1英语专业跨文化交际课程论文A Study of Social Pragmatic Failures in Cross-cultural CommunicationAbstract: Pragmatic failure is one of the main sources that give rise to cross-cultural communication breakdowns. Due to the different interpretations of politeness between Chinese and English cultures, pragmatic failures often exist in cross-cultural communications, resulting in communication breakdowns. This paper focuses on a study of politeness in its manifestations in Chinese and English cultures. It provides basic theories of politeness, cross-cultural communication and cross-cultural pragmatic failure, and points out the differences in interpretation of politeness between Chinese and English cultures, with the purpose of exploring the resources of those differences, so as to avoid pragmatic failures of politeness and effect successful cross-cultural communications. In brief, the findings of this paper support the view that pragmatic failures do exist in greeting, accepting gifts, table manner and many other aspects of daily communication because of peoples different interpretations of politeness between Chinese and English cultures. Therefore, it is of great necessity to understand cultural differences, so as to avoid misunderstandings and miscommunications. Key Word: politeness; cross-cultural pragmatic failure; cultural differences摘要：语用失误是造成跨文化交际障碍的主要原因之一。由于中西方对于礼貌这一概念的理解不同，在日常的跨文化交际中，语用失误时有发生，进而影响了交际效果。本文阐述了礼貌、跨文化交际、跨文化交际语用失误等基本概念，列举中英不同文化背景下，人们对礼貌这一概念的不同解读，并进一步探索了这些差异的根源，以期能使人们在跨文化交际中尽量避免礼貌语用失误，顺利实现有效的跨文化交际。总的来说，本文的研究证实了在中西方的日常交际中，由于对礼貌解读的不同，双方在会晤、接受礼物、餐桌礼仪等诸多方面存在语用失误现象，因此，人们有必要了解认识文化间的差异，有效地避免跨文化交际中的误解或障碍。关键词：礼貌；跨文化交际语用失误；文化差异1. IntroductionRecently, there is a wave of globalization due to factors including mass access to internet, globalization of industry, and expansion of educational exchanges and so on. New technologies, growth of the worlds population, and shift in the global economic area have all contributed to the increase in cross-cultural communication. Therefore, cross-cultural communication has become indispensable today. Language used by human beings is the most basic tool for communication, which plays a crucial role in the process of human historical development. We use words to persuade, to exchange ideas, to express views, to seek information, and to express feelings. We made cultural choices when we are using human language to communicate with other people. Culture shapes our ideas and plays a crucial role on influencing our way of using language. At the same time, language can also be considered as a window to the culture. They are closely connected with each other and can never be separated. Therefore, we should not only learn linguistic skills well but also know much knowledge about foreign cultures if we want to conquer a foreign language and become an effective communicator. But the fact is that many people didnt pay much attention to the cultural backgrounds and used words to communicate with others in an inappropriate way and inappropriate occasion. In this way, the social pragmatic failures often occur during the cross-cultural communication.Because of the fierce conflicts between the popularity of cross-cultural communication and the frequently happening communication barriers, the factors affecting communication are drawing much more attention from the researchers. In the past two decades, there has been an increasing interest in the study of pragmatic failures in cross-cultural communication. Cross-cultural social pragmatic failures have been an important area of pragmatics and cross-cultural communication studies. The social pragmatic failures are mainly caused by cultural differences and lack of awareness about this issue. Hence, we have to figure out some solutions to deal with it, such as strengthen cultural awareness, avoid negative stereotype and cultivate cross-cultural communication competence. Only in this way can we achieve a satisfied result from the intercultural communication2. Theoretical BackgroundsIn order to have a comprehensive understanding of social pragmatic failures during the inter-cultural communication, wed better learn some background information about culture. The knowledge about definition of culture, cross-cultural communication, and the social pragmatic failures and the relationship between language and culture are ought to be familiar to us.2.1 Definition of CultureThe word “culture” is a large and evasive concept, very complex and difficult to define. There are hundreds of definitions for culture. Here I present only two concepts which I favor most. The one is “A culture is a collection of beliefs, habits, living patterns, and behaviors which are held more or less in common by people who occupy particular geographic areas.” (D.Brown, 40) The other is explained in a more detailed way: “culture is mens medium; there is not one aspect of human life that is not touched and altered by culture. This means personal