ACritiqueof“ContrastiveAnalysisofComplimentbetweenEnglishandChinese”1.IntroductionofthearticleRuiYu,LiFu&Xiao-YuHou’s“ContrastiveAnalysisofComplimentbetweenEnglishandChinese”isaclassicininterculturalcommunicationstudies.ItispublishedinJournalofInterculturalCommunicationStudiesXVI,2007,Volume1,Pages153-162.2.AnalysisofthearticleThesocialphenomenonofcomplimentbehaviorexistsinvarioussocietiesandlinguisticcultures.Thecomplimentbehaviorcannotonlyenhancetherelationshipbetweencommunicatorsbutalsoconsolidateandstrengthenthesolidarityamongcommunicators.Thus,thecomplimentbehavioroperateslikesociallubricant.ComplimentresponsesinChineseandEnglishhavedifferentcharacteristicsbecausetheyareinfluencedbydifferentsocialfactors.Consequently,thestudyoncomplimenthasbeenpaidextensiveattentionto.ThisthesisaimsatinvestigatingthecharacteristicsofcomplimentresponsesinChineseandEnglish,comparingtheirdifferencesandsimilaritiesandattemptingtoanalyzethereasonswhichleadtothedifferencesandsimilaritiesfromcross-culturalperspective.BasedonJuliaGousseva’sexperiment,asimilarexperimentwasdesignedandcarriedoutbythepresentauthor.ThepurposesweretofindthefeaturesofcomplimentinChinesebyChinesestudents,todiscoversimilaritiesanddifferencesofcomplimentbetweenEnglishandChineseandtoexplorethereasonswhythedifferencesinlinguisticperformanceexist.Thisarticleprovidesdeeperresearchonthissubjectandexaminesgenreofwrittendiscourse.MostofpreviousstudiesabroadandinChinafocusonthesyntaxandthetopicofcomplimentbehavioritself.Thisarticlealsoclaimsthatmostofthestudies,suchasitsfunction,implication,andcausesarebasedmostlyonthestudyontheoralcompliment.Asfortheoralcompliment,thispapershowsitveryclearintheliteraturereview.AnditdemonstratesthesyntacticdifferencesbetweenChineseandEnglishcomplimentsbythetable.Whenitcomestotheresearchonthewrittencomplient,itmentionsfocuslyonthegenderdifferenceincompliment.Inthisthesis,thequantitativemethodandthequalitativemethodareadopted.ItcollectsmaterialsfromcollegestudentsatChineseDepartmentofaUniversity,andnativespeakersofChineseandnon-Englishmajors.TheexperimentwascarefullydesignedsoastokeepgreatresemblancewiththatofJuliaGousseva’s.Andthestudyconsistedoftwoparts,(1)gender-linkedfeatures,suchaspositiveevaluation,intensifiersandpersonalinvolvement,and(2)discoursestrategies,suchasgood/badnewstrategies,opening,closingandframingstrategies,andtheirinterestswereonthedifferencesassociatedgenders.ThenitanalyzesthedataandsummarizesthedifferentcharacteristicsoncomplimentresponsesinChineseandEnglishthroughacoupleoftables.Finally,itexplainsthedifferencesintheapplicationoflinguisticformsandstrategytothecompliment,soastolearnthesocialandculturalfactorsthatmightaccountforthesedifferences.Themajorfindingsofthisstudyareasfollows:(1)thebiggestdifferenceliesintheuseofpositiveevaluation,thatistosaytheAmericanstudentsusemorepositiveevaluation.ThismaybeexplainedbythatmanyAmericansareveryactiveinexpressingtheirideasandfeelingswhilemoreChinesewouldliketochooseneutralwordsandrestraintheirfeeling,formanyofthemweretaughttobeobservedandnottobeheardwhentheywereyoung.MostoftheEnglishspeakerstendtoacceptcompliments.Moreover,theyoftenofferseriesofcommentsontheobjectcomplimentedwhentheyacceptcompliments.Theyusuallyexpresstheirdisagreementdirectlywhentheyrejectcompliments.Inaddition,Englishspeakerusesomecombinedstrategiestoexp...
