On the Pragmatic Failure of Politeness Phenomenon in Cross-cultural Communication

Politeness,as one of the pragmatic principles,is rich in cultural connotations.Although Leech's maxims of politeness are common in all cultures,people with different cultural backgrounds may behave differently in abiding by the maxims and in explaining the factors influencing this kind of abidance.Politeness is universal,however,with culture-specific.And that leads to the different criteria people hold towards etiquette.From this point,a further study of intercultural communication can come to the conclusion that culture-specific of politeness will inevitably leads to cross-culture pragmatic failure.