问候与日常寒暄.doc

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班级：0906班
姓名：蔡小利
学号：0902014621

Title: Greetings and Phatic Communion
How to say hello and make conversations upon meeting others
Abstract: This thesis aims at talking about greetings and phatic communion upon meeting others. Owing to the differences of culture, people between Eastern and Western countries have their own ways to express their emotions. There are some embarrassing affairs when people have little knowledge of others’ cultures. As we all know, language plays a decisive role when we communicative with others but the diversity in language and culture makes cross-cultural communication a highly risky mission. This thesis focuses on the language of greetings and phatic communion.
Key words: greetings, phatic communion, culture, conversation, cross-cultural communication
Contents:
Greetings and Phatic Communion
How to say hello and make conversations upon meeting others
There is no doubt that language is the main way for people to communicate with each other. Everyone wants to express their emotions in a very polite and gracious way. They also hope that what he says can arouse other people’s interest and make them pleasant. But, how to express appropriately is not only a communicative skill, the contents of phatic communion, that is to say, your words play an important role of it. It has a close relationship with your partner’s country, culture, religion, value, thought, habit, interest and so on. As we all know, there are so many differences between Eastern and Western countries, of course, greetings and conversations are included. It may be the reason why so many people come from different countries feel embarrassed when they are communicating with each other to some extent. So, what are the differences of greetings and phatic communion between Eastern and Western countries in details? How do they say hello and make conversations upon meeting each other respectively?
At the very beginning, we should understand this knowledge that greetings and phatic communion are different at formal and informal occasions, no matter what country you are. In modern society, all countries around the world communicate with each other for different kinds of purposes, just like politics, economics, army forces and so on. These people, just like government leaders, business people often touch with people who are not in a same country. At these formal or international occasions, the greetings and conversations are very polite no matter what you are or what country you are. Generally speaking, people say hello to others in a very gentle and polite way and show their enthusiasms when they meet each other. How about at some informal occasions?
Gracious greetings between cultures
It has been recognized that language is an essential and important part of a given culture and that the impact of culture upon a given language is something intrinsic and indispensable. As we’ll show below, though the endeavor in the pursuit of his inter-relationship has never been dominant in the development of linguistic science,“this very embedding of language in society and culture has been the focus of intense and sustained research efforts since the 1960s” (Apte,1994:2000).
When greeting someone, an American’s first instinct is to stick out his or her hand, look directly at the other person, and smile. In some situations, this habit can mean making three mistakes at once. And the moment of greeting is when crucial first impressions are made. Methods and styles of greeting vary greatly around the world, and you need to know which practices apply in different circumstances.
When greeting Asians for the first time, do not initiate the handshake. You may be forcing a physical contact that the other person finds uncomfortable. Many Asians, particularly Japanese, have learned to accept that handshake when dealing with Westerners. Because the bow is the customary greeting in Japan, a slight bow of the head when responding to a proffered handshake is appropriate. Westerners generally are not expected to be familiar with the complex Japanese bowing protocols.
Most Latinos are more accustomed to physical contact. Even people who know each other only slightly may embrace when greeting.
Middle Easterners, particularly Muslims, avoid body contact with the opposite sex, but persons of the same sex commonly hug when greeting each other. When shaking hands, men should be careful not to pull their hands away too quickly. Orthodox Jews also avoid all physical contact with those of the opposite sex who are not family members.
People from France, Italy, and Portugal greet friends kissing on both cheeks. In many other cultures, they also kiss. Some kiss on one cheek, some on both, yet others kiss three times. Maybe you think some of these greetings are really odd.
The smile is the hear-universal gesture of friendliness, and in America its meaning is usually clear. The person smiling is happy, amused, or sending out a friendly signal. In some Latin cultures, for example, the smile may be used to say “Excuse me” or “Please”.
If a person from another culture does not return your greeting smile, it does not indicate hostility or bad manners. In some Asian cultures, smiling is a gesture to be reserved for informal occasions and smiling while being formally introduced would be considered disrespectful.
In many cultures, avoiding eye contact is a sign of respect, but such behavior can lead to misunderstandings. For example, some Korean shopkeepers have been accused of disrespecting their non-Korean customers because the shopkeepers avoided making eye contact. The same sort of misunderstanding has occurred between American teachers and Asian students who do not look at the teacher while he or she is speaking.
The rules for saying hello are very complicated, and can be quite different than the way it is at home, and it is quite easy to get it wrong. It is a common phenomenon that some embarrassing things occur owing to these different kinds of greetings when people come from different countries communicate with each other. It is caused by culture diversity. Different historical civilizations of thousands of years bring up different cultural habits between Eastern and Western countries. Culture has a great influence on people’s life outlook, value outlook and world outlook. The most important thing, people’s communicative methods and actions are brought up with the development of the culture. So, when you say something, your words, actions, facial expressions are easily misunderstood by others who have little knowledge of your country’s culture.
Phatic communion
The term phatic communion originates from Malinowski’s study of the functions language performed by Trobriand Islanders. Ritual exchanges about health or weather such as Good morning, God bless you, nice day often state the obvious. Yet they indicate that a channel of communication is open if it should be needed. And different cultures have different topics of phatic communion. Broadly speaking, this function refers to expressions that help define and maintain interpersonal relations, such as slangs, jokes, jargon, ritualistic exchanges, and switches to social and regional dialects. We have to learn a large repertoire of such usages if we are to interact comfortably with different people.
In most cases, people use these body languages, eye contact, gestures, and facial expressions to show their friendliness upon meeting others at the very beginning. After greeting someone, they need to talk about some topics to active the atmosphere. So, what do they usually talk about? At the most formal occasions, just like government leaders, business people, they always talk about some formal issues after greeting. Government leaders focus on talking about official problems and how to take measures to deal with some hot and difficult situations. Business people care a lot about economic issues. This is a very reasonable phenomenon. It is obvious that the development of the economic has a great influence on their personal fate of economic. Except these formal occasions, how about the informal occasions? What is their common topic upon meeting others?
“Have you eaten?” “Ni chi le ma?” is the most important, most popular sentence in the Chinese language, used wherever and whenever, even if you just meet someone in the street at midnight. It is not necessary to answer precisely when you ate or what you had, a simple “yes, I have” or “chi le” is enough. That means you are not hungry, your life isn’t bad; it also means you have nothing much to talk about or you are in hurry. If you answer “not yet” “mei ne” or “what about you?” “ni ne?”, that means you want to keep that person’s attention. Or if you want to tell them something but not necessarily about food,, then you could go on “why not?” “wei shen me?”
Why Chinese people like to talk about this topic?
In the past, the majority of the Chinese people live a very hard and difficult life for a long time. Most people always worry about if there are some foods for them to satisfy their hunger. Some people even appease their hunger with a cake. It is a pity that many people starve to death. Therefore, what they care about each other is the problem if they can have meal. In the course of time, this language becomes a common phatic communion upon people meet each other in China. This wording is one explanation about this phenomenon.
Westerners don’t understand why food and health have become such a popular topic in Chinese daily life. This comes down to more than 5,000 years Chinese history. As far as I understand, you need to go back to historical records from about 1300 BC, when Chinese rulers started to tell people what you could or couldn’t say or do.
In BeiSong Dynasty, two brothers, named LvDajun, in Kantian, Shanxi Province were very honest and honorable. They two pay much attention to the sense of propriety. In order to create a harmonious atmosphere that neighbors can care or help each other, then two complied the first countryside testament —Lv Countryside Testament（《吕氏乡约》）. The contents of the testament refer to all aspects of people’s daily life. One rule of the testament is like this: All people at their town, when someone comes into one’s home, the comers must ask the hosts whether they have meal. If the hosts are going to have meal, the comers should not come in their doors until they finished their meals. Otherwise, your actions make people feel that you want to have meal when you stay at their home and watch them eating.
Lv Countryside Testament was spread before long and became the model of others’ town testament. There was no doubt that the rule about having meal became more and more famous in China.
In Ming Dynasty, HuangZuo, who lives in XiangShan, Guangdong Province formulated FengQuan Countryside Testament(《奉泉乡礼》), almost all contents copied Lv Countryside Testament. Therefore, 450 years ago, Portuguese came to China to preach their religion and discovered that people in Guangzhou always say “Have you eaten?” upon meeting each other. Until today, people in Guangzhou are very polite and make conversations about eating.
In Qing Dynasty, “Have you eaten?”, this language has been very famous in China. It has been a greeting habit from the rule of Lv Countryside Testament Lv Countryside Testament. For example, Li Hongzhang had a meeting with YiTengBoWen, a primer minister of Japan. This is their conversations after they had seat.
“Have you eaten?” or “fan fou?” Li said.
“No.”, Yi answered.
This record chooses from MaGuan Agreement and Conversations Between China and Japan.(《 马关中日议和谈话录》) .
As we all know, thanks to the differences of the religion accents, people’s expressions of this language are various. It is said that KangXi Emperor at last unified the expression. No matter how it is, “Have you eaten?”, this language has played an important role of the history stage.
As far as I am concerned, talking about meal upon meeting each other is not a shameful thing. In China, this topic can show people’s friendliness and kindness, compared with “How are you?” in Western countries.
British like to talk about weather upon meeting each other. Let’s share a joking story.
On a Sunday afternoon, George Bernard Shaw had a walk on street, an old man, who came to Shaw, said,“Good afternoon, Mr. Shaw! It’s such a lovely day, isn’t it?” Shaw answered,“Oh, yes. But 20 people have told me about it past 2 hours. Thank you.”
From this story, we can make a conclusion that people talk about weather commonly in Britain. So, what leads in his phenomenon? Why people like to talk about weather in Britain?
First, as we all know, Britain belongs to islands. The climate of the U.K is temperate rainy and sea climate, the rainfall is average of one year, and rainy day is very common. Thanks to the changeable weather, people have to talk about it.
Second, talking about weather is the symbol of the English gentleman manner, which makes English people feel polite and comfortable. English men are very particular with the procedures and comprehension. So, the topic of the weather is regarded as a reasonable starting and what they should have done upon meeting others. What’s more, it is considered as people’s expectations of Great British Empire.
Third, if you are in a climate situation just like British weather, a snowy day after a rainy day, continuous changeable weather for several days at the New Year beginning, you will understand the suffering of the terrible weather may be the best reason for people to communicate with each other, or just search for a spirit support.
Fourth, most people in British like to watch football match or horse race. If the weather is bad or terrible, they couldn’t go to the outdoors to watch race. What they can do is just to watch TV or eat some snacks at home. Sometimes they can take part in some cocktail parties.
Fifth, British are always introverted and implicit. If you talk in a lofty strain upon meeting a British at the first time, your words are regarded as impolite and rude actions. Some comments on weather are their polite greetings, especially at some social occasions. Talking about weather is the main entertainment which is an inviolable person castle. They call it “Privacy”. It is formed by long racial habits. Generally speaking, British houses are always away from the noisy city. If they have neighbors, their houses are separated by some watt led walls or green trees. Others have little knowledge of their daily life and social communications. If you intrude into other’s rooms unexpectedly, or give a call at an inappropriate time, both of these actions belong to bother people’s private space. There is no doubt that your actions belong to inviolability.
Cross-cultural Communication
China and British, one is Eastern country, another is We