A COMPARATIVE STUDYOF ENGLISH AND CHINESE COMPLIMENTS IN CROSS CULTURAL COMMUNICATION

Zheng+Zewen

As a type of polite speech in interpersonal communication， compliments show the speakers praises for certain advantages of the listener. Through compliments， the speaker shows friendliness and hopes to build up social relations with the listener. Compliments have distinctive national traits. The way of paying compliments varies with cultural backgrounds and values. In China and the US， compliments and their topics， targets， vocabularies， sentence structures， and responses are different. Studying the differences of compliments in Chinese and English can avoid misunderstanding and realize successful communication.

Differences of Compliment Topics and Targets

There are two types of compliments： appearance and possessions， ability and achievement.

Many English compliments are related to appearance， especially dress. It is polite and respectful to praise the change of others appearance. For example， Americans usually say “You look great”. Chinese people rarely compliment on others appearance and it is usually limited among women if there

is any.

Besides， Americans praise others postnatal efforts rather than born beauty. For example， Americans tend to say “I think your new short dress looks great”， and not to say “I think your hair is great”. In contrast， Chinese people tend to say “Your eyes are beautiful” or “You have a good figure”.

In the US， both men and women compliment others. Everyone can compliment others， especially among family members， close friends and colleagues. For example， mother praises daughter： “You look cute in that skirt.” Wife likes to say to husband：“Its very kind of you to have me here.” It is natural for a woman to hear compliments inside or outside home， and from people superior or inferior to her. A husband would be pleased when his wife is praised.

Chinese people seldom compliment their family members， especially in front of outsiders； otherwise it is seen as impolite and uncultured. Also， Chinese people rarely compliment their family members directly， and it is often regarded as a joke if any. It is impolite or even rude for a man to directly compliment a womans beauty.

In the US， compliments occur not only among the same age or class， but also among different ages and classes. Compliments on ability or achievement usually come from the superior to the inferior staff to keep good rank relationships. In China， the inferior tend to compliment the superior staff to please the target and obtain favor.

In terms of compliments on

ability and achievement， Americans emphasize results while Chinese people stress personal quality. For example， Americans usually say “You have done a great job” or “I am so proud of your achievement”. Chinese people tend to say “You are smart” or “You are capable”.

Differences of Compliment Vocabularies and Sentence Structures

In Chinese and English compliments， vocabularies are very different. English compliments usually use adjectives and verbs. The most widely used adjectives are “nice” “good” “beautiful” and “pretty”. Verbs including “like” and “love” are often used. For example， “Your friend is so nice” “You have done a good job” and “I like your handbag”.

In Chinese compliments， apart from adjectives and verbs， adverbs are also used to modify verbs for emphasis purposes. For example， “You are a very excellent lawyer” or “You did an awfully great job”.

According to a survey， in English compliments， 80% are adjectives and 16% are verbs； in Chinese， 46% are adjectives， 43% are adverbs， and 7% are verbs.

According to research results， the first person

is seldom used in Chinese compliments， while

its common to use “I like/love” in English compliments. In Chinese， the second person sentence structure is mostly used（60%）， then the third person or impersonal structure（33.3%） and the first person（6.6%）. In English compliments， the third person ranks No. 1， the first person ranks No. 2， and then the second person. And the three structure types are distributed relatively even in English compliments.

Differences of Compliment Responses

Compliment responses are also different in China and the US due to different cultural backgrounds and values. Chinese tend to avoid self-praise when hearing compliments. They are inclined to respond with “No， no” or “Thats not true”. They even downgrade themselves so that the speaker wont see them as proud.

In contrast， Americans tend to agree with the speaker. “Thank you” is the most common response to compliments. Of course， when the compliment is cynical or is from family members and close friends， Americans may deny it. For instance， Sister： “I heard you performed well at school.” Brother： “None of your business.”

According to research analysis， Americans shift credit or downgrade themselves to avoid self-praise instead of direct denial. They shift the compliment to a third person or downgrade themselves. For example， A： “You have given a good paper.” B： “Thank you. But I think Toms sounds better.” It is modest and polite to accept the compliment and praise others as well.

Chinese people also adopt this method. For example， A： “You are good at cooking.” B： “Not as good as my mom.” Compared with Americans， Chinese adopt this response more frequently.

Both Americans and Chinese people respond to compliments with explanations， but their purposes and effects are different. For example， in China， A： “Your experiment is successful.” B： “That owes much to my teacher.” While for westerners， A： “You have done a great job in your experiment.” B： “Ive spent a lot of time on it.” Chinese people give explanations to show that it is other people instead of him or her who deserve the compliment.

Westerners might respond to compliments with compliments. For example， A： “You look great today.” B： “So do you.”

In summary， both Chinese and American people observe the maxim of politeness. The Chinese tend to deny the compliments， whereas Americans are inclined to accept them.

Application of Compliments

in Cross？鄄cultural Communication

Compliments are a common speech in verbal communication. In cross-cultural communication， the first step is to learn more about the listeners culture and respect his or her values and way of thinking so as to reduce the impact of compliments caused by cultural differences. When we learn the language， it is desirable to understand the linguistic patterns and rules of compliments. Under different social environments， it is necessary to use suitable compliments and responses and remain polite.

compliment恭维

cross-cultural跨文化的

interpersonal人际的

distinctive有明显区别的

trait特点

structure结构

possessions所有物

postnatal后天的

colleague同事

superior上级的

inferior下级的

impolite不礼貌的

uncultured没有文化的

emphasize强调

modify修饰

distribute分布

downgrade降低

cynical挖苦人的

modest谦虚的

deserve值得

maxim原则

inclined倾向于

verbal口头的

desirable可取的

linguistic语言学的