Politeness Language in English and Chinese

Politeness is a very important topic in modern linguistics. With the development of the study of linguistics, a lot of people lay the emphasis on the study of politeness language. It can be observed in all languages and cultures as a social phenomenon, which plays an important role in individuals’ linguistic behavior. But due to different culture, different politeness principles and other reasons, different peo ple have different understandings about the definition of politeness, and they deal with politeness in different ways. Through different study background, principle and theory, this paper focuses on the politeness language in English and Chinese culture caused the differences. Politeness languages are mainly expressed in the forms of address, greeting, congratulation, appreciation and apology . The biggest difference between English and Chinese is that the Chinese system is profusion and complicated, but the English one is quite simple. Age, income, marriage and religion, etc. are taboos in English and people in western countries like to talk about weather when they meet each other; greeting in Chinese almost includes different things about one’s life. Appreciation in Chinese is not used frequently. Peo ple do not often say "thank you" to their families or friends. Appreciation in English can be used among families, friends, and colleagues and so on. At the end of this thesis, a conclusion is drawn; limitations and some suggestions of the research are stated!