A Comparative Study On The Differences Between Compliments In Chinese Movies And Those In American Movies

Compliments are the polite speech acts that are universally used in the daily communication of each culture. Compliments aim to make positive evaluation on the qualification or possessions of the listener, so it is seen as the "lubricant" of communication. People who come from different cultures often use compliments to help maintain a harmonious relationship and promote mutual communication. Movies are reflection of the mundane life in which compliments are universally used. In order to find the way Chinese and American people pay and respond to compliments, and denote the value standing embodied by the use of compliments, this thesis collects over a hundred pieces of compliments from sixteen Chinese and American movies, analyzes the themes, response tactics, semantic and syntactic forms of the compliments on the basis of the Cooperative Principle and speech act theory.According to the result of this study, a great many similarities can be found between Chinese and American compliments, despite all those differences. For instance, Chinese who do not hesitate to accept the given compliments are considered uneducated and arrogant, while Americans always accept compliments directly because they think compliments as the heartfelt praise from others. Chinese compliments focus on people’s achievements and competence while Americans always show their compliments on the other’s appearance and possessions. As far as semantic and syntactic formulas are concerned, American compliments are formulaic while Chinese ones are more versatile. American often directly accepts and rewards a compliment while Chinese always give indirect responses to the compliments.In a word, according to the findings of this thesis, many differences exist between the Chinese and American compliments, which imply the different cultural circumstances and values of the two cultures. The study on the compliments of the two countries can help people have a better understanding of the alien culture and promote the cross-cultural communication.