AViewonEnglishPoliten_省略_maCulturalPersp教程.pdfVIP

中国校外教育 中旬刊 教 研 视 点 A View on English Politeness from a Cultural Perspective ◆Lu Xiaofang (The Foreign Language Department of Chongqing Medical University) Abstract :Politeness plays an important role in human communication． As a socio － pragmatic phenomenon ，its actual manifestations and standards for judgment are culturally different due to the influence of cultural value orientations． This paper analyzes the characteristics of English politeness from a cultural perspective． It aims to improve our understanding of English politeness and cross － cultural awareness． Key Words :English politeness English culture individualism low power distance I Introduction values and hence is attributed to a derogatory sense by the Chinese ，whereas it is What is politeness?Different linguists and scholars give their different inter- a dominant value orientation of English culture and is deeply rooted in the mind pretations of politeness． Leech (1983 :82 )sees politeness as a regulative factor of its people． in interaction in order to maintain the social equilibrium and the friendly rela- The most salient characteristics of individualism in English culture are I tion ． Brown and Levinson (1987 )view politeness as a redressive action taken consciousness and self － orientation (Hu 1999 :352 )． According to Hofstede ， to counter － balance the disruptive effect of face － threatening acts． Yule main- Engli