【正文】 Generally speaking, greetings can open a sequence of munication and maintain interpersonal relationship. Besides, greeting seems to have an important propitiatory function in defusing potential hostility of silence in situations where greeting or speech is conventionally anticipated.As there are many functions of greetings, these functions make greetings play an important role in the daily munication. So it is necessary to introduce greeting’s three major functions. Greetings as munication functionCoffman has ever pointed out: “Greetings provide the means for opening conversations appropriately and for establishing and maintaining social relationships.”[15] When two people meet, the purpose of mutual social intercourse is establishing two people’s relationship. Consequently greeting can establish or consolidate speaker’s relationship. Greetings may not provide any new information, but its munication functions can be reflected. To a greater extent, people use greeting as a munication tool to establish and maintain their interpersonal relationship. In the daily life, people tend to feel that greetings have not any practical significance, but if a person cannot obtain other people greeting or his greeting cannot obtain responses. He may feel facelost. That is, greetings is a sort of asking and answering intermunication behavior, greeting need to responses, if there is no response, the conversation can not be smoothly kept on. Greeting as linguistic routines of politeness function 6. The function of greetingsGreeting may be insignificant in terms of municating information, but they are an important instrument of munication and may serve a variety of functions in accordance with their situational conditions of use.“Greeting expressions play an important role in language. Via greetings, speakers show their attitude toward others as well as start the next step munication.”“The most basic function of greetings is confirming the interpersonal relationship which has been established before.” and “Greetings are ‘interaction behavior’, that is, they need to reply, if there is no reply, the munication can not maintain.” Yiman also put forward the similar opinion “When two people meet, each other’s greetings are establishing interpersonal relationship.” At the sociological level, greeting is on the basis of group membership and social roles. Sociological knowledge is required about the interactants such as profession, education, social status, etc. Sociological messages are contained in greetings in the form of addressing, or addressing plus greeting. The address terms used and the types of greetings chosen are usually in accordance with the sociological features of the interactants. Thus greeting patterns tend to be formulate and predictive. People can reliably predict what the other party will do or say and formulate appropriate greetings towards their partner.At both the cultural and sociological levels, there is one important principle that governs the operation of greeting and other interactions, . conventionalization. While interpersonal relationship and greetings are at the sociocultural levels, interactants tend to greet each other on the basis of shared sociocultural norms and conventions, or stereotypes of the sociocultural groups to which they belong rather than individual characteristics, which they possess. At this level, the interpersonal knowledge is still superficial, and most frequently, interactants stick to the accepted sociocultural conventions in greeting instead of violating them. As a result, most greetings are in agreement with the role structuring of the interpersonal relationships and happen within sociocultural norms and interaction principles of politeness.At the psychological level, it is individuation, rather than conventionalization, that governs greetings. Since their intimacy and familiarity with their partner is at the top end of the scale, the deviations of greetings from socially prescribed roles are possible, acceptable, and sometimes even expected. If they fail to occur, one party may conclude that the other party has little desire to move their relationship to a more informal and intimate level. In English, when an interactant sees someone he has not met before, he or she may naturally resort to expressions such as “How do you do?” or “Hello, how are you?” as patterns of greeting in agreement with the cultural levels of relationship between persons. In Chinese, it is mon to greet a stranger or a new acquaintance with words such as “你好”. In order to understand the greetings, it is necessary to know the levels of greetings. Greetings are usually not as impersonal as those between members of expressive ties. Gu Yueguo’s Theory in Chinese culture“According to GuYueguo (1990), there are basically four notions underlying the Chinese concept of politeness: respect for other (respectfulness), denigration of self (modesty), warmth toward other (attitudinal warmth) and refinement in language use. Respect for other is self’s positive appreciation or admiration of other concerning the latter’s face, social status, and so on. Denigration of self is self’s way of showing modesty. Warmth toward other is self’s demonstration of kindness, consideration, and hospitality to other. Refinement in language use refers to self’s behavior to other which meets certain standards. On the basic these four essential notions, GuYueguo has formulated five politeness maxims, namely the selfdenigration maxim, the address maxim, the refinement maxim, the agreement maxim, and the virtueswordsdeeds maxim.”The selfdenigration maxim is based on the notions of respectfulness and modesty. The speaker expresses his/her respect and modesty towards the hearer by denigrating self and elevating other. For example, Chinese may respond to an English greeting “You are good at English.” with “No, my English is poor.” The add