A Tentative Look into Chinese and Western Politeness

Politeness is an important part of culture, which functions as the social lubricant in interpersonal communication. Some knowledge of the distinctive feature of politeness in different languages can contribute to our smooth cross-cultural communication. Proceeding from the form of addressing, form of complimenting and form of taboo, the thesis attempts to probe into the differences between Chinese and Western politeness, the causes for them and their illumination on cross-cultural communication. Especially, it makes an in-depth analysis of the causes for the differences from the perspectives of economic mould, social structure, interpersonal relationship and religious origin in order to deepen our understanding of politeness as well as help students to have a more effective cross-cultural communication.