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4.2 Speech functions, politeness, and cross-cultural communication -…
4.2 Speech functions, politeness,
and cross-cultural communication
4.2.2. Politeness and address forms
What is politeness?
“…politeness involves contributing to social harmony and avoiding social conflict
A summons
is used to get someone to attend to the summoner; greetings may be used
phatically
Being polite – complicated
----- involves understanding
the language, the social and cultural values
Linguistic politeness
discourse strategies
linguistic devices
Inappropriate
linguistic choices may be considered
rude
assessing social relationships, dimensions of social distance or solidarity, and relative power or status in a specific social context.
understand the social values
2 different types of politeness
Positive politeness
solidarity or rapport oriented
emphasizes shared attitudes and values.
Negative politeness
based on power relations
Expressing oneself appropriately in terms of social distance and respecting status differences.
SLIDE14
Getting the linguistic expression of social distance “right” as far as your addressee is concerned.
British - mutual TLN (Mrs Landy, Mr Duncan) the norm between upper working- class neighbors
In North America, the first names (FN) to people you work with
In earlier centuries, Status was the major consideration
used TLN (or an appropriate kin- term) upwards to superiors
FN downwards to subordinates,
Equals used mutual TLN with people they did not know well, mutual FN to friends.
Today, more complicated
a conflict of norms in two situations
(1) high status with high solidarity
(2) low status with low solidarity
solidarity dimension tends to win out
type of relationship involved
in Britain- Doctors and patients similarly tend to use mutual TLN ( put the emphasis on the social distance dimension even long-standing )
Transactional relationships
are usually one-dimensional
Age
Adults use FN to children
Young people to receive FN in any context; often be expected to use TLN back
the use of familiarizers
such as mate, dude, babe, bro, sis, cuz, love, etc.
depend on the context of a conversation
norms of address usage have changed over time ->
more emphasis
on
solidarity
and
less on status
.
However, in many
Asian societies
: remains on status differences; recognizes relative status explicitly - constructs both the speaker’s and the addressee’s identities
that interaction is NOT static: what is considered polite or impolite may emerge, change and develop throughout an interaction…
people unintentionally offend others as - different norms and expectations about how to express friendliness or respect.
4.2.3. Linguistic politeness in different culture
cross- cultural
communication
misunderstanding relates to different assumptions deriving from different “normal” environments
Need to learn what the words mean in the cultural contexts
involves some understanding of the cultural and social norms
Sociolinguistic norms
for polite acceptance and refusal
Western culture – plausible, reasonably and specific excuse
In some cultures - general vague formulas
in Britain and New Zealand - more specific reason
solidarity is the dominant privacy is reduced and vagueness about one’s activities is seen as evasive.
How do you get enough to eat
parts of India and Taiwan, parts of the Arabic-speaking world - impolite to accept food when it is first offered. Only on the third offer is it appropriate to accept
Plying someone with food is - positively polite behavior, sharp economic differences culture
In many countries, being forced to repeatedly refuse offers of food -
4.2.3.1 Greetings
Greeting
an affective function of establishing non- threatening contact and rapport
culture specific.
The Māori ritual of encounter- complex procedure.
rules governing which particular elements occur on any particular occasion
The more formal and important the occasion, the more speeches there are, and the longer they are
4.2.1. The functions of speech
GREETINGS:
may or may not be followed by conversation
may also function as a summons;
mainly social function: establishes the proper level of interaction
Affective and referential
functions of speech: there are several categories relating to these functions
Expressive - utterances express the speaker’s feelings
Directive - utterances attempt to get someone to do something
Referential - utterances provide information.
Metalinguistic - utterances comment on language itself
Poetic - utterances focus on aesthetic features of language
Phatic - utterances construct solidarity, rapport and empathy with others
any utterance may in fact express more than one function
any function may be served by a stretch of discourse - doesn’t exactly coincide with an utterance.
fundamental functions of language
------the speaker (expressive)
------the addressee (directive
------the message (referential)
The phatic function
------an affective or social message
Other speech function categories have been identified
------“tell me why” function- utterances seemed to be aimed at learning more about the world.
------commissive function - promises and threats
------performatives or declarations function - marriage vows, bets and declarations of war
4.2.1.1. Directives
Vary in strength
suggesting or inviting them to do
ordering or commanding
expressed in imperative form.
Polite attempts - use interrogatives or declaratives
Intonation, tone of voice and context
The directive function - getting people to do things.
Social factors affect a speaker’s choice of the appropriate form of directive
social distance
relative status and roles
gender and age
formality of the context
close friends or intimates - more imperatives
superiors use imperatives to subordinates
clear- cut rules (e.g., for classroom) - use minimally explicit forms and be confident they will be interpreted accurately
Formality and status - choice contributes to constructing dimensions of interaction.
Expressing directives less directly and more politely
------ Express the required action - a subordinate clause of the declarative sentence (E.g: I now call on the Vice-Chancellor to read the citation for our distinguished guest)
------ directives upwards - indirect forms, hints
Relative influenced by age and size.
Routineness or reasonableness of the task
The addressee’s gender - girls and women tend to favor more polite and less direct forms of directives than males
male doctors typically used imperatives (e.g. eat more fruit), while female doctors tended to use less direct forms (e.g. maybe you could try fresh fruit for dessert).
women use less direct forms of directive - receive less direct forms.
Relative power or status and social distance
we - pronouns can be used to balance solidarity with power.
Exception a community of lower- class male migrant agricultural workers on the eastern coast of the USA
all the directives took the form of
imperatives
the insecure and unpleasant work conditions -
antagonism
evident in many of their social interactions
Relations workers - bosses - mistrust and tension -
Unhappy
social relationships
a threat
can sometimes be more effective
considerations of politeness - using terms of address for exemplification.
4.2.1.2. Identity construction: a more abstract function of interaction
Identity construction
influenced by
the social setting
one’s social role
particular goals and responses to others
a specific situation
macro- level social categories
constructed by
linguistic features
interactional and local identity categories
When online
may construct rather
different identities