‘Successful linguistic communication depends on participants’ capacity for rational, purposeful... - page 5
Keywords: Sociolinguistics; talk; language; politeness theory; face; communication
By sth202 on 25/09/2008
Level: Bachelor Honours Degree (BA, BEng, BSc etc)
Page Number: 5 of 7 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
time. There are five ways of doing this, but to be basic we can either do them on the record or off. On record FTAs (Face Threatening Acts) can be done without defying Grice’s Maxims or the cooperative principle. However, FTAs which are carried out off the record must violate the Maxims in that they rely on hints, vagueness or understatements etc., meaning that the communication is no longer efficient in terms of what Grice believes (Fasold 1990, Foley 1997). Realistic actions individuals take to protect both types of face for themselves as well as others constitute politeness (Fasold 1990); politeness in linguistics is only engaged when face interests are at risk (Kasper 2005, in Kiesling and Paulston 2005: 60).
As with face, politeness tends to have an everyday meaning, as we usually consider it to be merely general manners such as saying ‘please’ and ‘thank you.’ In reality, being polite in linguistics requires being aware of the social and cultural values of a community as well as understanding the language (Holmes 2001). Politeness in language use is a significant fundamental, as we must consider others’ feelings and values (Wardhaugh 1998). It is necessary to assess one’s relationship to the person s/he is conversing with and speak appropriately. For example, an employee would have to be more formal to his or her employer and vice versa in order to remain polite. “Polite interaction is typically about preserving everyone’s face, since causing loss of face for someone else may inspire him/her to embarrass you in the future” (Fasold 1990: 164). Politeness is said to be “another level to conversational interaction besides the rules of the cooperative principle” (Lakoff, Brown and Levinson, Leech, in Fasold 1990: 159). Lakoff (1977b, in Fasold 1990: 159-164) suggests three rules of politeness; do not impose; give options; and be friendly. The former two are based on sustaining the negative face of the listener, while the latter concentrates on positive face preservation. Leech (1983, in Fasold 1990: 159, Kasper 2005, in Kiesling and Paulston 2005: 60) also proposes four politeness maxims:
• Tact maxim – minimise cost to other; maximise benefit to other
• Generosity maxim – minimise benefit to self; maximise cost to self
• Approbation maxim – minimise dispraise of other; maximise praise of other
• Modesty maxim – minimise praise of self; maximise dispraise of self
While I do not necessarily agree with these ideas, it is surely obvious how they are linked
Last 5 comments…
There have been no comments posted for this article, but you need to register if you want to be the first!