Pragmatic Discrepancies of Politeness in Chinese and English from the Point of Cross-cultural Communication 英语论文.docVIP

Pragmatic Discrepancies of Politeness in Chinese and English from the Point of Cross-cultural Communication Abstract：The use of politeness is a common phenomenon in various societies and groups, and it is the mark of human social civilization. However, affected by different cultures, politeness has specific characteristics. Aiming at reducing misunderstanding and cultural conflict and promoting successful communication in the process of cross-cultural communication, this paper begins with the different principles of politeness, contrasts the pragmatic discrepancies of politeness and analyzes the causes for the differences in Chinese and English. Key words: politeness；pragmatic discrepancies；Cross-cultural communication 1. English politeness principle In 1967, H. P. Grice, American philosopher and linguist, proposed the Cooperative Principle (abbrev. CP) in William James lecture delivered at Harvard University. He thought that in order to make the conversation go on, we should obey some basic principles, especially “Cooperative Principle”.The cooperative principle can be divided into four maxims： （1）Quantity Maxim：Make your contribution as informative as is required (for the current purposes of the exchange). Do not make your contribution more informative than is required. （2）Quality Maxim：Do not say what you believe to be false. Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence. （3）Relevant Maxim：Relevant to what you say. （4）Manner Maxim：Avoid obscurity of expression. Avoid ambiguity. Be brief (avoid unnecessary prolixity). Be orderly. However, sometimes people in communication processes are not in compliance with these principles, or even intentional violation of these principles. In other words, the cooperative principle cannot completely cover various forms of communication. Linguists Leach Leech thinks that the most fundamental reason that people violated the principle of communicative cooperation is that they want to follow a principle---courtesy Politene