A Study On The Compliments Used In Business Negotiations

Business negotiations in China have been carried out far more frequently with the economicdevelopment. In an increasingly competitive and dynamic business environment, negotiationis critically important to the success and, ultimately, to the survival of companies.Consequently, traders need to possess and constantly improve their negotiating capabilities toget better result from the negotiation. Among the most important traits needed to negotiatesuccessfully are several skills.According to Brilliant idea in Negotiation—Be an ace negotiator written by YuanQingfeng(2004), there are many tactics that can be used in the negotiations, but makingcompliments is one of the useful skills which may relax the vigilance of the opponent, shortendistance between counter party and create harmonious atmosphere. I have attended hundredsof negotiations with Chinese and American companies. From my personal experience, Istrongly feel making compliments is an effective way in achieving the success of anegotiation.In this thesis, 50 sentences in Chinese and 50 sentences in English were collected from 26formal negotiations. The majority of the material is recorded alive from the negotiation that Ihave personally attended. To ensure an objective analysis, I found some more from thenegotiations of other companies.Firstly, I analyze the compliments which are used in Chinese and English business negotiationrespectively according to relevant theories. Then, I try to compare the similarities anddifferences of compliments in Chinese and English languages.From the research, I find that similarities outweigh differences in the two languages in termsof compliments. In both contexts, the compliments are found in all phases of businessnegotiation. The number of explicit compliments is larger than that of implicit compliments.Adjectives play most important role in conveying compliments and "good" has beenemployed frequently. Negotiators like to employ pattern "You V (a) (really) ADJ NP" to makethe compliment. They like complimenting on other's ability/performance in businessnegotiation. The compliments highly obey the Cooperative Principle and the ApprobationMaxim of Politeness Principle. Addressee's positive face is cared through complimenting inthe negotiation.Certainly, there are differences between the two languages mainly in the aspect of culture:Chinese like complimenting others in the opening phase while Americans prefer to employcompliments in the bargaining phase in business negotiations.Complimentary words are positive tools for successful negotiation. Hopefully, by makingcompliments more properly, effectively and consciously, negotiators' communicating skillswill be further improved;their negotiating abilities will be further strengthened;a positiveworking atmosphere can be created;desirable results can be achieved from the negotiations.