Communicative Functions and Cultural Differences of Body Language in Chinese and English Cultures中英体态语的交际功能及其文化异同

1、communicative functions and cultural differences of body language in chinese and english cultures name : supervisor : major:acknowledgementfirst and foremost, i would like to avail myself of the opportunity to express my gratitude to my tutor, who has taken her precious time off from her tight sched

2、ule, reading my thesis carefully and offering me constant encouragement, valuable suggestions and enlightening instructions, which contribute to the completion of my thesis.i would also like to acknowledge my indebtedness to all the instructors who have contributed their time, thoughts, skills and e

3、ncouragement to this thesis.i am also grateful to all the classmates and friends who have given me generous support and helpful advice in the past few years. finally, i wish to devote this paper to my beloved family, who have given my life and love, and have been supporting me.abstractwith the devel

4、opment of the globalization, the cross-culture communication becomes more and more frequent. as we all know, the communication of human beings includes verbal communication and nonverbal communication. the nonverbal communication, such as body language, facial expressions, touching and so on, plays

5、an important role in the cross-culture communication. because of the cultural differences, one body language may refer to different meanings in different cultures. it will be helpful to have better communication with different people if we are familiar with the meaning of body language in different

6、cultures. for this aim, the author of this paper studies the communicative functions and the cultural differences of body language in chinese and english cultures. first, the author points out the relations between the culture and the language. then, the author analyzes the differences and the formi

7、ng reasons of the body language in chinese and english cultures. on this basis, the author illustrates the importance of the body language in daily communication. in order to improve the peoples ability of cross-cultural communication, the author also provides some strategies of using body language.

8、摘要全球化的日益推进，使跨文化交际变得越来越频繁。众所周知人类的交际包括言语交际和非言语交际，其中非言语交际如，身势语，面部表情，触摸等在跨文化交际中发挥着重要的作用。由于文化的差异，同一个体态语在不同的文化中指代不同的意义。熟知不同文化下的体态语文化内涵有利于人们之间进行更好的交流。针对此，本文研究了中英体态语的交际功能及其文化异同。论文首先指出了文化与语言的关系，接着分析了中英体态语的差异及原因，在此基础上笔者阐述了体态语在日常交际中的重要性并提出了几点使用的策略以提高人们跨文化交流的能力。key words: body language, communication, culture关键

9、词：体态语，交际，文化contentsacknowledgements abstract introduction 11 culture and language 21.1 definition of culture 21.2 relationship between culture and language 22 differences of body language in chinese and english cultures and the causes 32.1 differences of body language in chinese and english cultures

10、42.1.1 posture 42.1.2 gesture 52.1.3 touch 72.1.4 facial expressions 82.2 reasons for the differences 102.2.1 different society 102.2.2 different personal values 112.2.3 different customs 123 importance of body languages and some useful strategies 133.1 importance of body language in cross-cultural

11、communication133.2 useful strategies in cross-cultural communication 143.2.1 learning more the most important 143.2.2 tolerance and accommodation 153.2.3 avoidance and suspension 154 conclusion 16bibliography 18introductionpeople always reflect language firstly when they communicate, and they realiz

12、e language is a means of communication. besides the important language tool, people also use other means to express their thoughts, feelings and transmission of information. the communicative activities that does not use the language named non-verbal communication, including eye contact, gestures, p

13、osture, smiling, facial expressions, clothing dress, silence, touch, the distance between the speakers, the volume of speech, the concept of time, the application of space, and so on. the non-language and language are different, it has no fixed regulation and rule, neither has no a set of obvious si

14、gn. it can be continuous being in progress, some nonverbal social intercourse means are congenital, and some are to exercise the day after tomorrow. the field is the same with language, and culture contains important domination function. the same body language may have completely different meaning i

15、n different culture.an investigation into the functions of factors of verbal and non-verbal communication shows: 30% information is transferred by language; the other 70% are by non-verbal patterns. other study indicates: only 7% emotions in peoples communication are passed by language. the other 93

16、% are by non-verbal patterns. (samevar, 2000:19) no matter whether these statistics are accurate, but at least we can see that the importance of non-verbal communication. silence is not to say that this person said nothing, it has its meaning. such as facial expressions, gestures, posture, and so on

17、, express the more potential meaning.body language plays an important role in non-verbal communication. as david abercrombie said: “we can speak in vocal organs, but we can use non-verbal gesture to communicate.”(joseph, 2008:79) body language, which is a part of language, also has a close relation

18、with the culture. the same body language in two cultures has different meaning, so studying the culture and difference of body language in cross-culture communication is very important.1 culture and language 1.1 definition of culture british anthropologist edward taylor for the first time to give cu

19、lture a definition in 1871 in his representative work primitive culture（gu zhixin，2002:105）. edward states that culture contains knowledge, beliefs, art, morality, laws and customs. it shows that culture is a complicated system and it has variety parts. therefore, we can reach the definition of cult

20、ure like this: culture is the all and the one which consist by social behavior, art, beliefs, customs transmission through society conduct and all other products of human work and thinking.language is a part of culture. it is also the carrier of culture and roots in culture. the appearance of langua

21、ge keeps the same step with the creation of the human society. it is a direct way to manifest thinking. from the language, you could see the characteristics of a nation. you could see not only the nations historical and cultural backgrounds but also the nations historical and cultural backgrounds. n

22、o matter the culture or the language, they are both diverse and varied. because the formation of the culture the language have been influenced by various kind of factors, such as the geographical conditions, the histories, the religions and so on. in the process of the development of the culture, la

23、nguage reflects the characteristics of the culture in the countries, the language and culture have deep relation. 1.2 relationship between culture and language language is a means of expressing cultural customs, as a part of culture, and plays an important role in culture. it records the history of

24、human culture and reflects the achievements of social civilization. it is also the tool to communicate, propagate, extend and develop culture. on one hand, the language could not exist independently separating from its related culture. in some sociologists minds, the language is the cornerstone of c

25、ultureno language, no culture. chinese famous sociologist luo changpei (zhang zhiying，2000:92) states that language is the perfection of national culture. he states that the nations historical culture will be propagated by language and its future culture will also be extended by the language. on the

26、 other hand, language is affected by culture and reflected the culture. language is based on the cultural and historical aspects. “the development of the aesthetic language is influenced by the nations way of thinking, values, concepts, habits and behavior. the formation of a national culture, devel

27、opment and absorption ought to pass the language to achieve”. language and culture influence each other; we should try to understand language and culture and to learn them. language not only impresses on the nations historical and cultural background, but also expresses their attitudes toward life a

28、nd their ways of thinking. language and culture are closely related to interact each other and they reflect peoples thoughts. every culture is unique, so the language will different from one to another for its different cultural background. in order to understand the language features, one must unde

29、rstand its unique cultural background. cultures differ from one another, that each culture is unique. as cultures are diverse, so languages are diverse. it is only natural then that with difference in cultures and differences in languages, difficulties often arise in communicating between cultures a

30、nd across cultures. the culture pushes the development of advertising language. conversely, the language of advertising propagandizes its culture. no matter the chinese advertising language or the american advertising language, they both have their unique language forms which contain the beautiful s

31、cenery of language and culture. the advertisement fully represents the charm of the language of instruction. at the same time, in the language, we could experience the infinitude delight from the chinese and american social and cultural knowledge. “the advertising languages both in chinese and ameri

32、can deepen our understanding of foreign countries, and bring to the world of cross-cultural exchanges.” (zhang ying, 2007)2 differences of body language in chinese and english cultures and the causes 2.1 differences of body language in chinese and english cultures2.1.1 posturesome experts have sugge

33、sted that people can be send out to 700,000 different physical signals only “variety” as a metaphor has become feeble. so we can explain some behavior codes and cultural meaning from the transfer of information in the interpretation of common posture. when people sit cross-arms and legs, their hands

34、 covered in the mouth or chin is a common posture, known as the “pondering deeply over posture”. westerner thinks that the signal that it sends out is “be away from distant point”, this posture as eccentric, stereotypes, lacking of patience performance. chinese does not have so intense reaction to t

35、his posture, sometimes look upon it as one kind of habit action, also thinks that person acted this action is to demonstrate his or her high authority and lofty, that make people is too respectful to be away from him or her.western postures are more causal than chinese speakers. it is also quite com

36、mon for an american to sit in a very relaxed manner. for example, in china, we usually see an american teacher of english sitting on a desk with their feet on another desk. when sitting in an armchair, an american often places one foot on the knee of the other leg. however, in our eyes, these postur

37、es always show the arrogance of the people. for instance, it is an aggressive posture that a young man in jeans standing with two feet apart and two hands placed on hips. however, english speakers always do this. take the walking as an example, english speakers, especially the americans, make big st

38、rides, while the asian normally walk in small strides. in american eyes, squatting in public area is not appropriate. therefore, they always sit on the grass or the carpet. their posture is also more restricted and less relaxed than these differences are related to issues such as status, gender, and

39、 so on. posture and position of high and low have certain contact. generally speaking, the person of high status is more causally than the person of low status. a research expresses that the doctor can sit comparatively casually in labor union meeting in american hospital, can leap to jump the nurse

40、s side in the table and lean against table to talk. however the nurse and the service people must pay attention to self habit properly. in china, the position also has an obvious performance in peoples posture. the low people of position shows the appearance comparatively to be more cautious, stand

41、straightly and fore rake his body slightly, express the respect to others. posture also has close relation with gender. in a research which westerners have done indicate that we can easily distinguish that a male or a female from the posture one makes. a female always put her upper arm closely on he

42、r body when she is walking, while the male upper arms swing at the range between 5-10 degrees. in the social intercourse situation, the male stands more relax than the female. male always stretch one of his feet out of his body and make his body backward slightly. but the female feel like facing oth

43、ers directly. when sitting the female always put two knees close up and put them on one side slightly. it does not allow rising cross-legged, even lifting up ones feet to the higher place is forbidden.posture and stance play an important role in the african american co-culture. this is most evidence

44、 in the walk employed by many young african americans. according to hecht, collier and rube, “the general form of the walk is slow and causal with his elevated head ad tipped to one side, one arm swinging and the other held limply.” the walk, says the san diego union-tribune, “shows the dominant cul

45、ture that you are strong and proud, despite your status in american society.”(jiang yangfen, 2000:116)2.1.2 gesturethe information of eyes delivering is delicate but shaking hands is simple and direct in the mankinds social communication activities. according to some expert research the handshake is

46、 a kind of custom that “the stone age” caveman leaves. when the strangers meet, if they dont have hostility, they will drop there weapons to let the others touch his hand. in the process of human being evolution, these gestures develop step by step to become handshaking. the open of the palm express

47、es the power of influence to the others; the touch of palm expresses two combined into one. today, in many countries handshaking has become a common custom to show friendliness. but handshaking has different form in different countries. when chinese wants to shake others hand, they usually nodded fi

48、rst, then say “hello” and shake others hands up and down at the same time. usually they make there body upper slightly to express their warm and respect. when the old friends meet again, chinese would like to shake hands with two of ones hands to express their happy and excited. in western country,

49、shaking hands between men is powerful which may originate from the indian wrestle contest, and they straighten their body to demonstrate gentle. american seldom put into use shaking both hands in the daily life. this is probably “a light reason of human feelings.” only the politicians will use their

50、 right hands to hold the others right hands in an election campaign, and then put his left hand on the shaking hands to make the embracer feel his genuineness and faithfulness, so thats called “statesmans shaking hands”. in western country, between male and female, if the female dont reach out her h

51、and first, male cannot hold her hand. but the chinese apparently didnt have so much taboo. it is inurbane if one reaches out his or her left hand to shake hand with others. that is almost the same meaning in western country and in china.gesture has different expression in different countries. differ

52、ent culture background has been given different gesture communicative functions. the chinese sticks out a thumb to mean “good”, stretching out the little finger means “bad”. this reflected a kind of culture that “respectful and humble” and “respect for seniority”. the americans stick their thumbs up

53、 to show “i want to take the car”; make their thumbs down to express “bad”; make the finger round and round beside the temple, the chinese mean “thinking about something”, but the westerners mean “you are out of mind! crazy!” when one calls someone to come here, the chinese used to put their palm do

54、wn, make the fingers up and down, but the americans make their palm up, make the finger go front and rear. the function that chinese call someone here is the similar as the americans call someone go away.2.1.3 touchcontact has divided “touch” into five types: functional, social, friendly, love and l

55、ust. different cultures have different regulations on the object, scope, occasion and form of touching. if people improperly deal with touch, embarrassment and unpleasant consequences will appear. the different nations with different cultures constitute different space between people. people have di

56、scovered that the frequency of the human body contacts of some races is high, while that of other races is quite low, therefore culture is divided into high-contact culture and low-contact culture.westerners are sensitive to physical contacts. generally they avoid making physical contacts. for a long time, it is a taboo that they are touched with a strangers body on a crowded bus or subway. the oriental people can tolerate body contacts with strangers, but it is impossible for western