Politeness - a comparison between Chinese and English :: essays research papers

Table of circumscribe1. Introduction 22. Politeness a theoretical approach33. the concept of limao44. Request strategies44.1. Request strategies in Chinese44.2. Request strategies in English55. Forms of organize65.1. Forms of address in Chinese65.2. Forms of address in English76. Chinese Politeness crossways social groups87. refinement9References11 1. IntroductionIn many parts of this world, causation existing borders are removed and people move closer together. It has to be admitted that most of the time this happens due to economical reasons, and the phenomenon of mass media has to be mentioned in this context as well. Therefore it becomes even more important to be able to understand cultures of different life-styles. But the success or ill luck of communication does not only depend on how well a lyric poem is spoken, provided also on intonation and body language. Dr. Mehrabian, a prominent and successful psychologist, is perhaps best known for the investigation of the role of non-verbal communication. He published findings indicating that spoken words only account for 7% of what a listener perceives. The remaining 93% of what a listener comprehends part from the speakers body language and tone employed in the delivery of the words.not only because of studies like this, non-verbal communication plays an important role when studying language in its social context. A very interesting topic in this large field is politeness, since forms of politeness are often misinterpreted and lead to misunderstandings. So I chose to have a closer fancy at the differences between politeness in Chinese and English.Since it is very difficult to collect data concerning politeness in the language of Chinese, this reputation is theory-based only. Nevertheless, many books that contend this topic can be found. Some of the books utilise for the research of this paper were written by native speakers of Chinese, which is an indication for the authors competence of the language. Therefore, collecting additional data would not only have been difficult, but also inefficient. This paper will deal with the topic of request strategies used by speakers of the Peoples Republic of China and the terms of address in Chinese and English. Besides, it will focus on request strategies across societal structures and social groups. In addition, it will discuss the concept of limao, the traditionalistic concept of politeness in China. This paper will not lead to cover all important issues concerning this topic, but it shall give a gravelly overview and should give the reader an incentive to have a closer look at this field of study.