【正文】 efinition of polite languageLeech defines politeness as forms of behavior that establish and maintain ity. (1988, P. 97) That is the ability of participants in a social interaction to engage in interaction in an atmosphere of relative harmony. Polite language exists everywhere in daily life, such as “Please”, “Excuse me”, “How are you doing?” and so on. Polite language is one of the parts of pragmatics. Generally speaking, polite language is a kind of language that can be accepted by others happily and clearly. As a result, Politeness plays an important role in promoting interpersonal relationship to achieve both individual and group goals.Usually, negotiation involves much more oral English. It is different from business correspondence. Business correspondence’s language can be thought over and over, and then written out. In the context of business negotiation, an experienced negotiator gives full play to the functions of language, which can serve his goal much better. Therefore, munication is very vital in the negotiating process. The better you’re able to municate your point, the higher negotiating rate you can get. All in all, an excellent negotiator must be an excellent linguistician, especially, the polite language. Relevant theories of politeness The polite principleThe polite principle is series of maxims, which Geoffrey Leech (1983) has proposed as a way of explaining how politeness operates in conversational exchange. That is the ability of participants in a social interaction to engage in interaction in an atmosphere of relative harmony.The polite principle contains six maxims, they are: Tact, Generosity, Approbation, Modest, Agreement and sympathy:u Tact: minimize the expression of beliefs, which implies cost to others。 and Ways Max defines it as a process in which two or more parties, who have both mon interests and conflicting interests, put forth and discuss explicit proposals concerning specific terms of possible agreement (1979: 15). Wall and Ways Max say essentially there are no differences. It is a kind of municative process of economical activity. The primary objective may be an agreement or any other indigenous oute or resulting from the ongoing exchange。 maximize the expression of beliefs, which express approval of others.u Modesty: minimize the expression of beliefs, which express dispraise of dispraise of self.u Agreement: minimize the expression of disagreement between self and others。 Gu, 1990。 expression thus substituted”. Euphemism may serve for fear of taboos or for some political disguise such as the substitution of “pacification” for “bombing, burning and imprisonment”, etc. But the prominent purpose is for fear of hurting other people’s feelings. According to Leech’s polite principle and its scale, what is said is a cost to the hearer, the speaker should express indirectly and mildly. The more cost there is to the hearer, the more indirect the words are. Moreover, euphemism also accords with Brown and Levinson’s theory of face work. When there is a facethreatening act to the hearer’s negative face, the speaker should take a negative polite strategy. In business negotiation, there are many times when Euphemism is often used, because negotiators are sometimes restricted by particular time, place, and atmosphere, we can not say directly here and there. As a rule, euphemism presents the following ways:1) Passive voiceUsing passive voice can avoid some strong times. Even though the speaker refers to the opponent in his mind, using the passive voice seems more polite. When the speaker thinks the opponent gets wrong ideas in some regards, he using passive voice is also appropriate. .(12) Obviously, you made a very careless mistake here①. A very careless mistake was made here②. If the speaker uses ①, it is very rude. He points out the hearer’s mistake directly. In this case, the hearer loses his face。 maximize agreement between self and other.) It is to negotiator’s benefit to adopt the plimentary tactics in the above that improve the interaction. After meeting the opponent’s positive face, the negotiators elevate the opponent’s trust and avoid any distrust probably generated by coercive threats, conflicts or other irrational tactics. Example (23) shows the negotiator’s interest in opponent’s products.The aboveshown polite language strategies play a meaningful role in business negotiation. Vagueness can skillfully soften up the aggressive of the voice and leave some leeway for the speaker, besides fathoming the opponent’s real intention. Euphemism does work when different opinions and direct criticism readily e out in negotiating. Understatement avoids the bigtalking impression made by the speaker on the listeners at the time of showing one’s merits. And a pliment can help win friendliness and trust. All these polite language tools help increase the successful percentage of business negotiation. 4．The polite language in crosscultural business negotiationThe view of the emergence of a global economy, the increase of foreign investment in China and the promise of China’s admission into the WTO, at no time in history there has been so great a need for international negotiating skills. However, what makes someone a good negotiator in one culture may not work well in another. Negotiation rules and practices may differ greatly across cultures people end to interpret and judge their negotiating opponents on the basis of their own cultural assumption, and very often an opponent “who thinks wrongly” will be considers as someone “who thinks wrongly”. The potential for misperception and misunderstanding is immense. The greater the cultural differences, the greater the barriers to munication, and the more likely failure of the negotiation. To negotiate successfully, cultural differences between the concerned parties must be identified and bridged. For example: (24)A: Hi, old manager. B: How do you do. A: How old are