Abstract: As an integral part of human communication, apology plays an extremely important role in the Chinese and Western cultures. Apology is mainly used to maintain people's face, to express respect to the hearers. The foreign scholars such as Olshtain and Cohen, Vollmer and Olshtain, Trosborg and Holmes have made the in-depth research to apology in culture, gender, social pragmatics and many other aspects. Because of different cultural backgrounds, improper use of apology may cause misunderstandings in intercultural communication. In order to avoid the pragmatic failure, people should know the similarities and differences between these two apology strategies. This paper aims to make a comparative study of the two apology strategies in Chinese and English. The author also investigates factors that account for the differences between English and Chinese strategies. 

Keywords: Apology Strategies; similarities and differences; reasons.

CONTENTS

Abstract

中文摘要

1 Introduction..1

2 Literature Review 2

  2.1 Face Theory

  2.2 Politeness Theory

  2.3 Study of Difference between Chinese and English Apologies

3. Comparison of Apologies in Chinese and English...3

  3.1 Similarities

    3.1.1 Non-verbal Apology 

3.1.2 Direct Apology

3.2 Differences

  3.3.1 Different Use in Terms of Social Power

  3.2.2 Different Use in Terms of Social Distance

  3.2.3 Different Use in Terms of Frequency 

  3.2.4 Differences Use on Special Occasions

4. Reasons of the Difference between English and American Apology.8

  4.1 High-context and Low-context

  4.2 Different Cultural Values

  4.3 Social Relationships

5. Conclusion.10

Bibliography..11

Acknowledgements...12