A Critique of “contrastive Analysis of Compliment Between English and Chinese ”

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3. Critique of the article

As summarized above, this is a good article with a well-chosen topic supported by many well-devised studies, which set a model for the following studies.

The studies are rigorous in that the deeper research on this subject from cross cultural perspective. Besides, in the study, the peer review and comparison among various aspects of American compliment and Chinese’s were taken into consideration. This study helps us understand differences between Chinese and English compliment responses. The research on syntax between English and Chinese shows clearly that there are much difference in oral compliment. Pragmatic mistakes in the cross-cultural communication can be avoided. The finding that the American compliment resembles the Chinese one in forms, strategies and functions in the situation under study. Meanwhile, it also proves that a great deal of discrepancy emerges in the use of positive evaluation, of the 1st and 3rd person pronouns and of some discourse strategies, which are worth studying.

In addition, the writers also found that the biggest difference lies in the use of positive evaluation, that is to say the American students use more positive evaluation. This may be explained by that many Americans are very active in expressing their ideas and feelings while more Chinese would like to choose neutral words and restrain their feeling, for many of them were taught to be observed and not to be heard when they were young. This study also improves that language is the carrier and mirror of its respective culture, which makes the whole research more convincing.

Moreover, the finding that he American students use more first person pronoun (2.17 vs. 0.93) and less third person pronouns (1.09 vs. 2.68) than their Chinese counterparts has profound pedagogical implications and opens a new area for further research.

However, there are also some drawbacks in this article.

On the one hand, it is not clear on compliment responses. And the compliment responses are very few At the same time, studies of compliment from the aspect of pragmatics are limited in number. Therefore, this thesis can explore and analyze compliment responses from another new perspective and the paper may be more convincing.

On the other hand, though after a couple of studies showed great progress, the question why men and women adopt such different evaluations has not been emphasized.

To conclude, the studies are still rigorous and this article is still quite informative, convincing and thought-provoking though there are some shortcomings. This study analyzes the difference between Chinese and English compliment from a new perspective and a new inspiration can be given to other researchers.