English And Chinese Compliments And Response Comparison Of Language Use

Responding to a compliment poses a dilemma for speakers because they have to balance two diametrically conflicting conversational principles: to agree with one's conversational co-participants and to avoid self-praise. Far from being universal, the solution to the above dilemma hinges upon different social norms. The thesis deals with a comparative study of compliment and compliment responses in English and in Chinese from the aspects of the social and cultural properties of the language. It claims that compliment and compliment responses in both cultures are highly patterned as fixed formulas. They have different semantic, syntactic and common response formulas. The article also analyses the social functions of English and Chinese compliment and concludes the different psychocultural values and assumption beneath the two cultures. The thesis emphasizes the comparative study which may help the intercommunication or cross-culture communication and understanding between English-speaking and Chinese-speaking people.