What are the characteristics of politeness in Chinese culture?

What are the characteristics of politeness in Chinese culture?

Introduction

Kindness, politeness or the specific act of humility is not entirely a pragmatic concept. In the Chinese culture, politeness is expressed not only verbally, but through physical body movements as well. Thus, it is obvious that universal pragmatic exist. One must note that pragmatic specifics exist in every language and culture, often independent of each other languages and cultures. Languages continually evolve and are not at all stagnant. The Chinese language spoken today is very different from that which was spoken a few decades ago. This is primarily due to globalization and the availability of information at one's fingertips.

Literature Review

The following is a set of politeness principles. Leech deems them as necessary complements (Leech, 1983).

Tact Maxim: minimizes specific cost to others and maximizes benefit to others.

Generosity Maxim: minimizes the benefit to self and maximize cost to self.

Approbation Maxim: minimizes the dispraise of others and maximize praise of others.

Modesty Maxim: minimize praise of one and maximize dispraise of self.

Agreement Maxim: minimize disagreement between self and with others. Maximizing agreement between self and others.

Sympathy Maxim: minimize antipathy between self and others, also maximize sympathy between self and others.

In an attempt to better understand the nature of the language, Gu focused his maxims on characteristics and teachings that are repeatedly seen in the Chinese culture; attitudinal warmth, refinement, respect and modesty. Based on these traits, the following maxims were formed (Gu, 1990).

The Self-denigration Maxim Theory: denigrate self but be sure to elevate the other

The Address Maxim Theory: confront your listener with the appropriate terminology, addressing properly is vital.

The Tact Maxim Theory: minimize cost to others when it comes to a motivational aspect. Maximize the benefits where conversation is concerned

The Generosity Maxim Theory: maximize the benefits to others while minimizing costs to oneself as far as conversation goes.

Many claim that the two sets of maxims and principles fail to address all aspects and variations of speech, claiming the comparisons as being superficial (Brown & Levinson, 1987). Politeness involves much more than speech; a characteristic of human nature that is portrayed through the use of a combination of words. It is highly complex and subject to continual change (He, 2003). Therefore, a complete and final theory describing its characteristics is simply too much to ask for or in other words, impossible.

Discussion

Unfortunately, most of the research that is published today is based on information and studies that ...