principle; compliments; culture；Pragmatic Failure

摘  要

赞美是一种礼貌的评论，说一些关于某人或某事的好话，来表达赞美和肯定。赞美和回答作为一种社会交际,它不仅可以缩短交流者之间的社会距离,而且可以联络感情,维护正常的社会关系。本文运用礼貌原则对比英汉称赞语的差异。因为不同的文化有不同的内容、形式、响应模式，当不同文化背景的人使用相同的语言时，由于其文化根源的差异，他们经常有不同的称赞方式和回应方式。在一种文化中可以接受的表达,但对于另外一种文化可能是不可接受的。通过对英汉称赞语会话模式的研究显示，中国和英国在使用称赞语时是有典型差异的。同时，会话方式的差异在很大程度上反映了西方人受到不同文化的影响,也反映了中国人和英国人和美国人有不同的态度和价值观。理解汉语和英语赞美，恭维的话题,及其回应他人赞美或者恭维的差异可以帮助我们减少和避免跨文化交流中的尴尬和误解从而避免跨文化交际失误。成功地与来自不同文化或不同国家的人交流需要一定程度的沟通能力。在快速增长的现代社会，避免跨文化交际中的语用失误，其意义显得更加重大。与来自不同文化背景的人的有效沟通，不仅能促进国际间的交流与经济的发展，而且有利于整个国际社会的和平发展。
 
关键词：礼貌原则；称赞语；文化；语用失误；