4。 The Differences between Chinese and English Courtesy Languages in International Communication

Politeness formulae are the common phenomenon in English and Chinese cultures, which has similar social functions, and is commonly used in language。 However, the corresponding politeness expressions have pragmatic differences, and these differences are often the source of pragmatic errors in cross-cultural communication (He 48)。 They also reflect the different values in Chinese and Western cultures。 Therefore, correct understanding of polite language is very important for interpersonal interaction。来自优O尔P论R文T网WWw.YoueRw.com 加QQ7520`18766

4。1 The differences between Chinese and English address forms

Influenced by the social structure, the traditional ethics and the blood, religion and social factors, Chinese address system are far more complicated than the English speaking countries。 In China, children generally can not call the parents and the elder’s name directly, students cannot call the teacher’s name and the subordinate can’t call their superiors’ name directly。 Otherwise, it will be regarded as bad manners。 Chinese people not only like to use the name of kinship to address their families and relatives, but also like to use this title to call non family members and relatives and friends。 For instance, call the male who has the same age with their ancestor “Grandpa” and the female “Grandma”; call the man who has the same age with their parent “Uncle” and the woman “Aunt”; call the man who has the same age with them “Elder brother” and the woman “Elder sister”。 This is extremely rare in English speaking countries。

In the daily communication activities, Chinese people prefer to use the post to address someone, which not only reflects the respect for person addressed, but also attaching great importance to their identity or status。 For example, Chinese administrative duties, up to the president of the country, down to the group leader, can be used as a form of address, such as President Wang, Director Liu, etc。 English speaking countries are not always so。

Chinese terms of addresses quite reflect the traditional reverence for elderly people。 People usually call old people “老某”（老+surname）, like “老王”, “老李”, shows respect for people; call some venerable old-timers “某老”（surname+老）or Mr。 + surname, like Guo Moruo is called “郭老”or “Mr。 Guo”。 Here the “Lao”does not represented derogatory but respect or esteem。 However, it is a bad idea to use them in English speaking countries (Gu 248)。 

In view of this, Chinese address forms can be summarized as “尊卑有序”（priority in rank）。 In the most English speaking countries, the use of address forms and the interpretation of the meaning are so distinct because of its social structure, cultural orientation, interpersonal relationships are different from Chinese, specifically call them by their names or the use of “rank + surname” way。 In general, the British people may need more respectful languages when speaking with their superiors, but does not require any special terms of address, no matter how old the other party’s age is, the status is high, people are more willing to address them without an honorific title, which fully expresses the equal cultural orientation。

4。2 The differences between Chinese and English greetings论文网

The aim of greetings among people is to set up and maintain social relations, rather than passing information。 Therefore, the formula expression method will often be used。 

When people meet each other, especially between acquaintances, generally should say hello to show politeness。 In addition to the occasional use of gestures, mostly use greetings。 But people from different cultural backgrounds use the dissimilar greetings (Li tong, 2003: 30)。 In English, you can use a simple “Hi!” or “Hello!” to greet others, but also in the “Hi” and “Hello” followed by the name of the other side, such as: “Hi, John!” In addition, greeting also can contain the wishing words, such as: “Good Morning, Good Afternoon, Good Evening, Good Day, Good Night” and so on。 These greetings are rarely applied among the Chinese people。 When greeting someone, Chinese people usually say: “你吃饭过了吗？”(Have you eaten it?) This is just the way of greeting; actually, do not really want to know whether the other side has eaten the meal。 However, in English, the sentence is no longer a greeting, but used to indicate the proposal or to invite each other to eat together。 In Chinese, another common greeting is “你到哪儿去？”(Where are you going?) or “你干什么去？”(What are you doing?) “天凉,小心感冒！”(It’s cold, be careful to catch a cold!), the two problems in Chinese all mean “say hello”, rather than wanting to understand somebody by greeted where to go, what to do or warn him how to do。 Nevertheless, if we ask the Westerners in English, they will be very surprised, even disgusted。 They would think that such a problem would be to intervene in their private businesses rather than a friendly greeting。 In Chinese, the forms of address generally can be replace with greetings, such as encounter an old friend of his father, will call a “张叔叔”(Uncle Zhang!) or “李伯伯”(Uncle Li!), the other one will know you are saying hello to him。 But if you call “Uncle Brown” or “Professor Smith” to a Western man, he will stop and answer: “Yes?” because he thinks you have something to ask him or require his assistance。