Chinese Compliments
Chinese Compliment Responses
- Rejecting
- Disagreeing and denigrating(No, I’m older and uglier.)
- Expressing embarrassment(Don’t say that. I’m embarrassed.)
- Explaining(No, I didn’t watch my diet and I’ve gained some weight.)
- Thanking and denigrating(Thank you, but the sweater is not that nice.)
- Accepting
- Thanking only
- Most responses to compliments in Chinese tend to be rejections, characterized by disagreement and self-denigration.
- The norm of Chinese society is to appear humble. Modesty is one of the most important constituents of self-image. As a result, Chinese speakers choose to lower themselves when responding to compliments, believing that appearing humble will help maintain and enhance their face and image.
Above passages fromChen (1993), p. 55[©].
[Research notes on the section above...]
Reference
Chen, R. (1993). Responding to compliments: A contrastive study of politeness strategies between American English and Chinese speakers.Journal of Pragmatics, 20, 49-75.
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