Interest in courtesy both as social and linguistic phenomenon has been significant in the last three decades of the 20th century. As any other sociolinguistic theory, courtesy theory should cover two aspects, namely, the individual and the group. Social indexing has great influences on people’s courtesy strategy choice in different culture. Because of culture value differences, people of different countries observe different courtesy principles. For Western and Chinese cultures, similarities lie in the fact that people in both cultures tend to be polite to each other by being considerate and indirect. The differences mainly lie in the approach to expressing courtesy beliefs. Study of this paper is based on individual autonomy and social identity of courtesy. The discussion is directed to a comparative study on the difference of courtesy strategies adopted by English-speaking people and Chinese people, to find a resolution to culture value differences between Westerners and Chinese, and to point out its implication to cross-culture communication.
Key words: Courtesy; western; Chinese; comparison
A Brief Comparison Between Western and Chinese Courtesy Strategies
-----Its Implication for Cross-culture Communication
Outline
Thesis Statement: Based on the research of Western courtesy strategies and the research of Chinese courtesy strategies, a brief comparison between Western and Chinese courtesy strategies is made, in order to solve problems caused by different concepts of Face in inter-culture communication.
Ⅰ. Introduction: The value differences between Westerners and Chinese affect courtesy strategy choices of English-speaking people and Chinese people in cross-culture communication.
Ⅱ. Courtesy and Face: If the speaker wants to save his positive or negative face while caring for the other’s face, the best way is to adopt proper courtesy strategies.
Ⅲ. The Research of Western Courtesy Strategies
A. The linguistic research of Western Courtesy Strategies
B. Five strategies that potentially threaten the face
Ⅳ. The Research of Chinese Courtesy Strategies
A. The linguistic research of Chinese Courtesy Strategies
B. Challenge to the courtesy theory of western culture
Ⅴ. Comparison between Western courtesy and Chinese courtesy
A. Culture value differences between Westerners and Chinese
B. Comparison between Western courtesy strategies and Chinese courtesy strategies
C. The resolution to culture difference between Westerners and Chinese
Ⅵ. Conclusion
