Abstract

Like painting, music and movie, language is also regarded as one kind of art, which is playing an indispensable role in people’s daily life when they express their thoughts and emotion. An appropriate expression is always pleasant while an inappropriate expression is repulsive. Therefore, how to speak seem to be particularly important. So is compliment. Compliments are referred to as the way to “grease the social wheels” and thus to function as “social lubricants”.[1]To show people’s greetings, appreciations, praising, also to solve their controversies and maintain their relationships with others, a compliment is usually a necessity during people’s daily communication. That’s why people are more and more willing to learn compliment in various ways, including some literatures.
However, there exists a lot of differences between the two language styles, social language and literature language. That’s why when people totally copy the compliment uses from literature to social communication，they will realize that it is incompatible with the speaking context.
Based on English literature works and social language (of course some lines in some classic movies are included), and through a series of analysis and comparisons, this paper compares and analyzes the differences between literature language and social language in English context.

Keywords: compliment; English context; English literature; literature language; social language

摘要

正如绘画、音乐、电影一样，语言也是一门艺术，并在人们的日常生活中扮演着不可或缺的角色。适当的语言表达能令人赏心悦目，不适当的语言则恰恰相反。因此，怎么样讲话显得尤为重要。褒扬语，作为语言的一部分，也是如此。他除了可以表达自己的赞美外，还能消除人们之间的隔阂矛盾，因此被誉为“推动社会前进的润滑油”。于是人们开始从各处学习褒扬语，包括一些文学作品中。
问题也随之而来。文学用语与社会用语虽同属于语言范畴，但其中有很多不同之处。因此当人们盲目将文学作品中的美文美句照搬照抄到日常交流中时，往往会显得与语境格格不入、牛头不对马嘴。
本文将以英语语言环境为基础，立足于文学作品与社会用语（包括少数代表性的电影台词），通过例子分析与对比，着重探讨英语语言环境中文学用语和社会用于之间的区别。

关键词：褒扬语；英语语境；英语文学；文学用语；社会用语