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Politeness

Politeness. Starter – How might Politeness be connected to English Language and Literature?. Learning Objective – to explore Brown and Levinson’s politeness theory. We can think of politeness in general terms. In the study of linguistic politeness, the most relevant concept is ‘face’.

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Politeness

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  1. Politeness Starter – How might Politeness be connected to English Language and Literature? Learning Objective – to explore Brown and Levinson’s politeness theory.

  2. We can think of politeness in general terms. In the study of linguistic politeness, the most relevant concept is ‘face’. Your ‘face’ in pragmatics, is your public self image. This is the emotional and social sense of self that everyone has and expects everyone else to recognise. Politeness can be defined as showing awareness of and consideration for another person’s face.

  3. If you say something that represents a threat to another person’s self-image, this is called a face-threatening act. For example: If you use a direct speech act to get someone to do something ‘give me that paper’ – you are behaving as if you have more social power than the other person. If you don’t actually have the social power (you’re not a police officer/prison warden) … then you are performing a face threatening act. An indirect speech act in the form associated with a question: ‘can you pass me that paper please?’ removes the assumed social power. This makes your request less threatening to the other person’s face.

  4. Negative and Positive Face We both have a ‘negative face’ and a ‘positive face’. What might these be? Negative Face – is the need to be independent and free from imposition. How might you achieve this if you’re asking a question? A face-saving act that emphasises a person’s negative fact will show concern about imposition: ‘I’m sorry to bother you …’ ‘I know you’re busy but …’

  5. Now we know negative face … what is positive face? Positive Face is the need to be connected, to belong, to be a member of the group. How might you achieve this? A face-saving act that emphasises a person’s positive face will show solidarity and draw attention to a common goal: ‘Let’s do this together …’

  6. Each of Brown and Levinson’s politeness strategies has its opposite impoliteness strategy. Positive Impoliteness – Used to damage positive face wants: -) Ignore/snub the other -) Deny any common ground with other participants -) Be disinterested/unconcerned/unsympathetic -) Select a sensitive topic -) Use obscure/secretive language -) Seek disagreement -) Use taboo words -) Call the other names Task: Working with a partner, can you identify any examples of these in what we have read so far. Think about: Who is using them and WHY? What effect are they trying to create on the audience?

  7. Negative Impoliteness – Used to damage negative face wants: -) Frighten -) Scorn -) Condescend -) Ridicule -) Invade the other’s space literally or metaphorically. Task: Working with a partner, can you identify any examples of these in what we have read so far. Think about: Who is using them and WHY? What effect are they trying to create on the audience?

  8. From last lesson … what have we learnt about: Putnam

  9. Proctor

  10. Task: Working with a partner, complete a similar activity on what we learn about Reverend Hale. Do we learn any more information about Salem society too? Reverend Hale

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