V。 Conclusion 11

Bibliography 12

Acknowledgements 13

On Different Exchanging Greetings in English and Chinese

I。 Introduction 

  Greetings are social communicative languages which are used most often in people’s daily life, both in English and Chinese。 The topic of greetings are so widely used that it almost includes all aspects of life, such as the weather changes in temperature, news events, people’s health condition etc(Zegarac 35)。 But the choice of specific topic should be proper to fit the context, especially feasible in cross-cultural communication。 Otherwise, it may cause culture conflict or something unpleasant。 At this point, due to greetings are vary from English and Chinese, it’s necessary for us to pay attention to use this language function。 论文网

The basic form of greeting is often similar, no matter in English or Chinese。 In general, the starting point of all the small talks is to maintain a good interpersonal relationship。 However, in different culture background, the same way of greeting may produce totally different response。 Some new English-learners or those who lack the experience of foreign contacts, tend to be blindly translate the Chinese greetings into foreign languages, causing much embarrassing misunderstanding or even unpleasant cultural conflict。 

According to the reflection of those people who are native English speakers, quite a number of them hold a negative attitude toward Chinese greetings as they think Chinese people tend to be nosy about their private lives, such as their age, income, the price of their goods or their marriage status and so on。 Actually, that’s not true, for Chinese people, it’s quite common in interpersonal communication as they regard it as a way to express their care for others。 It is ultimately a misunderstanding in cross-culture communication。 In fact, if we could realize the differences about this two greetings, we may easily get closer to each other and also to English culture and its culture。

II。 A Brief Analysis of Greetings between English and Chinese

Greetings as a social skill to fill the blank of language, it doesn’t have any practical significance by itself。 No matter in Chinese or English, Greetings is just an informal type of discourse, despite there exist so many different meanings between these two cultures, it both contain the same patterns: exchanging greetings, inquiring, commenting, retrospect, appreciating(Hu 165-166)。 The purpose is to manage the interpersonal distance, to define the relationships between friends, work colleagues, and new acquaintances。 文献综述

2。1 A Brief Analysis of Greetings in Chinese 

    In Chinese dictionary, greetings mean some polite words about weather changes or life when the meeting。 According to the interpretation from Cihai, the original meaning of this word refer to winter and summer, or when we meet each other to greet the weather changes。 Therefore, Chinese greetings express the mutual concern about the living life of each other in conservation, so that it’s inevitably involve a number of personal issues。 

    2。1。1 The Typical Greetings in Chinese 

    In China, the most common way to exchange greeting is that “ Have you eaten yet?” This kind of greeting is not only regardless of the occasion, but also the time。 We can greet others in these words anytime to achieve our communicative purpose。 It reflects the specific meaning in Chinese culture, moreover, from most Chinese people’s perspective, it exactly combine the traditional Chinese culture to greeting to the point, as it contribute to the regional identity。