中西禮貌跨文化之比較

English and Chinese Politeness: Cross-cultural Contrast

Politeness is a universal phenomenon, for it can be observed in all languages and cultures. It helps establish, maintain or consolidate harmonious interpersonal relationships and facilitate social interactions. Politeness as an observable phenomenon is a reflection of specific cultural values in the language. Thus, while admitting the universality of politeness, we must realize the cultural characteristics of politeness. That is, due to the influence of cultural value orientations, the actual manifestations of politeness and the standards for its judgment differ substantially from culture to culture. Exploring politeness, we must consider its cultural specificity and accordingly go into the depth where cultural values are firmly rooted. Only in doing so can we uncover the essence of politeness and successfully account for its cross-cultural differences. This paper intends to research English and Chinese politeness from a cross-cultural perspective and explore their cultural differences in the hope of achieving a better understanding of them, to raise our cultural awareness and to promote English-Chinese cross-cultural communication.禮貌是各語言、各文化所共有的普遍現象。它有助於建立和維持和諧的人際關係。禮貌不只是一種社會現象，更是特定文化價值在語言中的折射。因此，在承認禮貌的普遍性的同時，我們還必須認識到禮貌的文化特性；亦即，由於文化價值的影響，禮貌的表達方式，及人們用以判斷禮貌的標準會因文化而有所差異。因此，探討禮貌問題，我們必須考慮到禮貌的文化特徵，只有深入到文化層次，我們才能了解禮貌的本質及文化差異。本文旨在探討中英禮貌之間的文化差異，以提高國人的跨文化意識，促進文化交流。全文探討了禮貌與文化之間的密切關係。通過對照中英文化價值取向。作者認為中英禮貌的特徵有著本質的不同：英語禮貌以“尊己尊人”為特徵，而漢語禮貌以“貶己尊人”為特徵。而中英禮貌的主要差異不是（禮貌與否）問題，而是（禮貌類別）問題，也就是說，英文化以消極禮貌為取向，漢文化以積極禮貌為取向。