【正文】 person39。s title or occupation. Such as 王經(jīng)理，王校長(zhǎng) , but one seldom hears English speaker addressing others as Manager Wang Principal Wang. In English, only a few occupations or titles could be used: Doctoris mon for those who has qualified in the medical profession. And Judgefor those authorized to try cases in law courts。Governorand Mayormay be used for those who hold such offices. In honorifics Chinese learners of English or English learners of Chinese will soon discover that Chinese has much more honorifics than English, though the Chinese honorifics are mainly lexical in nature. In English, for example, you remains you” no matter how old you are and how high your socioeconomic status is, however, in Chinese,你 may bee 您 , 您老 , 先生 , 總經(jīng)理 處長(zhǎng) 爺爺 and many other similar honorific terms or expressions which are mainly used to show respect. For example, when addressing one39。s elder or superiors, more respectful expressions are used than people of equal or Low status”. It is customary to use terms of humility or selfeffacing expressions. Otherwise, the speaker would be said to be illmannered and, therefore, impolite. In taboos What needs stressing is that when dealing with human is indispensable to respect others and to be polite to others. But the ways and stresses to express one39。s respect are different from culture to culture. In both English and Chinese excreta and the acts of human excretion are to be avoided in polite conversation. So we should not have the illusion that the more expressions of respect or humility are used, the more polite we are. If we have this illusion, pragmatic failure may occur. Finally, pragmatic differences in human relations are also found in taboo and privacy expressions. Taboo expressions can be quite offensive, and often cause strong disproval. English and Chinese have certain areas of A Comparative Study of English and Chinese Polite Language agreement on taboos. Excreta and acts of human excretion are to be avoided in polite conversation. In English, if they must be mentioned, the terms should be replaced by those euphemistic ones. In Chinese, they are also taboos, but the Chinese attitude is less strict, and sometimes, one can hear people say”吃，喝，拉，撒，睡 ”.In publictalker or conversation. However,吃喝拉撒睡 is normally used collectively as a set phrase, referring to what people do daily in order to keep alive. It is normally used metaphorically. Separate use of 拉 and 撒 to refer to human excretion is still rare in public talk and conversation. Old age, to the English, is one of the things considered unpleasant. Besides age, other matters such as ine, marital, status, politics and religion also belong to sensitive topics. For example: How old are you? May I know your age? How much do you make? What39。s your ine? How much did that dress cost you? How much did you pay for that car? Are you married or single? How e you39。re still single? In euphemism Euphemisms are pleasant, polite or harmless sounding words or expressions used to mask harsh, rude or infamous truths. Englishspeaking people place a higher value on privacy. The English Saying: A man39。s home is his castle means that a man39。s home is private and sacred to him and no one should e in without permission. Here, privacy is sacredness itself. To ask question such as these mentioned above would be considered rushing or simply impolite. Sometimes we need to use euphemism in Chinese language, but it is not necessarily to use it in English. For example, about a feminine pregnanc y, the English regards as the news, even publicly discusses. And the girl also very happy, and said:” I’ll tell you something. I’m pregnant. Would you like to touch it?” A Comparative Study of English and Chinese Polite Language Conclusion The parison of pragmatic differences of politeness between Chinese and English demonstrates that this politeness phenomenon is universal in all cultures, but its expressions and implications are different from culture to culture. So a good understanding of pragmatic differences in politeness can undoubtedly contribute to the avoidance of pragmatic failures in crosscultural exchange so as to attain the goal in munication In recent years, China has seen an increase in the demand for foreign language education. As a matter of fact, English teaching as a FL has bee a key element in China39。s opening wider to the outside world and the drive to modernization. Naturally, cultivating students39。 pragmatic petences is an urgent task to university teachers and researchers. A Comparative Study of English and Chinese Polite Language Bibliography [1]顧曰國(guó) .禮貌 、 語(yǔ)用 、 與文化 [J].上海 外語(yǔ)教學(xué)與研究 ,1992(4).98 [2]何自然 .語(yǔ)用學(xué)與英語(yǔ)學(xué)習(xí) [M].上海 .外語(yǔ)出版社 , [3]李健兒 .主言運(yùn)用的得體性及其文化差異 [M].外語(yǔ)教學(xué) ,1998: [4]王振亞 .語(yǔ)言與文化： Vocatives and Culture[M].北京 .高等教育出版社 ,1994（ 4） .259 [5]陳融 .面子 、 留面子 、 丟面子 (Brown 和 Levinsion 的禮貌原則 ) [J],外國(guó)語(yǔ) ,1986(3).182