Compliment is a polite speech act that frequently occurs in business negotiations as well as in people’s daily verbal interaction due to its lubricative functions performed in communication (Wolfson 198)。 It usually helps negotiators off an embarrassing situation and easily set up a harmonious atmosphere。 What’s more, it also can gain the opponent’s good impression and trust。 The thesis attempts to explore the application of compliment in Sino-US business negotiation。 With China’s accession into World Trade Organization (WTO), China has become one of the most prosperous markets。 At the same time, China is the largest developing country in the world and the US is the most developed country in the word。 With the development of the Sino-US relationship, trade between the two countries has grown impressively。 Increasing amount of American investment has taken place in China, and Chinese investment in the United States is also becoming more and more year after year。 Thus, business negotiation has become an effective method for transnational trade。 Business negotiation is a process through that two or more parties coordinate an exchange of goods or services and attempt to agree upon the rate of exchange for them。 In Sino-US business negotiation, as “the most important communication’s tool” (Lie 19) ，language is a source of negotiation power。 Hsun Tzu once said “If people talk with others friendly, it is warmer than clothes; If people talk with others with evil intent, it is more serious than swords。” Therefore, this can be seen that the use of compliments in the business negotiation is worthwhile。 But when people from different countries meet, it may lead them to some misunderstanding of using compliments because of different cultural background。 Especially in cross-cultural business negotiations, successful compliments can play an important role。 It usually helps negotiators to build and maintain relationship and make the business negotiations proceed smoothly。 Thus, the research of the application of compliments in Sino-US business negotiations is necessary and essential。文献综述

2。 Literature Review

     Compliments are positive expression or evaluation, which are directed either explicitly or implicitly to someone for something valued positively by the speaker and the hearer, and even the whole speech community (Holmes 485; Ye 207)。 It seems that the major function of compliments is to establish and maintain social “rapport” (Manes and Wolfson 124) and smoothness between participants。 In analyzing their American data, Manes and Wolfson point out that the primary function of compliments is “the reinforcement and /or creation of compliment” between the speaker and addressee。 Meanwhile, Holmes holds the similar view that compliments function as “social lubricates” which “increase or consolidate the solidarity” (Holmes 486) between interlocutors。 

     In the business negotiation world, as we all know, the application of compliments usually complies with the following principles: cooperative principle, approbation maxim of politeness principle and positive face of caring for others。 (Gu 5)

2。1 The definition of compliment

There are many different definitions about the compliment given by different scholars from different walks of life。 Here it may be helpful to give a broad definition of a compliment from the business negotiation’s point。 The definition adopted in this thesis is that made by Holmes (Holmes 485): “A compliment is a speech act which explicitly or implicitly attributes credit to someone other than the speaker, usually the person addressed, for some ‘good’ (possession, characteristic, skill, etc。) which is positively valued by the speaker and the hearer。”

2。2 The definition of business negotiation