A Contrastive Study On Face-saving Devices In English And Chinese Verbal Communication

Face plays a very important role in people's life. During a communication, saving or damaging the face of the communicator is undoubtedly one of the factors that bring about a successful communication. Therefore, face arouses lots of interests of scholars. Many scholars have studied it from various perspectives, while the ones that concerning a contrastive study of English and Chinese linguistic face-saving devices are few. This thesis applies itself to a contrastive study on face-saving devices in English and Chinese verbal communication.Based on the Face Theory proposed by Brown and Levinson, the face-saving devices are divided into four types and then the considerable data of both English and Chinese are analyzed in detail. This thesis attempts to point out the similarities and dissimilarities between the face-saving devices used to realize the face-saving strategies proposed by Brown and Levinson in English and Chinese communication. It is also found that besides the different characteristics of the two languages, the cultural factors, which are tentatively discussed in the thesis, are also the causes of the differences in the realization of face-saving. The aim of the elaborate analysis is to get to know the different characteristics of both English and Chinese face-saving devices and the cultural causes for their differences. In the end, some suggestions for teaching, cross-cultural negotiation and communication are proposed.