Abstract: The politeness principle reflects the restriction and influence of the social culture in language use. The politeness principle is the foundation on which people can carry out communication smoothly, demonstrate their characteristics in different cultures. This article proceeds from the cultural differences between English and Chinese, making a comparison of Gu Yueguo’s the Han culture politeness features and Leech’s politeness principle of British culture features. The purpose of this title is going to make a full comprehension on this difference, and face it more effectively in the actual communication, so as to achieve successful communication.

Key words: cultural differences between Chinese and English; politeness principle; difference

摘要：礼貌原则体现了社会文化对语言使用的制约和影响。礼貌原则是人们顺利进行言语交际的基础,在不同的文化中表现出各自的特点。本文从英汉两种文化差异出发,将顾曰国先生分析的汉文化的礼貌特征与Leech以英国文化特征归纳的礼貌原则作一比较,可更深刻地理解这种差异,并在实际的交际中更有效地面对这种差异,以取得交际的成功。

关键词：英汉语言文化差异；礼貌原则；差异性