Analysis of Polite Phrases

Chinese and foreign linguists have summarized different views of politeness. Gu Yanguo has summarized the four main characteristics of politeness in Chinese culture: respect, modesty,

warm attitude and elegance. According to him, respect is self-respect and appreciation of the other party; modesty mainly manifests itself in demeaning oneself and honoring others; warmth refers to caring,

thoughtfulness and hospitality; and elegance refers to decent and generous mannerisms and speeches.

Leach, a famous British scholar in the West, has divided the principles of politeness into six categories, each of which consists of one guideline and two sub-principles: (1) decency quasi-

rules: try to minimize others' losses, try to maximize others' gains; (2) generosity guideline: try to minimize one's own gains, try to minimize one's own losses; (3) praise guideline: try to minimize others' losses, try to maximize others' praises; (4) generosity guideline: try to maximize others' losses, try to maximize others' praises; and (5) generosity guideline: try to maximize others' losses, try to maximize others' losses, try to maximize others' losses. others; (4) the code of humility: try to praise yourself as little as possible, and try to demean

yourself as much as possible; (5) the code of agreement: try to minimize disagreement and maximize agreement; (6) the code of sympathy: try to minimize antipathy and maximize sympathy on both sides

.

Both China and the West pay attention to politeness, and the principles of politeness summarized by Chinese and foreign scholars focus on the interests of others first, but in different cultural

cultural backgrounds, the cultural connotations of the two are very different in some aspects.

1. Greetings

In China we are used to meeting people and asking, "Have you eaten? Where are you going?" And so on and so forth. This is obviously normal in China

In order to improve relations and show politeness, meeting and exchanging polite pleasantries is essential. But if you greet an Anglo-American like this

hoo, he'll think you're impolite and uneducated, and see it as an interference in his privacy, which makes him extremely uncomfortable. Of course people of this nation

know that we don't mean to pry into their privacy, it's just a polite greeting. In the West, greetings are usually "how are

you?" to which we reply "fine, thank you!" or simply "hello! or a simple "hello" or "hi" or "it's a nice day" or similar polite greetings. This is

rarely seen in China.

2. Addresses

The Chinese people have a strict sense of seniority and inferiority, which is a typical feature of Chinese culture. China has a five-thousand-year history

historical tradition, centered on Confucianism, which emphasizes benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom and trust, so the address must be in line with the requirements of etiquette.

There is a big difference between China and the West, Britain and America in terms of how relatives are addressed. In China, relatives of both parents have clear titles

such as uncle, uncle, uncle, aunt, aunt, aunt, aunt (cousin) brother, (cousin) brother, (cousin) brother, (cousin) sister, (cousin) sister, (cousin)

sister, which shows the strong blood relationship in China. In English only the words aunt and uncle summarize all the relationships.

And then there is the name of the parents, Western children can call their parents by their first names and also rename them, which is

absolutely rude behavior in China, a state of etiquette, which fully proves the Chinese cultural characteristics of the order of the elders and young people, and the cultural value of equality between the two sides of the West

performs the most.

3. Acknowledgement

Acknowledging people is a kind of politeness in human communication, which can make the other party feel that their good intentions have been affirmed, and help to promote

the relationship between the two parties and its good development. However, in China and the West, the frequency and expression of thanks are very different, and it is more noteworthy to treat

other people's responses to thanks

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