A Case Study Of Politeness Formulae Performed By Chinese College Students

Nowadays, with the advent of the"global village", the cross-cultural contact between the East and West is getting more and more frequent and the appropriate use of politeness formulae plays a key role in smoothing the communications. Despite the fact that politeness is a universal social phenomenon, it is not performed and assessed in the same way in the Chinese and Western cultures. With different concept of politeness in mind, the Chinese used to observe Chinese politeness principles in the use of politeness formulae, which might lead to unnecessary misunderstandings in cross-cultural communication. However, this is not always the case. With the deepening of reform and opening-up policy and acceleration of globalization, the author has been aware that politeness formulae performed by Chinese college students have changed in some aspects under the influence of Western cultures. Therefore, it is imperative to make a thorough study to deeply explore the politeness formulae used by Chinese college students in the hope of promoting their self-cultivation as well as cross-cultural communication competence.Based on the politeness principles put forward by Western scholars Leech, Brown & Levinson and Chinese researchers Gu Yueguo and Mao Luming, an investigation in the form of questionnaire was conducted among 244 college students of non-English majors from two universities in Suzhou, aiming to find out that to what extent Chinese college students abide by Chinese politeness principles in the use of politeness formulae and to what extent the Western cultures have influenced their use of politeness formulae. The findings of the study are as follows:1) Chinese college students are still likely to observe Chinese politeness principles in the use of some politeness formulae. The underlying reasons could be that China has been a country of etiquette since ancient times and politeness convention has been deeply rooted in the mind of the Chinese people.2) The Western cultures have had influenced Chinese college students'use of politeness formulae to a large extent, which is reflected in the fact that some politeness formulae committed by them tend to be westernized. The main reason might be that as a younger generation in universities, they have more opportunities to be exposed to the Western cultures and tend to accept and absorb new cultures more quickly. The author hopes that this thesis can, to some extent, promote Chinese college students'self-cultivation as well as their cross-cultural communication competence.However, there still exists much room to be explored and improved since the investigation is simply limited within two universities located in Suzhou area. Besides, the results and discussions of the study are not conclusive and complete owing to the author's limited scope of knowledge.