从不同的地域文化分析中西礼貌原则：Intercultural-communication Perspective of

众所周知，世界变得越来越小，而人们之间的联系，尤其是中国人和西方人的联系，变得越来越紧密。这一切都要归因于全球化的发展。在日常生活中，我们可能会经常同来自说英语国家的人打交道。
As we all know, the world is getting smaller and smaller, while the contact between people, especially the contact between Chinese and westerners, is becoming closer and closer, all of which are because of the development of globalization. We may communicate with another who is from an English-speaking country frequently in daily life.

因此，如何才能够在跨文化交际中实现成功交际变得非常重要。但是来自不同文化背景的人观点不同，而且在跨文化交际中遵循着不同的原则。在这些原则中，礼貌原则便是最重要的一条。不明确中西礼貌原则的不同将会导致跨文化交际的失败。
Thus, how to communicate with others successfully in intercultural communication has become very important. But people from different cultures have different views and they observe different principles in intercultural communication. Among these principles, politeness principle is the most important one. Fail to know the differences of politeness principle in Chinese and English cultures clearly will lead to the failure of intercultural communication.

本文首先详细、明确地介绍了一些有关跨文化交际的重要内容。接着，本文对中西方文化中的礼貌原则做了对比分析。最后，本文试图探讨影响中西礼貌原则的文化差异，从而说明进行中西礼貌原则对比的必要性和有用性，以及此研究对于跨文化交际的成功的重要作用和意义。
This paper first introduces some important points concerning intercultural communication elaborately and clearly. Then this paper makes a comparison between the politeness principles in Chinese and English cultures. At the end, this paper makes an attempt to discuss the cultural differences that affect politeness principle in Chinese and English cultures, to indicate that it is very necessary and useful to make a comparison between the politeness principles in Chinese and English cultures and that this kind of study is very important and beneficial for successful intercultural communication.

 

Thesis Statement论文声明

It is necessary and important to make a comparison study between the politeness principles in Chinese and English which are affected by cultural differences and play an important role in intercultural communication.

 

Outline目录

I. Introduction

II. Intercultural Communication

A. Definition of Intercultural Communication

B. Characteristics of Intercultural Communication 

C. Barriers to Successful Intercultural Communication

III. Some Important Points Concerning Politeness Principle in Chinese and English Cultures

A. Definition and Contents of Chinese and English Politeness Principles

B. Comparison between Chinese and English Politeness Principles

1． Common Points between Chinese and English Politeness Principles

2． Different Points between Chinese and English Politeness Principles

IV. Cultural Differences Affecting Politeness Principle in Chinese and English Cultures

A. Collectivism and Individualism

B. Self-Denigration and Modesty

C. Attitudinal Warmth and Privacy

V. Conclusion

 

I. Introduction引言

 

Because of the development of globalization, people from different countries and places have much more opportunities to contact with each other, especially the Chinese people who have more chances to communication with westerners after china enters WTO. Intercultural communication between Chinese and westerners is becoming more and more popular and is playing important roles in many aspects with the development of society and technology. But people from Chinese and English cultures hold different views, values and observe different principles when they communicate with others, which often causes serious pragmatic failures .And then it causes intercultural communication failures. In order to avoid intercultural communication failures as much as possible, many linguists have done many researches on it and they have achieved something, among which the study of politeness principle is an important one. The cooperative principle was proposed by H.P.Grice. As Zhang Haiyan notes,“Cooperative Principle was firstly put forward by American philosopher, Grice，at the end of 1960s.He believed that there must be some mechanisms governing the production and comprehension of utterances，that is, speaker and addressee must cooperate with each other, so that the conversation could continue in its fixed direction. He suggested that there is a set of assumptions guiding the conduct of conversation. This is what he called the Cooperative Principle” (2003:40). Cooperative Principle is an important principle, but it is not the only one. Later, the British linguist, Geoffrey N. Leech (1983) put forward Politeness Principle in order to make up for the insufficiency of Cooperative Principle. In Leech’s opinion, sometimes people’s deliberately violating of the Cooperative Principle may be due to the politeness reasons. Politeness Principle in Chinese culture is different from that in English culture. The real study of politeness only began in the 1980s when pragmatics was introduced into china. Professor Gu Yueguo is an important figure who has made great contribution to the development of politeness. He proposes his own theory of politeness maxims in his “Politeness Phenomena in Modern Chinese” (1990:237-238). As a social phenomenon, politeness is not only an only a merit that is universally highly valued, but also the base on which intercultural communication go on smoothly and successfully. However, in the course of intercultural communication, people from different cultural backgrounds make a judgment on politeness according to different criteria. “One culture's meat is another culture’s poison” (Hu Zhuanglin, 2006:180). Different cultures have different criteria towards politeness. Being unaware of these differences would probably lead to failures in intercultural communication. Therefore, it is necessary and important to make a comparison study between the politeness principles in Chinese and English and cultures so as to keep misunderstanding as little as possible and to achieve successful intercultural communication. Besides, knowing the pragmatic and cultural differences of politeness in Chinese and English cultures is meaningful to the foreign language learners, to the establishment of a harmonious society and world.

 

II．Intercultural Communication跨文化交际

 

A．Definition of Intercultural Communication跨文化交际的定义

As (Chen Qi)puts in his thesis that the word ‘communicate’ comes from Latin, the word ‘commonis’ which means ‘common’(2004).The term “communication” is not new. Where there are humanity and society people, there are communications. It is the process by which we understand others and in turn efforts to be understood by them. In Jia Yuxin’s opinion, the communication is a kind of symbolic activity and a dynamic process of encoding and decoding. When verbal or non-verbal signs are endowed with meanings, communication occurs (1997). Social linguists think that cultures are closely related to communication. It is natural that with differences in cultures, difficulties often arise in communication between cultures and cross cultures. People with the same culture can communicate fluently without trouble. But what about people in different cultures? That is the category of intercultural communication.  Intercultural communication as a type of human activities, which is also called cross-cultural communication, is not new to most of us. What happened on the Silk Road is an outstanding example of communication across cultures. To be simple, intercultural communication is the communication between members of different cultures. Of course, this definition is very simple, but the process of intercultural communication is very complex. Intercultural communication involves different perceptions, attitudes and interpretations. As is known to all, even people from the same culture may have communication problems. Thus it is difficult to give a definite definition to intercultural communication because it is difficult to define the two terms: communication and culture, which are closely related to intercultural communication. But there are still some definitions are given to intercultural communication.
 

According to the Wikipedia, “Intercultural communication is a form of global communication. It is used to describe the wide range of communication problems that naturally appear within an organization made up of individuals from different religious, social, ethnic, and educational backgrounds. Intercultural communication is sometimes used synonymously with cross-cultural communication. In this sense it seeks to understand how people from different countries and cultures act, communicate and perceive the world around them. As a separate notion, it studies situations where people from different cultural backgrounds interact. Aside from language, intercultural communication focuses on social attributes, thought patterns, and the cultures of different groups of people. It also involves understanding the different cultures, languages and customs of people from other countries. Intercultural communication plays a role in anthropology, cultural studies, linguistics, psychology and communication studies. Intercultural communication is also referred to as the base for international businesses. There are several cross cultural service providers around who can assist with the development of intercultural communication skills. Research is a major part of the development of intercultural communication skills.” Besides, many scholars and researchers have done a lot of work and they have their own definitions towards intercultural communication. Intercultural communication occurs whenever a member of one culture produces a message and then it is received by a member from another culture (Samovar & Porter, 1999). To be precise, the intercultural communication takes place between people who are accustomed to different cultures, perceptions and different values. Such people as businessmen, tourists, military forces and the head of a country are often involved in intercultural communication. According to Fred E. Jandt (1998), intercultural communication is the contact between people who identify themselves as distinct from one another in terms of culture. Though the definition of intercultural communication may vary from person to person, from situation to situation, there is no denying that intercultural communication involves two or more different cultures. Every communicator has his own cultural backgrounds, perceptions and values. So it is important to keep this in mind in order to achieve successful intercultural communication.

 

B. Characteristics of Intercultural Communication 跨文化交际的特点
 

Changeability can be regarded as an important characteristic of intercultural communication due to the fast development of our society and world. Now we are living in a world which is becoming smaller and smaller. Travels that once took months now take hours. Businesses that once only took place in a specific place or one’s own country now have become more and more open. One’s business dealings are not restricted to his country. He can do his business in foreign countries because of the fast development of globalization. He can take advantage of this to become successful in career if he has enough ambition and perseverance. Information that once took a long time to be spread now appears in a few minutes or seconds due to the use of a wide range of media, all of which are due to the development of science and technology. People from different countries around the world become more mobile than ever and more likely to contact cultures different from theirs. Literally and figuratively, the walls that separate us are falling down. Though we may not have fully become a “global village”, there is no denying that the different cultures in the world co-exist more harmoniously than ever before and that people from different cultures are communicating with each other more and more to some extend. Intercultural communication becomes more and more popular, and it keeps changing in accordance with the changing of our times. Since China adopted the policy of reform and opening- up, more and more businessmen come to China for investment and for realizing their dreams. Exchanging of culture, advanced science and technology between different countries are becoming more frequent and important than ever before. That’s the reason why we can say changeability is one important characteristics of intercultural communication. Besides, features in the way all humans process of information about others are very important to the understanding of intercultural communication, which shows some features of intercultural communication. This is clearly stated in Cui Peng’s article (2009:42-45):
 

First, cognitive psychologists have repeatedly demonstrated that people impose a pattern on their world by organizing the stimuli that make their senses into conceptual categories. Every waking moment, people are presented with literally hundreds of different perceptual stimuli. Therefore, it becomes necessary to simplify the information by selecting, organizing, and reducing it to less complex forms. 
 

Second, most people tend to think that others perceive, evaluate, and reason about the world in the same ways they do. In other words, humans assume that other people with whom they interact are like themselves. Indeed, it is quite common for people to draw on their personal experiences to understand and evaluate the motivations of others. This common human tendency is sometimes called “ethnocentrism”. We should state that we are simple describing these human tendencies, not evaluating them as good or bad. Their obvious advantage is that they allow people to respond efficiently to a variety of perceptual stimuli. Nevertheless, such organization and simplification can create genuine obstacles to intercultural competence because they may lead to prejudice, discrimination, and racism.

 

C. Barriers to Successful Intercultural Communication跨文化交际的阻碍

Intercultural communication may occur in the target language country, and it may also occur in the source language country or the third country. Wherever it occurs, a smooth communication process has a lot to do with many factors. From the surface level, people from different cultures often communicate with others with different language , different customs etiquette, complying with different norms, which naturally would cause communication problems .From the deep level, these factors reflect the  different world view, values and social attitudes, so intercultural communication problems often due to the different values or social attitudes in different cultures. Whenever we communicate with others, we all hope that the communication is an effective interaction. However，we often meet some obstacles unavoidably，so we should know some barriers，which will impair our competence to achieve successful and effective communication. Richard E Porter in the An Overview of Intercultural Communication listed eight factors that affect cross-cultural communication: attitudes, social organization, thought patterns, roles, requirements, language use and organization of space, time concepts, and non-verbal expression. In the analysis of attitude, he made a special mention of ethnocentrism (ethnocentrism), (absolute) values (absolute values) and stereotypes (stereotypes) and discrimination (prejudices), and that they may do harm to the cross-cultural communication (Fu Yonggang, 2002:28-30). Here I will focus on ethnocentrism, stereotype and prejudice.
 

1. Ethnocentrism 民族中心主义

People with ethnocentrism are inclined to judge other nation’s behavior according to the standard of their own culture, and they often tend to think that their cultures and social language are superior to others’. Many scholars believe that because we learn ethnocentrism so early in life unconsciously, it might be a major barrier to intercultural communication. Stewart and Bennett (1991) have made a clear statement about the negative impact of ethnocentrism on communication: 

First, ethnocentric beliefs about one’s own culture shape a social sense of identity, which is narrow and defensive. Second, ethnocentrism normally involves the perception of members of other cultures in term of stereotypes. Third, the dynamic of ethnocentrism is comparative judgments which are made between one’s own culture and other cultures under  the  assumption  that  one’s  own  is  normal  and  natural. 
 

2. Stereotype铅板

In China, stereotype was described as an integrative model cultural depiction, which means to analyze cultures by uniform standards, considering each members of a culture as a stereotypic representative (Jia Yuxin, 1997). Stereotype falls into two categories: positive stereotype and negative stereotype. Of course, the negative one will do harm to intercultural communication. Stereotype often leads to misunderstanding, limitation to our thoughts.  The negative influence of stereotype on intercultural communication is clearly described by Adler (1991):

Stereotypes  become  counter  productive  when  we  place  people  in  the  wrong  groups, when we incorrectly describe the group norm, when we inappropriately  evaluate the group or category, when we confuse the stereotype with the description of a particular individual, and when we fail to modify the stereotype based on our actual observations and experience.

3. Prejudice

Prejudice is the personal attitude towards intercultural communication. Attitude is a psychological state which would lead us to act in a certain way when we experience something. Prejudice is a factor of barriers to intercultural communication. Because prejudice is judgmental and subjective, which is always formed before any investigation is done. When it comes to intercultural communication, the prejudiced person is very often blind to the negative impact. People with strong prejudice tend to overlook the truth and they also tend to behave that they are absolutely right, all of which will lead to few considerations for others and more considerations for themselves. Thus it leads to misunderstanding and then causes failures in intercultural communication.  #p#分页标题#e#

From the above, we know that successful intercultural communication is affected by various factors. The major barrier to intercultural communication is caused mainly by communicators, so it is important to look at the politeness principle which is closely related to the communicators.  

 

II. Some Important Points Concerning Politeness Principle in Chinese and English Cultures

 

A. Definition and Contents of Chinese and English Politeness Principles

1. Definition and Content of Chinese and Politeness Principle

China is known as the nation of the etiquette. China has formed the characteristic Chinese moral rules and politeness principles during several thousand years. Among the Chinese scholars who have made great contribution to the study of politeness, Professor Gu Yueguo should be mentioned. In his articles he has traced the origin of the motion of politeness in the Chinese culture, and has also formulated a different set of politeness maxims, which he thinks are more suitable to the Chinese environment. He thinks that there are four notions underlying the Chinese conception of Limao: respectfulness, modesty, attitudinal warmth and refinement. And he concluded five maxims of limao according to Leech’s Politeness Principle: 

a. Respectfulness Maxim: self’s positive appreciation or admiration of other concerning the latter’s face, social status, and so on.

b. Appellation Maxim: use proper appellation to address other.

c. Refinement Maxim: self’s demonstration of kindness, consideration, and hospitality to other.

d. Consistency Maxim: self’s behavior to other which meets certain standards. 

e. Virtue, Speech and Behavior Maxim: on motivation, minimize other’s cost and maximize other’s benefit; on verbalism, maximize benefit self received and minimize cost self paid out (Li Jie, 2004:126).

2. Definition and Content of English Politeness Principle

When mentioning politeness principle, we must mention cooperative principle, which was put forward by H.P. Grice. He believed that there must be some mechanisms governing the production and comprehension of utterances，that is, speaker and addressee must cooperate with each other, so that the conversation could continue in its fixed direction. He suggested that there is a set of assumptions guiding the conduct of conversation. This is what he called the Cooperative Principle (Zhang Haiyan, 2003:40). 

To specify the CP further, Grice introduced four categories of maxims as follows:

QUANTITY

a. Make your contribution as informative as is required. (for the                          current purposes of the exchange)

b. Do not make your contribution more informative than is   required.

        QUALITY

Try to make your contribution one that is true. 

a. Do not say what you believe to be false.

b. Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence.

RELATION

Be relevant.

MANNER

Be perspicuous. 

a. Avoid obscurity of expression.

b. Avoid ambiguity.

c. Be brief (avoid prolixity).

d. Be orderly. (Ibid.p.45-46)” (Hu Zhuanglin, 2006:191).

Leech’s view of politeness involves a set of politeness maxims analogous to Grice’s maxims. Among these are (Leech, 1983:132):

a. Tact Maxim: Minimize cost to other. Maximize benefit to other.

b. Generosity Maxim: Minimize benefit to self. Maximize cost to self.

c. Approbation Maxim: Minimize dispraise of other.  Maximize praise of other.

d. Modesty Maxim: Minimize praise of self.  Maximize dispraise of self.

e. Agreement Maxim: Minimize disagreement between self and others. Maximize agreement between self and other.

f. Sympathy Maxim: Minimize antipathy between self and other.  Maximize sympathy between self and other.

 

B. Comparison between Chinese and English Politeness Principles

From their definition and contents, we can see that there is something in common between the politeness principle in Chinese and English cultures. However，they do have something different. When people from Chinese and English cultures communicate with each other, they will observe the principles which they think are polite, which will cause misunderstanding and failures in intercultural communication. Therefore, making a comparison between the politeness principles in Chinese and English cultures will benefit the communicators a lot. 

1. Common Points between Chinese and English Politeness Principles

a. The common point between Tact Maxim, Generosity Maxim and Virtue, Speech and Behavior Maxim

Leech’s Tact Maxim and Generosity Maxim mainly tell us about how to handle the relationships with others in the course of communication. That is “Minimize other’s cost and maximize other’s benefit”, which are the same as Gu’s Virtue, Speech and Behavior Maxim. They minimize other’s cost and maximize other’s benefit on motivation; maximize benefit that self received and minimize cost self paid out. For instance :( 1)

A: Are you busy this weekend?

B: No.

A: Would you like to come to dinner with us?

B: Of course. It’s my honor.

From their conversation, we can see that both A and B observe the above two maxims. A’s question are well prepared, which show much concern to B and B’s answer shows his politeness.

b. The common point between Approbation Maxim, Modesty Maxim and Respectfulness Maxim

Approbation Maxim and Modesty Maxim in Leech’s PP actually deal with the praise in communication. The two maxims and Gu’s Respectfulness Maxim have something in common because they both emphasize the appropriateness of praising and receiving praise. For example :( 2)

A: Your PE is very good. And your action is very professional.

B: Thank for your compliment. It’s owing to my PE teacher’s good guidance.

The conversation between A and B reveals the common point between the above two maxims. A shows consideration to B and praise him. And B shows his consideration for receiving praise.

c. The common point between Agreement Maxim, Sympathy Maxim and Consistency Maxim

The common point between Agreement Maxim, Sympathy Maxim and Consistency Maxim is that they both require communicators to maximize consistency of each other and minimize disagreement. For instance: (3)

A: It’s raining all day long. Awful, isn’t it?

B: Yes, But I feel ease at home.

From their conversation, we can see that B is observing the maxim of consistency. Although he does not agree with A, he affirms part of A’s opinion first, then express his own opinion. 

2. Different points between Chinese and English Politeness Principles

From the above comparison, we can see that there are some common points between English and Chinese politeness principle. But there are also some differences between the politeness principle in Chinese and English cultures because of the cultural differences. Knowing the different points, we will benefit a lot in intercultural communication.

a. The different point in Tact Maxim

As we all know, individualism is highly valued in English-speaking countries, which is related to the right, freedom and independency of individual. Therefore, Tact Maxim is regarded as the most important maxim of politeness principle in English culture, which is often used when one wants to show some deixis. But to Chinese people, who have been overwhelmed by feudalism for more than two thousand years, the rule of respecting the elders will be strictly obeyed and the status of others will be taken into account. For example, “Give the book on the desk” is widely used and accepted by Chinese, but westerners may think it is impolite to say so.

b. The different point in Modesty Maxim

Modesty is universally regarded as a virtue, and showing modesty is considered to be the way to be polite when we communicate with others. But a Chinese person and an English-speaking person would show their modesty differently. We can see the difference from the following example: (4)#p#分页标题#e#

Speakers in English culture:

A: You look so good today！

B: Oh, thanks a lot.

Speakers in English culture:

A: You look so good today!

B: No, no at all.

From their conversation, we can see that an English-speaking person would show his modesty by accepting the compliment from others, while a Chinese person would show his modesty by denying the truth of the compliment. That’s the different point in Modesty Maxim.

c. The different point in Sympathy Maxim

As is known to all, China is a nation famous for the traditional merit, called “respecting the old and cherish the young”. So when they communicate with others, they will show great concern to the old people. However, this is not true to the situation in English culture. In English culture, old people don’t want to be treated as old and they don’t like to accept the sympathy and help from others. That’s the different point in Modesty Maxim.

Here we have seen the common and different points between the Chinese and English politeness principles. The different points between them will be barriers to intercultural communication if we overlook them and only use our own principles to judge whether it is impolite or polite. Then, what causes the differences? Of course， culture plays an important role. Next, I will focus on some cultural differences that affect politeness principle in Chinese and English cultures. Knowing the cultural differences will further our understanding of the differences between the politeness principle in Chinese and English cultures. And it will be beneficial to the communicators to achieve successful intercultural communication. 

 

As we all know, Confucius is regarded as the wise man in our history. He had set up many moral requirements in his time. Although he has been dead for a long time, his spirit is still alive. Confucianism has a deep influence on Chinese culture. He attaches much importance to selflessness, duty, patriotism, diligence and so on. He also emphasizes the harmonious relationship between every individual in the society. Collectivism in Chinese culture can find its trace in Confucianism. According to collectivism, each individual forms the society, lives in the society and they can’t separate themselves from their society and their country. In Chinese culture, the national interests and interest of the public are more important than the interests of individuals, and sometimes the individuals have to sacrifice their personal interests in order to keep the national and public interests complete. Thus, individuals assume many duties to their nation, to their society, their community and to their family. And collectivism is supposed to be a way to maintain harmonious and smooth social relationships. As a result, a person in Chinese culture will show his politeness and warmth to others by asking questions that are private and speak in an indirect way to avoid conflicts when they communicate with others. But a person in English culture will act differently because of cultural differences. Individualism, which is closely connected with the pursuit of freedom, happiness and independency, is worshiped in English culture. Different from the Chinese culture, individual interests are highly valued. In English culture, people don’t like to be asked about personal questions, and they don’t like to change themselves in order to adapt to others when they communicate with others. A person from an English-speaking country would like to speak in a direct way and they really appreciate the creation of new ideas. As for people in English culture, individuals are not entirely tied to their society, to their community, even to their family. They only have to be responsible for themselves. It’s the difference between collectivism and individualism that reveals the cultural differences in Chinese and English cultures.

 

As I have mentioned in III-A-2-a that modesty is universally regarded as a virtue, and that showing modesty is considered to be the way to be polite when we communicate with others. But Modesty Maxim is observed differently both in Chinese and English cultures because of the cultural differences. In Chinese culture, when we communicate with others, we often call our selves as “humble man” and our home as “cold home” in order to show our modesty. This is called self- denigration. But we often call others as “your honor” and others’ home as “noble home” to show our respect to others. However, this is not the same case in English culture. An English-speaking person will call himself as “I”; his possession as “my” or “mine”; others as “you” and others’ possession as “your” or “yours”. This kind of cultural differences is applicable to how to receive praise. In Chinese culture, we will answer like this: “NO, no, not at all” or “I haven’t done very well” to show our modesty and respect when we are praised by others. While in English culture，a person will accept other’s compliment by saying something like this: “Thank you for your compliment”. Accepting the compliment from others is considered to be polite and this is the convention in English culture. Therefore, they think that Chinese people are lacking of honesty and that Chinese people are impolite when they show their modesty by denying the truth of the praise. Thus, we can see that the cultural differences between Chinese and English are obvious, which affect the politeness principles to a large extent.  

 

China is a nation not only famous for the merit of “respecting the old and cherish the young”, but also for hospitality and attitudinal warmth. They tend to show great concern for others. For example, when two strangers meet each other for the first time, they may greet each other with “Where are going?” or “Have you eaten?” or “What are you going to do?” or something like this. As they grow to know each other, they will exchange their personal information, such as age, social status, jobs, marriage, family members, child, income, etc. They don’t treat these questions as private because showing warmth and concern for others is regarded as polite in Chinese culture. Sometimes they even give sincere advice to others when they communicate with others. From their point of view, asking personal questions and giving advice is the way to show attitudinal warmth and concern for others, and by doing these things, they can show their kindness and they can get closer to others. While in English culture, privacy is highly valued. Such information as age, social status, marriage, income, even family members are treated as private by people from English-speaking country. They will be annoyed if they are asked about questions concerning personal information. From their point of view, their personal matters have nothing to do with others. Thus, the attitudinal warmth is very different from the privacy in English culture. If a Chinese student shows his warmth and concern for his foreign language teacher by asking questions like this: “How old are you?” or “What’s your salary?”, then the teacher must be annoyed. We can see this kind of cultural differences between Chinese and English cultures from the sharp contrast between two sayings in Chinese and English cultures: “Neighbors are dearer than distant elatives” and “Good fences make good neighbors” (Zhang Xingzhen, 2005:27).

 

V．Conclusion结论

 

To sum up, this paper has discussed the following three topics: First, the definition and characteristics of intercultural communication and barriers to intercultural communication. Second，some important points concerning politeness principles in Chinese and English cultures, including the definition and contents of the politeness principles and the comparison between the politeness principles in Chinese and English cultures. Third, cultural differences that affect politeness principles in Chinese and English cultures. These three parts are tightly tied to each other. From the study, we can draw the conclusions: First, intercultural communication is influenced by many factors, and that if we want to achieve successful and effective intercultural communication, we will have to pay more attention to those factors which would be barriers to communicators. Second，although people share some common points about politeness principles, sometimes they will observe different principles because of their cultural backgrounds, their values and their opinions toward the world. Failing to know the differences is doomed to fail in communication. Third, culture plays an important role in the shaping of people’s views, perspectives, even their languages, and that the cultural differences in Chinese and English cultures. They are the underlying causes of the differences in politeness principles. 

This paper may be helpful to foreign language learners. Keeping what have been discussed in the paper in mind, learners may make progress in their foreign  language learning because they may pay much attention to the cultural differences instead of just trying hard to memorize words to enlarge their vocabulary. And this paper may arouse their interest in the communication skills when they communicate with others, such as how to communicate with foreign language teachers and how to ask questions in a polite manner which won’t embarrass their teachers. With the fast development of China’s economy and globalization, Chinese people have more chances to come across intercultural communication. Knowing the barriers to effective intercultural communication and differences in politeness principles, people can take some measures to avoid misunderstanding and conflicts so that they can behave properly in the course of communication. As we all know, establishing a harmonious society and world has become more and more popular. And this concept has accepted by many countries and people around the world. Thus knowing something about cultural differences will help people to achieve “when in Rome do as the Romans do” (Hu Zhuanglin, 2006:177) and “put themselves in other’s shoes” (Hu Zhuanglin, 2006:180). They will take the cultural differences into account in the course of intercultural communication. Then the ultimate result is that more understanding will be produced, and little misunderstanding will be produced, and that relationship between communicators becomes more and more harmonious. As the relationships between individuals become harmonious, our society will become harmonious, so will our world. We can benefit a lot because we can create a safer and safer place for ourselves and our offspring. Of course, there is still many aspects to be improved in this paper and more researches should be done in order to make intercultural communication be carried on smoothly and effectively.#p#分页标题#e#

 

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Gu, Yueguo. “Politeness Phenomena in Modern China” Journal of Pragmatics14 (1990):237-238.

Hu, Zhuanglin. Linguistics.3rded. London: Beijing University Press, 2006.

Jandt, Fred E. Intercultural Communication: An Introduction, 1998.

Leech, G. N. Principles of Pragmatics. London: Longman, 1983.

Samovar & Porter. Intercultural Communication, 1999.

Stewart, E. C. and M. J. Bennett. American Cultural Patterns [M]. ME: 

Intercultural Press, 1991. 

Zhang, Haiyan. “Cultural Differences between Cooperative Principle and Politeness Principle in Chinese and English.” Journal of HuBei Adult Education Institute2 (2009):40.