LING1901 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Ethnocentrism, Social Distance
16 May 2018
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Tuesday, 13 September 2016
LING1901 LECTURE 11
POLITENESS AND FACE
-Politeness
•Using language in a socially appropriate way
•Different languages have different styles of communication
-Levels of familiarity (friends vs strangers)
-Levels of formality (very formal to informal)
-Types of situations (professional, sport, private)
-Relative age (cf. ‘You’re so young’)
-Gender
•Politeness relates to showing deference to an addressee
-Language and human relations
•Many aspects of linguistic form depend on the speakers making some analysis of the relationships among
themselves
•Example
-Mr Smith (employer) and Bill (employee)
-Mr Smith call’s employee ‘Bill’ but Bill uses employer’s surname and title = hierarchy
-Face
•Concept of face derived from English folk perception of ‘being embarrassed or humiliated or losing face’ (Brown
& Levinson 1987)
•The desire that people have to maintain or ‘save’ their own self image in a communicative event with other
participants
-Theories of politeness
•Major approach to politeness is Brown and Levinson’s 1987 (revised) politeness theory
•Model consists of three basic notions
-Face
-Face-threatening acts
-Politeness strategies
•Analysis based on three unrelated languages: English, Tamil (Dravidian) and Tzeltal (Mayan) and claimed to
have universal applicability
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Document Summary
Politeness: using language in a socially appropriate way, different languages have different styles of communication. Levels of formality (very formal to informal) Gender: politeness relates to showing deference to an addressee. Language and human relations: many aspects of linguistic form depend on the speakers making some analysis of the relationships among themselves, example. Mr smith call"s employee bill" but bill uses employer"s surname and title = hierarchy. Face: concept of face derived from english folk perception of being embarrassed or humiliated or losing face" (brown. & levinson 1987: the desire that people have to maintain or save" their own self image in a communicative event with other participants. Theories of politeness: major approach to politeness is brown and levinson"s 1987 (revised) politeness theory, model consists of three basic notions. Politeness strategies: analysis based on three unrelated languages: english, tamil (dravidian) and tzeltal (mayan) and claimed to have universal applicability.
