Chinese ESL Speakers' Compliment Behavior in English and in Chinese

赴美留學華人的中英文讚美行為比較

郝彥禎(Yen-Chen Hao)

《Concentric： Studies in Linguistics》 43卷1期 (2017/05) Pp. 77-104

https://doi.org/10.6241/concentric.ling.43.1.04

摘要

This study compares Chinese ESL speakers' compliment behavior in Chinese and in English, and the latter to that of Americans. Twenty Chinese speakers completed a questionnaire in both languages and ten Americans completed the English one. The questionnaire elicited compliments and responses in various scenarios. The results show that in giving compliments, the Americans were more likely to say ＂I like NP＂ than the Chinese, while the Chinese using English preferred focusing on an object rather than on a person. Moreover, the Chinese using Chinese showed a higher frequency of indirect or no compliment, reflecting their even more reserved attitude. As for the responses, accepting compliments was most common for all groups. However, the Americans and Chinese using Chinese rejected compliments more often than the Chinese using English. This is probably due to Chinese ESL speakers' overgeneralized impression about the American way of responding to compliments.

關鍵字

compliments ； compliment responses ； language in use ； Chinese ESL speakers

並列摘要

本研究比較赴美留學華人中英文兩種語言的讚美行為，並將他們的英語讚美行為與美國人做對比。二十位赴美留學華人填寫了中英文問卷調查各一份，而十位美國人填寫了同樣的英文問卷。中英文問卷內容一致，皆是假設了各種情境要受試者讚美他人或是回應他人的讚美。統計結果顯示在讚美他人時，美國人比華人常使用「我喜歡你的（所有物或表現）」此種句型結構，而華人則比較常針對事物而非人；另外當華人使用華語時則比較常用間接方式或是不給予讚美，顯示華人使用華語讚美時比使用英語時含蓄。至於對他人讚美的回應，在這三組資料裡接受讚美皆是最常被使用的策略，然而美國人或華人使用華語時都比華人使用英語時較常拒絕他人的讚美。我們推測這可能是因為赴美留學華人嘗試模仿美國人的回應讚美行為，但又對他們的溝通方式了解不夠深刻所致。

並列關鍵字

讚美 ； 回應讚美 ； 使用語言 ； 赴美留學華人

參考文獻

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