Abstract

Compliment is not only an indispensible form of polite speech, but also a speech act closely related to cultural background. A broad variety of compliments are frequently applied into a various social situations to express thankfulness, support, encouragement, admiration, greeting, the beginning or the closure of topics，which play a leading part in establishing, maintaining and reinforcing healthy interpersonal relationships. Meanwhile, a proper application of compliments is helpful to improve the emotional communication, mutual understanding and pleasant cooperation between peoples from different countries. Therefore, if the differences between English and Chinese social compliments are fully understood, the related misunderstandings and the embarrassing situation would be reduced to a large degree. Thus, this thesis is aimed to analyze social compliments between Chinese and English, and analyze the relationship between compliment and culture.
This thesis falls into five major parts. The first part introduces three theories, including Speech Act Theory, Conversational Implicature Theory and Politeness Theory. The second part presents the research background and studies of compliments. The third part centers on the comparative analysis of the contents, forms, response strategies and social functions of social compliments between Chinese and English. The fourth and the fifth parts explore the cultural differences between English and Chinese social compliments as well as the relevant underlying reasons.

Key words: social compliments; comparative analysis; cultural differences

摘  要

称赞语是人们日常会话中不可或缺的一种礼貌用语，同时也是与不同文化背景密切联系的言语行为。它被频繁使用于各式各样的交际场合，诸如表达谢意、支持、鼓励、欣赏、相互问候、开始或结束某个话题，这对建立、维系以及巩固良好的人际关系起到了举足轻重的作用。正确运用称赞语有助于增进来自不同国度的人之间的情感交流、相互理解、化解冲突并相互合作。因此，充分了解不同英汉称赞语之间的差异有助于减少误会并化解尴尬的局面。鉴于此，本文旨在对英汉社交称赞语进行对比研究，并分析其与文化之间的联系。
本文主要共分为五部分。第一部分介绍了三个主要的理论，包括言语行为理论，会话含义理论和礼貌原则。第二部分介绍了称赞语的研究背景和研究内容。第三部分分析英汉社交称赞语的内容、形式、应答策略以及社会功能。第四部分和第五部分探究英汉社交称赞语的文化差异及其形成的潜在原因。

关键词：社交称赞语；对比分析；文化差异