The study has found that in Britain and the United States, compared with men, women use more compliments to others, and also accept more compliments from others。 The ratio that men compliment women is 23。21%, while that of women complimenting men is 16%。 This suggests that there are great differences between men and women in the use of the compliment strategies。 At home, scientists have made detailed investigations about the use of compliment on 80 different levels of Chinese。 The results shows that both syntactic structure and semantic aspects of Chinese compliment is also stylized。 Some Chinese syntactic structures are different from, and some are very similar to English compliment syntax structure。

Many scholars believe that the contrast research of English and Chinese compliment language should combine two ideas。 One idea is that from Searle, Brown&Levison and Leech。 Through the studies of speech act, especially the politeness, it is concluded that speech act is limited by the pragmatic principles。 This is the pragmatic-determined view。 Another idea is from Greertz, Hilletal, Mastsumoto(1988-1989), and some east scholars。 Through a series of experiments, they put forward the variation theory(culture-specific-view)。 

II。 Main Reasons for the Generation of English and Chinese 

Compliments

2。1 Sense of Hierarchy and Equality

    In Chinese traditional ideology, the idea of “Etiquette” has always been an important part of Confucianism。 Chinese thought, the traditional hierarchy is deep-rooted in the relations between father and son。 And to a certain extent, the relationship between the father and son is achieved through language with the passage of time since childhood, and the growth of people is always affected by the environment of survival and growth。 When people want to praise others, they usually weaken their role, in order to stress others。 Therefore, in daily interpersonal communication, the Chinese culture puts more emphasis on the concept of the “power” relationship。 In British and American culture, people have the idea that everyone is equal。 As the saying goes, “If working hard even, a cowboy can be a president。 ”(As long as the effort, the cowboy can also be the president)。 When people show respect to other people, at the same time, they will pay attention to the protection of their rights, and do not allow others to infringe upon their rights。 Therefore, in interpersonal communication, the westerners will start from the total view of the “Equality of the two sides”, and consciously abide by this “Consistency” principle。

2。2 Collectivism and Departmentalism

Chinese traditional culture emphasizes collectivism and advocates that the interests of the inpidual should be subordinated to collective interests。 It also advocates to share weal and woe together, and calls for selfless dedication and common prosperity。 China is known for its pursuit of the moderation。 These two points to some extent are consistent。 In Chinese thought, pointing out one’s weakness is very rude, and too mush emphasis on the components is not very suitable in the interpersonal communication。 The western culture lays values by inpidualism that a person is considered as the center of social values。 This determines that the westerners worship personal struggle, and inpidual should try hard to obtain the achievements, and assert the inpiduality。 Western culture demands for people’s being frank, active, aggressive, independent, and full of spirit of adventure and pursuit of inpidual freedom。论文网

III。 The Pragmatic Function of Compliments 

    Compliment is a polite speech act, is the speaker’s praise of the listener’s good quality and possessions。 Compliment language is a pluripotent social speech act。 Although the way of compliment language’s formation is very simple, but in daily life its function is not allowed to be ignored。