英语国家不同问候方式研究论文

An American studying in China had an appointment at noon. As he was getting on his bicycle a Chinese friend passed by. "Have you eaten yet？”The young Chinese asked. This, of course, is a common Chinese greeting around meal time and the American merely nodded with a smile, waved goodbye and went off. He realized that his friend’s remark was nothing more than a Chinese way of saying hello or Hi. If the greeting had been put literally into English "Have you eaten yet?" Or “Have you had your lunch? " It would have sounded rather unusual. To Americans, this greeting might mean this: "I haven't either. Come on, let’s go together and get something to eat." or "If you haven’t, I was just going to invite you to my place." In other words, it could indicate an invitation to a meal. Actually , another foreign student who had not been long in China once complained in such Chinese greetings: why you always ask me about eating meals, but I can pay for it by myself. To his way of thinking, people were concerned that he was not getting his meals properly because of lack of money. Clearly, he was offended. There is a similar Chinese greeting, such as ＂where are you going＂＂where have you been？＂ The natural reaction of most English-speaking people to this greeting would most likely be "It’s none of your business!" Fortunately, not all greetings sound strange or arouse displeasure. Many are similar, some are merely different. While greetings in many languages often indicate the time of day, there may be inconsistencies within a language. English has Good morning, Good afternoon and Good evening but not Good noon. And Good night is not a greeting at all, but an expression of farewell.