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1.1 Politeness in language
As a social phenomenon, politeness can be observed in all languages and cultures, and it has long been an important object of study in linguistics. It can be expressed verbally and non-verbally, but in this study, only linguistic politeness is discussed; that is, the ways people express politeness verbally through their use of language. As a common social phenomenon, politeness is not only a universally high valued virtue, but also a widely employed strategy to realize tactful and effective communication.

Therefore, the definition of “politeness” is difficult to give. By way of the literature on the studies of politeness; a lack of unanimous agreement as to what is understood as linguistic politeness can be found. Different linguists and scholars give their different interpretations of politeness. Watts defines the politeness, which is "a form of social behavior; a skill to be used to achieve specific aims; principal aim is enhancement of ego's self-esteem and his/he public status in the eyes of other with sup https://www.51lunwen.org/languagethesis/ plementary aim of enhancing others' self-esteem"(Watts, 2003). We learn from this definition, that politeness is a sign of good breeding, and its function is to enhance one's social standing and manifest the membership of a particular social class. Leech (1980:82) sees politeness as a regulative factor in interaction in disruptive effect of face-threatening acts.

On the one hand, the above discussions confirm the universal feature of politeness. That is, the notion of politeness is universally held by speakers of all languages and members of all cultures; it can be observed in all human interactions. On the other hand, this discussion also shows the differences in defining or perceiving politeness. On the whole, linguists tend to regard politeness as a way to avoid offenses and maintain social distance as well as social lubricant of reducing interpersonal friction. More specially, politeness bears strong cultural characteristics since the value orientations of a culture exert crucial influence on its members' attitudes and speech acts. That is to say, politeness is defined, realized and judged differently in different cultures.

1.2 Research Questions
This study aims to shed light on cross-cultural communication and may help alleviate uneasiness and barriers in interpersonal interaction between people from different cultures. The research questions are as follows:

What are the differences in terms of address between native English speakers and native Chinese speakers?

What are the differences in refusal strategies between native English speakers and native Chinese speakers?
What are the difference in compliment responses between native English speakers and native Chinese speakers?

1.3 Structure of thesis
This thesis consists of five chapters, including the introduction and the conclusion. Chapter One is the introduction of the thesis, containing the need for the study and the thesis structure as well as the research questions; Following this introduction, relevant research background is introduced in Chapter Two: in this chapter, basic concepts and theories on Brown & Levinson's Politeness Principles and cross-cultural differences will be reviewed. Also, this chapter will consist of previous studies on Brown & Levinson's Pol本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。