A CONTRASTIVE STUDY OF COMPLIMENT RESPONSES IN ENGLISH AND CHINESE

Abstract

The paper represents a compliment as a special speech act that is broadly used in interpersonal communications.
Compliments serve as the tool of the society, which is wildly used in interpersonal communication.
Under the historical background of economic globalization and during the course of collision
and fusion of different cultures, it is undoubtedly being an art to use the responses to compliments. Due
to ethnic and cultural difference, different languages have their own cultural characteristics. This paper
reveals different responses to compliments in Chinese and English to make a specific study on the different
cultural characteristics of the two nationalities. It is beneficial to decrease and avoid the misunderstandings,
embarrassment and the confusing situations that may occur in intercultural communications.