文献综述范例).docVIP

文 献 综 述 题 目：A Contrastive Study of English and Chinese Compliments 学生姓名： 王 海 兰 专业班级： 英 语 B04-46班 系部名称： 外 语 系 指导教师： 黄 天 琪 职 称： 副 教 授 黑 龙 江 工 程 学 院 二○○七年十一月 A Contrastive Study of English and Chinese Compliments I. Introduction Compliment, “expression of praise, admiration, approval, etc” (Oxford Dictionary, 1997: 283), is a kind of speech acts that is highly and frequently used in human communication. Compliments are usually intended to have a positive effect on interpersonal relations. This is why they have been said to “grease the social wheels” and thus to serve as “social lubricants” (Wolfson, 1983: 89). Compliments are typically performed to make the addressee feel good by saying something nice to him/her, in this way possibly satisfying the addressee’s expectation. As we all know that with different languages and culture background, lexicons not only have the denotation but also have the rich cultural connotation. It means the associational meaning, metaphorical meaning, symbolized meaning, commendatory and derogator connotations in different languages. To people’s common view, the addressee, no matter a Chinese or an English show his/her gladness when hearing such compliments as mentioned above. However, if the compliment is interpreted negatively (for example, because the compliment is clearly untrue, because it implies envy or desire, or because it assumes an unwarranted degree of intimacy), the effect on interpersonal relations is naturally less positive. There is evidence that paying compliments can be troublesome aspect for peoples from different cultural backgrounds. That is why Wolfson points out, in some cases, it is not even clear that different cultural groups would agree on what counts as a compliment. Those from other cultures as criticisms, implying that the addressee did not normally look good, f