CMN 120 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Social Distance, Politeness Theory, Implicature
Document Summary
Language is both digital and analogic: digital code. Arbitrary elements (the language we use is mostly arbitrary, no reason why a cat has to be called a cat, those words don"t truly represent what that animal is) Rules exist for combining these elements (grammar rules) It"s a thing-like (closer relationship between a word and what it represents, bomb really does sound like a bomb, scream sounds like a scream) Violation of maxims: leads to implicature (inference of meaning from what you said) Problems with maxim: too broad (will almost always violate some in one way or another, do not handle all aspects of language (we like to use metaphors, similes, hyperboles, which all violate maxims) Shows us how we can be an effective communicator by being polite. Politeness/language strategies for requests: most polite (if face threat is high) Off record strategy (read between the lines, hinting at it, useful because if they call us out on it we can deny)
