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论文

河南科技大学

毕业设计（论文）

题目AContrastiveStudyofEnglishandChineseComplimentsandTheirResponses

英汉称赞语及应答的对比研究

姓名郭秋荣

院（系）外国语学院

专业　英语

指导教师牟维静

2007年6月10日

Abstract

Thecompliment,asanimportantlinguisticphenomenon,isusedbypeopletomakeothersfeelcomfortable.Itiscommonlyusedineverylanguage.EnglishandChinesearenoexception.

ThedifferentexpressionsinlinguisticsandcontentstocomplimentbetweenEnglishandChinesearedifferentbecauseofculturaldiscrepancies.Thesediscrepanciesmakepeoplefeeldifficultincross-culturalcommunication.

Basedonthemethodofcomparativeanalysisinlinguistics,thispaperistodoalinguisticstudyoncomplimentarybehaviorbetweenEnglishandChineseinordertomakecommunicationmuchsmooth.Thispaperconcentratesonthecontrastofexpressionsinlinguistics,contentsandcomplimentresponses:

suchasdifferencesatthesemanticandsyntacticallevels,differencesincomplimentingappearances,newandoldacquisitionsandgoodworketc.Thepaperistodiscover，inessence,theculturalelementsthatgovernthedifferencesbetweentwokindsofcompliments.Thiscomparativestudymustbehelpfultopeopleincross-culturalcommunication.

KEYWORDS:

compliments,complimentresponses,culturalelements

摘要

称赞语作为一种重要的语言现象，常被人们用来称赞对方，目的是使对方产生良好的感受。

它在每种语言中都有广泛的使用。

英语和汉语中也不例外。

由于文化差异，导致英汉称赞语在语言表达方式和称赞内容上存在不同。

这些不同使人们在跨文化交际中感到很困难。

为了促进交流的顺利进行，本文按照语言学中对比分析的方法，针对英汉两种称赞言语行为进行对比研究。

主要内容包括：

语言表达方式上的对比，称赞内容上的对比，称赞回应上的对比。

比如文章将比较称赞语在词法和句法上的差异以及在称赞外表，称赞新旧事物，称赞工作上的差异等等。

文章还将从本质上揭示造成英汉称赞语差异的文化根源。

这种比较研究，必将有助于英汉跨文化交际的顺利进行。

关键词:

称赞语,称赞语应答,文化因素

Contents

Acknowledgements

AbstractinChinese

AbstractinEnglish

1.Introduction………………………………………………………………………………..

2.Contrastoflinguistics………………………………………………………………………

2.1Contrastoflinguisticsatthesemanticlevel…………………………………………

2.2Contrastoflinguisticsatthesyntacticallevel………………………………….

3.Contrastofcomplimentarycontents…………………………………..

2.1Oncomplimentingpersonalappearance………………………………………

2.2Oncomplimentingtheacquisitions…………………………………………………..

2.3Oncomplimentingthegoodwork…………………………………………………

2.4Othercomplimentarycontents……………………………………………………

4.Contrastofcomplimentresponses……………………………………..

3.1OnEnglishcomplimentresponses…………………………………………………..

3.2OnChinesecomplimentresponses…………………………………………………

3.3AnalysisofEnglishandChinesecomplimentresponses……………………………..

5.Influenceofculturalelementsoncompliments……………………………..

4.1Conceptionsofindividualismandcollectivism……………………………………..

4.2Conceptionsofequalityandhierarchy……………………………………………….

4.3Otherculturalelements……………………………………………………………

6.Conclusion…………………………………………………………

Bibliography…………………………………………………………..

1.Introduction

Acomplimentisaspeechactwhichexplicitlyorimplicitlyattributescredittosomeoneotherthanthespeaker,usuallythepersonaddressed,forsome‘good’possession,skill,etc.,whichispositivelyvaluedbythespeakerandtherheare.Itisarguedthatthecomplimentisasocialmeansbywhichpeopletaketheadvantageofthepreferringwordsofpraisetomaintainandpromotetheinter-personalrelationships.Thereisnodoubtthatforpeoplepayingappropriatecompliments,identifyingthemaccurately,andmakingproperresponsesareimportantaspectsofcommunicativecompetence.Buttheseaspectsdifferinavarietyofwaysfromoneculturetoanother.Soitisnecessaryforustodiscoverthesimilaritiesanddifferencesincomplimentsindifferentculturestomakecommunicationmuchsmooth.Meanwhile,ithasbeendemonstratedagainandagainthatbeneaththeexpressionsofthelinguisticformsandthesocialetiquetteinvolvedintheiruseliesagold-mineofinformationaboutthevaluesystemsofthespeakers.Thesocialnormsinvolvedmaygovernspecificspeechactsorspeechbehavioringeneral.Soinordertoresearchintocomplimentsdeeplyanddiscoverthegeneralcultureelementsandnormsexpressed,themethodoflinguisticcontrastisusedinanalyzingEnglishandChinesecompliments.Firstlytheauthoristocomparethedifferencesandsimilaritiesofcomplimentsandtheirresponsesonwaysoflinguistics,contentsandresponsestocompliments,thentodiscoverthebasicculturalfactorswhichleadtothedifferentiationsoftwocompliments.

2.Contrastoflinguistics

Judgingfromthelinguistics,thefixedregulationsdefinitelyexist.Buttherearenotabledifferences.Theauthoristoanalyzefromthesemanticandsyntacticalleveltofindoutthesimilaritiesanddifferences.

2.1Contrastoflinguisticsatthesemanticlevel

Generallyspeaking,thepositivewordsarefrequentlyusedinEnglishandChinesecompliments.Buttherearedistinctdifferencesinchoosingpositiveadjectives,adverbsandverbsintwolanguages.

2.1.1SemanticfeaturesofEnglishcompliment

InEnglish,themajorityofwordsinwhichthepositivesemanticevaluationiscarriedareadjectives.What’smore,manyofadjectivalcomplimentsmakeuseofonlyfivedifferentadjectives:

nice,good,beautiful,prettyandgreat,withalltherestoccurringonlyonceortwice.Ifweconsidertheextremelywideprivilegesofoccurrenceofthesefiveadjectives（asopposedtosuchnarrowlyapplicableadjectiveasdelicious）,itisnotsurprisingthattheyshouldprovetooccursofrequently.Indeed,thevagueandgeneralthattheyareequallyappropriatewhenreferringtosuchdiversesubjectsashair,e.g.“That’sagoodhairstyle”,clothing,e.g.“Thatshirtlooksnice”,ability,e.g.“Sheisagoodactress”,oraccomplishment，e.g.“Yourlecturewasgood”.

Ofcomplimentswhichmakeuseofverbstocarrythepositivesemanticevaluation,theoverwhelmingmajoritieshaveeither“like”or“love”andthosetwoverbscanbeappliedtovirtuallyanytopicfromsports,icecream,clothing,jewelryandpeople,e.g.“Ilike/loveyourearring”.Again,themoregeneralthemeaning（ortheweakerthesemanticload）,thegreaterthefrequencyofoccurrence,alotofallcomplimentsinconversationwhichrelyonaverbfortheirpositiveevaluationmakeuseofeither“like”or“love”.

Althoughnearlyallwordsconsistofcomplimentswithsemanticallypositiveadjectivesandverbs,afewdorelyonanadverb,usuallywelltoexpressthepositiveevaluation，e.g.“Youdothiskindofwritingsowell”.Andanadditionalfewdependonanoun，e.g.“You’rejustawhizatsewing”.

It’sclearthatinEnglishcontext,speakersstronglyprefertochoosefromoneofonlyfiveadjectivesandtwoverbstoexpresstheirfavorableevaluationofothers.

2.1.2SemanticfeaturesofChinesecompliment

InChinese,however,positivewordsexpressingcomplimentsaremainlyadjectives,adverbsandverbs，e.g.“Youarereallyanexperiencedteacher”,“Yourroomisreallyneatandclean”,“Youdidthehomeworkverywell”,“Youstudyhardandmakeprogressveryrapidly”,“Youtreatpeoplesincerely”,“Iespeciallylikethecolorofyourskirt”,“Youdeservedhonor”.

Byanalyzingtheseexamples，itcanbegeneralizedthatmostoftheChinesecomplimentsmakeuseofadjectivesandadverbs,andonlyalittletakeverbsaswordsexpressingcompliments.Moreover,thefrequentuseofadverbsisshownnotonlybynearlyhalfofthecomplimentswhichhaveadverbsaspositivesemanticloadcarrier,butalsobythefactthatmostofthepositiveadjectivesandverbshaveadverbsastheirintensifierssuchaszhen（“really”,“truly”or“indeed”）,andtai（“very”,“verymuch”or“excessively”）,ThisfacthasformedacharacteristicoftheChinesecompliments.

2.1.3Resultofcontrast

Afterthesemanticfeaturesintwolanguageshavebeenanalyzed,theregulationscanbegeneralizedasfollows:

1.TheadjectivesandverbsarefrequentlyusedinEnglishcompliment,comparedwiththeadjectivesandadverbswhicharecommonlyusedinChinesecompliment.

2.Mostofthecommonlyusedwordsarepositiveones.

2.2Contrastoflinguisticsatthesyntacticallevel

Similarly,complimentsintwolanguagesarequitedifferentatthesyntacticallevel.Theauthoristoanalyzethecomplimentsbygivingexamplestoillustratethedifferencesinsyntaxintwolanguages.

2.2.1SyntacticalfeaturesofEnglishcompliment

Similarly,theexpressionsoftwokindsofcomplimentscarrythedifferentfeaturesinlinguistics.

Englishcomplimentstructureisevenmoreseverelyrestrictedonthesyntacticlevelthanonthesemanticlevel.53.6%ofallthecomplimentsinthecorpusmakeuseofonesinglesyntacticalpattern:

①NPis/looks（really）ADJ（e.g.Thisroomlookssocomfortable.）

Twoothersyntacticpatterns:

②I（really）like/loveNP（e.g.Ilikeyourdress.）

③PROis（really）（a）ADJNP（e.g.Thiswasreallyagreatmeal.）

Thesetwoaccountforanadditional16.1%and14.9%ofthedatarespectively.Whatthismeansisthat85%ofthecomplimentscollectedcanbedescribedbyonlythreesyntacticpatterns.Withrespecttotheother15%ofthecorpus,onlysixotherpatternsoccurwithanyregularity,andthemostfrequentoftheseappearsinonlyalittlemorethan3%ofthedata.Nootherpatternsbesidesthesenineoccurmorethantwice.Theothersixpatternsare:

④YouV（a）（really）ADJNP（e.g.Youdidagoodjob.）

⑤YouV（NP）（really）ADV（e.g.Youreallyhandledthesituationwell.）

⑥Youhave（a）（really）ADJNP（e.g.Youhavesuchbeautifulhair.）

⑦What（a）ADJNP（e.g.Whatalovelybabyyouhave.）

⑧ADJNP（e.g.Nicework!

）

⑨Isn’tNPADJ（e.g.Isn’tyourringbeautiful?

）

2.2.2SyntacticalfeaturesofChinesecompliment

WhileinChinese,themostfrequentlyusedsyntacticalpatternsaresummedupas:

①YouVADV（e.g.Yousingwell!

）.

Anotherfrequentlyusedpatternis:

②（Your）NP（or“ofyours”）isADV（intensifier）ADJ

（e.g.Yo