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’slivingstandardisincreasinggradually.Atthesametime,ourcountryisbroadeningitscommunicationwithwesterncountries.Cross-culturalCommunicationcontinuestoheatupalong.Incross-culturalcommunication,onephenomenonhasdrawnourwidespreadattention----thatiscompliment.Complimentsarethe“lubricant”ofcommunication,whichenablecommunicationtogoaheadinaharmoniousatmosphere.Asasociallanguage,complimentscannotonlyshortenthesocialdistanceamongcommunicators,butalsoenhancetheemotions,maintainnormalsocialrelationships.However,duetodifferentculturalbackgrounds,therearelotsofdisparitiesintheuseofcompliments.Inthispaper,basedontheresearchmethodsandresearchresultsathomeandabroad,theauthorconductsacertainamountofstudy.AcontrastiveanalysisofChineseandEnglishcomplimentsisaimingathelpingcommunicatorsuselanguagedecentlyandreducepragmaticmistakes.Thispaperfirstintroducesthedefinitionoftheterm“compliment”,itscharacteristicsandsocialfunctions,etc.ThenitanalyzestherespectivecharacteristicsofChinesepeopleandwesternersandthedifferentwaysofcomplimentinthesetwocultures.What’smore,itfocusesonthedisparitiesofChineseandEnglishcomplimentsandgivescorrespondinganalyses.Atlast,itmakesanaturalconclusiontothewholepaper.Keywords:Cross-culturalcommunication;Compliments;Disparities世纪的第一个十年即将过去，回首过去，我们不难发现，随着我国改革开放的不断深入，我国的国力日益增强，人民生活水平也在不断地提高。与此同时，我国与西方国家的交流也在不断加深，跨文化交际随之持续升温。在跨文化交际中，有一种现象引起了大家的广泛关注，那就是称赞语的使用。称赞语是交际的“润滑剂”，它使交际得以在和谐融洽的气氛中向前推进。作为一种社会语言，它不仅可以缩短交际者之间的社会距离，而且可以联络感情，维系社会正常的人际关系。然而，中西方各自不同的文化背景导致了在交际中称赞语的运用存在很大的差异。本文在借鉴国内外研究方法及研究成果的基础上，对汉英称赞语进行了对比研究，以期达到帮助语言学习者得体运用称赞语，减少语用失误的目的。这篇论文首先介绍了称赞语的定义，特征、以及功能等内容，随后分别分析了中西方人民各自的性格特征及由此产生的称赞语，接下来着重对比分析了中西方称赞语。最后，伴随着结论的出现，整篇论文自然而然地结束。……………………………………………………………………………11.1Preliminaries................................…….................................…...............................…11.2PurposesandSignificanceoftheStudy........................……......................................11.3ResearchMethodology.................…….................................……...........................22.LiteraryReview…………………………………………………………………………32.1WhatIsCompliment................................……...................................................…...32.2GeneralCharacteristicsofCompliments........................…….....................................32.3TheFunctionofCompliments.................…….................................……...................43.ComplimentsinChineseCulture…………………………………………………….63.1CharacteristicsofChinesePeople……………………………………………………63.2ComplimentsinChineseCulture…………………………………………………...74.ComplimentsinEnglishCulture………………………………………………………84.1CharacteristicsofWesterners……………………………………………………….8.4.2ComplimentsinEnglishCulture…………………………………………………..95.TheDisparitiesbetweenChineseandEnglishCompliments………………………115.1DisparitiesintheWaytoCompliment……………………………………………115.2DisparitiesintheTopicsofCompliments…………………………………………115.3DisparitiesinSentencePatterns…………………………………………………156.AnalysisoftheDisparities……………………………………………………………167.Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………….19References“expressionofpraise,admiration,approval,etc”(OxfordDictionary,1997:283)isaspeechactwhichhappenswithahighlyfrequencyinourdailylives.“complimentisaspeechactwhichexplicitlyorimplicitlyattributescredittosomeoneotherthanthespeaker,usuallythepersonaddressed,forsome‘good’(possession,characteristics,skill,etc),whichispositivelyvaluedbythespeakerandthehearer”(Holmes&Brown,1987:530).Thereseemstobeawidespreadargumentoverwhatconstituteacompliment.Owingtodifferentculturalbackgrounds,therearedisparitiesexistinginthecomplimentsusedinEnglishandChinese.Thispaperisselectedfortworeasons:Firstly,asastudentwhohasbeenstudiedinChinesedepartmentforhalfayearandnowEnglishmajor,theauthorisveryinterestedincross-culturalcommunication.Therearemanyresearcheswhichhavebeendoneoncross-culturalcommunication,butintermsofcomplimentstherearestillverylimitedresources.Secondly,bothChineseandEnglishcomplimentsmaybetroublesomeforlearnersfromdifferentculturalbackgrounds.EvenforourEnglishmajors,theyareoftenatalossabouthowtomakeappropriateusesofcomplimentswhencommunicatingwithwesterners.AcontrastiveanalysisofChineseandEnglishcomplimentswillbebeneficialtocross-culturalcommunication.Thus,theauthorcarriedoutthispaper.1.2PurposesandSignificanceoftheStudySpecificspeechactsorspeechbehaviors,ingeneralaregovernedbysocialnorms.