【導(dǎo)讀】在人類的語言交際中,稱贊語是一種使用頻率較高的禮貌言語行為。等方面)，這些方面在說話者和聽話者的價值觀念里一般都是值得肯定的。招呼、致謝、表示鼓勵和祝賀、開啟話題、緩解矛盾等。稱贊語雖然是世界各國。際規(guī)則等因素的影響和制約。較研究，指出英漢稱贊語的差異源于兩種不同的文化背景和文化價值。

　　

【正文】 ut me is not that good or that I39。m embarrassed. There are indications that some Chinese people still possess the earlier generations39。 timidness characteristic, which originated from a very conservative 婁底職業(yè)技術(shù)學(xué)院畢業(yè)論文 Differences in Compliment Response Formulas 12 culture, as reflected in their use of more nonacceptance and nonagreement types of responses to pliments. In addition, their use of such types of responses indicates their desire to maintain social balance with their respective interlocutors, as Nonacceptance replies enable them to shift the plimentary force while Nonagreement responses help them to weaken or deny that force. Chinese social norms require a much higher level of indirectness in social interaction. English Compliment Response Formulas American people use more explicit response strategies. The primary consideration for Americans when they respond to pliments is Leech39。s (1983) Agreement Maxim: minimize disagreements between self and others and maximize agreements between self and others. Brown and Levinson39。s (1978) notion of face, individualistic in nature, can be applied to American culture, which emphasizes individual autonomy rather than group harmony. It seems reasonable to assume that people face with the difficult task of responding in a second language in a socially acceptable way. Therefore, in developing intercultural petence, it is important to learn the rules of how to give and accept pliments in American society so as to avoid pragmatic trans fer in intercultural munication. Students have to bee familiar with the cultural norms associated with politeness and face theory as shared by members of American munity. Summary The differences of pliment responses in the Chinese culture, Modesty Maxim is much more heavily weighted and frequently overrides the Agreement Maxim, because“貶己尊人 ”(degrading oneself and upgrading the others) is the characteristic of Chinese polite principle (Gu Yueguo, 1990). The Chinese equivalent of modesty is qianxu, whose cultural connotation is quite different from that of the word in English culture in many ways: Chinese qianxu involves putting down oneself and elevating others while modesty as Leech39。s politeness principle puts, is to avoid selfpraise。 Chinese qianxu remains at the core of Chinese politeness while modesty is not so valued by English speakers。 qianxu is regarded as a virtue of selfcultivation, which serves as the foundation on which Chinese politeness is built whereas modesty 婁底職業(yè)技術(shù)學(xué)院畢業(yè)論文 Differences in Compliment Response Formulas 13 functions as a strategy of minimizing selfpraise However, in the American society there is a preference for agreement in interaction, and disagreements are particularly facethreatening. This suggests that they give priority to the Agreement Maxim over the Modesty Maxim. As long as the content of the pliment is basically true, they tend to accept it so as to confirm the taste of the speaker, thus offering solidarity. 婁底職業(yè)技術(shù)學(xué)院畢業(yè)論文 Conclusion 14 Conclusion This paper thoroughly pares Chinese and English pliment differences from the pliment expressing, topics, responses, analyzing the differences and similarities between them based on the cultural factors. The CrossCultural Comparison of English and Chinese Compliments demonstrate differences in American and Chinese cultures Confucianism stresses the benefits of fixed hierarchical relationship in which respect is shown for age, seniority, rank, and family background. This is why Chinese people concentrate on the topics of talent and achievement. It is observed that people of high status seem to enjoy being flattered extensively. The plimenting events in China are rooted in the hierarchal tradition and Confucianism, especially the concept of Li(禮 ).And, Confucianism stresses the benefits of fixed hierarchical relationship in which respect is shown for age, seniority, rank, and family background. This is why Chinese people concentrate on the topics of talent and achievement. It is observed that people of high status seem to enjoy being flattered extensively. On the other hand, the plimenting speech acts indicate that the American culture is individualoriented and that individualism and equality are the cores of social norms. And here modesty highly valued in Chinese culture is contrasted with honesty thought of highly in English. English pliments is acceptance while the majority of Chinese responses denigrate the pliment. Because modesty in English culture stresses otherelevating, but not necessarily and very rarely selfdenigrating whereas Chinese modesty emphasizes both selfdenigrating and otherelevating, but with a more stress on selfdenigrating. To denigrate the self is aimed to show respect to the other. Chinese modesty or more precisely selfdenigration, enpassing respectfulness and humility has long been a wellestablished tradition and a highly valued virtue in Chinese culture. Much crosscultural research on socialcultural values relevant to pliment is needed. More investigations of this type involving participants with the same cultural 婁底職業(yè)技術(shù)學(xué)院畢業(yè)論文 Conclusion 15 background can be done in order to make firmer claims on the pliment topics, express and responses among the users of the native language. More studies in this direction can provide further insights that may help validate some apparent findings given in this study. And we need more studies on investigating the historical variable and other social variables, which do great influences on the speech act of pliments. In short, the process of learning a new language is also the proces