Linguistic politeness in Japanese and English——Greeting and Acknowledgement

This paper focuses on comparison between expression of "greeting and" and "acknowledgments" in English and Japanese in terms of linguistic politeness. As languages can reflect cultures from various perspectives, analyzing mainly the differences between English and Japanese language of politeness could mirror the cultural differences to some extent. Based on analysis from diversified corpus, this study maintains that, as a general principle, social norm and national consciousness form the base of expressing thanks. English is simple, direct, and usually has nothing to do with status, whereas in Japanese languages are often performed according to the social position and relationship of the participants.(Xiangdong Liu1, 2014) This thesis ends with possibilities for language learners to develop intercultural understanding through the process of correspondences with people from different cultural backgrounds.