Abstract
As we all know, different people hold different views about politeness. To be polite, Leech thinks you should follow “Politeness Principle” while Levinson suggests paying attention to others’ “Face Wants”. Sometimes what the Chinese people considered to be polite may not be true according to western culture. In order to adequately provide an educated answer to this heartfelt question, this paper attempts to shed light on some of the important differences on politeness between Chinese and western culture and their values.
Highlights
In 1978, English scholars Brown& Levinson wrote an article “Universals in Language Usage: Politeness Phenomena”
According to Brown& Levinson “ politeness involves us showing an awareness of other people’ s FACE WANTS, and FACE refers to our public self- image
POSITIVE FACE refers to the want of every member that his wants be desirable to at least some others. [my emphasis]
Summary
In 1978, English scholars Brown& Levinson wrote an article “Universals in Language Usage: Politeness Phenomena”. According to Brown& Levinson “ politeness involves us showing an awareness of other people’ s FACE WANTS, and FACE refers to our public self- image. (2) Generosity maxim (in impositives and commissives): minimise benefit to self,maximise cost to self. (4) Modesty maxim (in expressives and assertives):minimise praise of self, maximize dispraise of self. According to Chinese history and traditional culture, Mr Gu Yueguo of Beijing Foreign Studies University have contribute the politeness of study in China. He has traced the origin of the notion of politeness in the Chinese culture, and has formulated a different kind of politeness maxims, which he thinks are more suitable to the Chinese environment. There have always been exceptions in the standards put by them and culture difference has been a main source of most of these exceptions
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