POLITENESS

Question 1

LINGUISTIC POLITENESS

Answer 1

the use of expressions that are both contextually appropriate (complying with social norms) and understood as socially positive (displaying positive emotion, supporting ‘face’) by the target;
the use of communicative strategies to maintain or promote social harmony (Leech, 1983; Brown-Levinson, 1987; Lackoff, 1989).

Question 2

INDIRECT SPEECH ACTS

Answer 2

Searle (1975) cases in which an illocutionary act is performed indirectly by way of performing another
conventionally indirect SA: cases in which the first SA focuses on a condition that must be in place for the second to be successful ‘can you pass the salt?’
direct SA: ‘pass me the salt’
non-conventionally indirect SA: a hint

Question 3

INDIRECTNESS-POLITENESS: A SCALE

Answer 3

Leech, 1983: a correlation between indirectness and both politeness and impoliteness, BUT
not properly empirically tested; (in) directness can be used for other purposes; Leech’s perspective may partly reflect a British cultural perspective

Question 4

FACE-BASED MODEL

Answer 4

Brown, Levinson (1987): a pragmatic model of politeness based on
face; facework + FTA; social parameters affecting FTA; pragmatic and linguistic output strategies

Question 5

FACE

Answer 5

Goffman, 1967: the positive social value a person effectively claims for himself by he line other assume he has taken during a particular contract. Face is an image of self delineated in terms of approved social attributes.
Positive face;
Negative face;
facework: the actions made by a person to make what he is doing consistent with face
FTA, face threatening acts: any action that impinges in some degree upon a person’s face

Question 6

SOCIAL VARIABLES (FTA)

Answer 6

B&L (1987) argue that the determination of how face threatening an act is involves three sociological variable
social distancebetween participants; relative power of the hearer over the speaker; absolute ranking of the imposition involved of in the act

Question 7

SUPERSTRATEGIES

Answer 7

B&L propose 5 pragmaticsuperstrategies, each with specific linguistic output features.The more serious the FTA you need to redress is, the more ‘polite’ your superstrategy will need to be.

1) Bald On Record: performs the FTA efficiently in a direct, concise, and perspicuous manner;
2) Positive Politeness: sugar the pill (i.e. FTA) by attending to the hearer’s positive face wants
3) Negative Politeness: soften the blow (i.e. FTA) by attending to the hearer’s negative face wants
4) Off-Record: Performs the FTA in such a way that one can avoid responsibility for performing it (i.e. hint). (=convey meaning by flouting a Gricean maxim)
5) Don’t do the FTA

Question 8

APPLICATIONS OF POLITENESS

Answer 8

Improving our understanding of the functioning and management of: identities and interpersonal relations through language; institutional communication; cross-cultural communication