Abstract

Complimenting is a kind of speech act which is highly and frequently used in human communication. Because of compliments and compliment responses, the communications among people become more smooth and effective. Moreover, people could know how to use compliments and how to respond compliments in different situations, especially in cross-cultural communication. This paper attempts to carry on a comparative analysis of Chinese and English compliments and compliment responses, and find out the similarities and differences between them. There are four parts. Part one is a brief introduction to compliments and compliment response. Part two makes a comparative analysis of Chinese and English compliments. Part three tends to analyze the similarities and differences between and Chinese and English compliment responses. Part four sums up some reasons that causes those differences. Finally, it comes to the conclusion that compliments and compliment responses are related with cultural backgrounds. Different cultures cultivate different compliments and compliment responses. During the cross-cultural communication, there are many rules that people should follow on. By offering some specific examples and summing up some rules, the author hopes this paper could help readers to have a deeper understanding of Chinese and English compliments and compliments responses and, to some degree, help readers make a smoother cross-cultural communication.

Key words: Compliments; Compliment responses; Comparative analysis; Cross-culture communication.

摘  要

恭维语作为一种语言现象，被广泛地运用于人们的交往之中。因为有恭维语与恭维回应的存在，人们之间的交流变得更加顺畅、有效。汉语和英语均具有各自丰富的恭维语，但是不同的文化背景使得恭维语在使用上也产生了不同。对恭维语和恭维回应的研究，能够帮助人们更好地理解恭维语的形式，恭维的原则和恭维回应的策略。不仅如此，人们也能够了解在不同的情境下如何运用恭维语及如何回应别人的恭维。本文尝试着对英汉恭维语与恭维回应进行比较分析，并试着找出二者间的异同点。总共四个部分。第一部分简要介绍了恭维语和恭维回应。第二部分对比分析英汉恭维语的差异。第三部分分析英汉恭维语回应的相似点和不同点。第四部分总结出导致这些差异的原因。最后，得出结论即恭维与恭维回应与文化背景有关。不同的文化造就不同的恭维语与恭维回应方式。在跨文化交际的过程中，有许多规则人们需要注意。通过提供具体例子和总结规则，作者希望本文能够帮助读者对英汉恭维语与恭维回应有更深地理解，并在一定程度上帮助读者实现更顺畅的跨文化交际。

关键词：恭维语；恭维回应；对比分析；跨文化交际