Politeness And Interaction, By Dr.shadia.pptx

A linguistic interaction is necessarily a social interaction.

POLITENESS AND INTERACTION By: Dr. Shadia Y. Banjar

5/17/2009

http://www.kau.edu.sa/SBANJAR http://wwwdrshadiabanjar.blogspot.com

Dr. Shadia Yousef Banjar

1


A linguistic interaction is necessarily a social interaction.

5/17/2009

Dr. Shadia Yousef Banjar

2


In

order to make sense of what is said in an interaction, we have to look at various factors which relate to social distance and closeness.
Some of these factors are established prior to an interaction and thus are largely external factors.
They typically involve the relative status of the participants, based on social values such as age and power.
We take part in a wide range of interactions (mostly with strangers) where the social distance determined by external factors is dominant. 5/17/2009

Dr. Shadia Yousef Banjar

3


Internal factors such as amount of imposition

or degree of friendliness can result in the initial social distance changing and being marked as less, or more, during the course of the interaction.
They are typically more relevant to participants whose social relationships are actually in the process of being worked out within the interaction.
Both external and internal factors have an influence not only on what we say, but also on how we are interpreted. 5/17/2009

Dr. Shadia Yousef Banjar

4

The interpretation of what is uttered usually goes beyond what was intended to be expressed, and includes evaluations in terms of politeness. Therefore, one can clearly observe that much more is communicated than is said during a sociolinguistic interaction (Yule, 1996).

5/17/2009

Dr. Shadia Yousef Banjar

5

POLITENESS Brown and Levinson (1978) suggest that a need to be polite is common to all cultures.

5/17/2009

Dr. Shadia Yousef Banjar

6

: being polite showing good manners and consideration for other people (e.g. open the door for a lady, give your seat to an elderly person in public transport). Linguistic politeness: the way people choose to speak and how the hearers react to their speech.

5/17/2009

Dr. Shadia Yousef Banjar

7

THE CONCEPT OF FACE

•Brown and Levinson (1978) have concluded that, in order to enter into social relationships, all people must acknowledge the face of other people. As a technical term, face means the public self-image of a person. It refers to that emotional and social sense of self that every one has and expects everyone else to recognize.

•

5/17/2009

Dr. Shadia Yousef Banjar

8

POLITENESS POLITENESS, in an interaction, can be defined as the means employed to show awareness of another person’s face. In this sense, POLITENESS can be accomplished in situations of social distance or closeness.

5/17/2009

Dr. Shadia Yousef Banjar

9


Showing awareness for another person’s face when that other seems socially distance is often described in terms of respect or deference.
Showing the equivalent awareness when the other is socially close is often described in terms of friendliness, camaraderie, or solidarity.

5/17/2009

Dr. Shadia Yousef Banjar

10

Hey, Bucky, got a minute?

FRIENDLINESS

PROFESSOR

5/17/2009

Dr. Shadia Yousef Banjar

11

RESPECT

PROFESSOR

5/17/2009

STUDENT

Dr. Shadia Yousef Banjar

12

FACE WANTS

•People generally behave as if their expectations concerning their public self-image, or their face wants, will be respected. If a speaker says something that represents a threat to another individual’s expectations regarding self-image, it is described as a face threatening act. The speaker can say something to lessen the possible threat. This is called a face saving act.

• •

5/17/2009

Dr. Shadia Yousef Banjar

13

Perhaps you could just ask him if he is going to stop soon because it’s getting a bit late and people need to get to sleep.

FACE SAVING ACT

I’m going to tell him to stop that awful noise right now!

FACE THREATENING ACT 5/17/2009

Dr. Shadia Yousef Banjar

14

CONCEPT OF “FACE”: • Politeness – “showing awareness of another person’s face” (Yule, 1996: 134). • Face-threatening act – “a threat to another person’s self - image” (Yule, 1996:134). • Face-saving act – “saying something that lessens the possible threat to another’s face”.

5/17/2009

Dr. Shadia Yousef Banjar

15

FACE THREATENING ACT • Give me that!

• A direct speech act can give the impression that you have a social power over the other person.

FACE SAVING ACT • Can you give me that? • An indirect speech act in the form of a question removes the assumption of power. 5/17/2009

Dr. Shadia Yousef Banjar

16

People have two faces:


Negative face: the need to

be independent, to have freedom of action, and not to be imposed on by others. Positive face: is the need to be accepted, even liked, by others, to be treated as a member of the same group, and to know that his or her wants are shared by others.




5/17/2009

Dr. Shadia Yousef Banjar

17

Negative and Positive Face

Negative Face The need to be independent and free. • I’m sorry to bother you. • I know you’re busy. • Appeal to negative face 5/17/2009

Positive Face The need to be connected and a member of the group. • Let’s do it together. • You and I have the same problems. • Appeal to positive face. Dr. Shadia Yousef Banjar

18


someone’s face can be challenged in two ways:
either by telling him what to do, which implies the speaker has power over him, or
by showing you disagree with or do not appreciate his values and beliefs.
If you challenge someone’s face, they will challenge you back!
We use politeness with other people so that they will not attack us.
We have to make a choice and provide a balance between getting a message across directly, which might challenge someone, and Getting a message across indirectly, which is more polite but sometimes means the message itself is lost.




5/17/2009

Dr. Shadia Yousef Banjar

19

People can choose between a variety of expressions which show varying degrees of politeness and face-saving (Francesca Pridham,2001:53): 1. The straight command, ‘Shut the door’, does not respect a person’s right to have control over their own body. Direct commands like this are only issued by a superior to an inferior. Giving straight commands like this can, therefore, be rude or patronizing. 2.To avoid this rudeness, politeness factors have been introduced into the language, for example: • Please, in ‘Shut the door please’. •Hedges, such as, ‘If it isn’t too much trouble . . .’. •Commands hidden as questions, e.g. ‘Could you pass the salt please?’ • Using provisional language to imply negotiation is possible, e.g. ‘if’, ‘would’ and ‘can’. The number of hedges or politeness factors in a request or command is in proportion to the amount that the speaker feels she or he is imposing on the listener. ‘If it wouldn’t be too much trouble, I mean if you don’t mind, I’d be grateful if you’d type this letter’, therefore, seems ridiculous because there are too many politeness factors used in relation to the difficulty of the task. 3. Sometimes, to save face, the speaker makes the request as impersonal and indirect as possible, e.g. ‘if this letter was typed, I’d be very grateful’ 5/17/2009

Dr. Shadia Yousef Banjar

20

Francesca Pridham( 2001:54) Direct message – threatens face

Politeness techniques

What was said 1. ‘Shut the door’

1.

2. ‘Please shut the door’ 2.

3. ‘Could you shut the window please?’

3.

4. ‘Shall we shut the window please?’

4.

Indirect message – 5. ‘It’s cold here’ no threat to face

5/17/2009

5.

How polite is it? Message clear – challenge to face negative face could cause offence. ‘Please’ indicates awareness of politeness but still could cause a reaction as quite blunt. Command hidden as question – implies listener has some choice! This saves face. Use of personal pronoun ‘we’ implies we’re in the same in-group, have the same values and are doing the task together. This protects someone’s positive face. No challenge here! You can always deny wanting anyone to do anything. Message unclear. Response might easily be ‘Is it?’ or ‘Why don’t you shut the window then?’

Dr. Shadia Yousef Banjar

21

A speaker can also respect a listener’s value system and appreciate it by implying membership of the same ingroup as the listener. This can be done by the following means: • using the personal pronouns, ‘we’ and ‘us’, e.g. ‘let’s go swimming’; • using the same in-group vocabulary, e.g. using dialect or colloquial language when someone else does; • using psuedo-agreement which avoids saying ‘no’ or disagreeing with a speaker, e.g. ‘Would you like to come to my house?’ – ‘Well, I’d love to at another time.’ 5/17/2009

Dr. Shadia Yousef Banjar

22

SUMMARY

• Being nice to other people. • Linguistic politeness studies “face” • In pragmatics your face is your public self-image. • Politeness: is showing awareness and consideration to another person’s face. 5/17/2009

Dr. Shadia Yousef Banjar

23

Politeness Politeness refers to: • Non-intrusive behavior. • Expression of good-will or camaraderie. Politeness is also defined as the concern for someone’s “face”. Face need are the basic wants. There are two kinds of face needs: • Negative face needs: need to not be imposed upon. • Positive face needs: need to be liked and admired. Polite people avoid “face-threatening” acts, and use positive polite utterance when possible.

5/17/2009

Dr. Shadia Yousef Banjar

24

Robin Lakoff (1973) has summarised politeness in three maxims: don’t impose; give options; make your receiver feel good.






5/17/2009

Dr. Shadia Yousef Banjar

25

A Model of Politeness (Brown & Levinson, 1978)

5/17/2009

Dr. Shadia Yousef Banjar

26

5/17/2009

Dr. Shadia Yousef Banjar

27