Linguistic Etiquette Gabriele Kasper

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Linguistic EtiquetteGabriele Kasper

• -Kiho Baek-

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Issues on Politeness

• First-order politeness vs. Second-order
  politeness
• Cooperative Principle
• Positive face vs. Negative face
• Variables in linguistic etiquette
• Discourse context

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First-order politeness vs.Second order
politeness

• First-order politeness
• -as a folk notion
• -dos and donts
• -social norm view
• -data

• Second-order politeness
• -located within a theory of social behavior and
  language use

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First-order politeness Socially appropriate
behavior
Second-order politeness Interpersonal politeness
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Grices Cooperative Principle

• In ordinary conversation, speakers and hearers
  share a cooperative principle
• Maxims of quality, quantity, relevance, and
  manner
• A set of norms expected in conversation
• Economical and efficient
• Politeness as motivating force for maxim
  violation (Brown Levinson, 1987)

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Politeness and Face

• Face the public self-image that every member of
  society wants to claim for himself (Goffman,
  1967)
• Each member of society has negative face and
  positive face that are at risk by
  face-threatening acts.
• Face-threatening acts need to be counterbalanced
  by appropriate, redressive action, or politeness.
• Negative politeness strategies and positive
  politeness strategies.

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Positive face and Negative face

• Negative face the rights to territories, freedom
  of action and freedom from imposition wanting
  your actions not to be constrained or inhibited
  by others.
• Positive face the positive consistent self-image
  that people have and their desire to be
  appreciated and approved of by at least some
  other people.

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Positive and Negative politeness

• Example of Positive politeness
• -You must be hungry. Its a long time since
  breakfast. How about some lunch?
• Example of Negative politeness
• -If you dont mind, I
• -I just want to ask you if

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Variables in Linguistic Etiquette

• Social power
• Social hierarchies
• Age
• Gender
• Language impairment
• Social distance
• Intimates and strangers

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Discourse Context

• Institutional discourse
• Courtrooms, medical discourse, academic advising,
  and so on.
• Workplace communication
• Business negotiation, organizational interaction
• Interpersonal discourse
• Family dinner
• Discourse in different media
• Telephone conversation
• Written discourse
• Request letter, narratives

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Discussion

• Question 1
• How do you show politeness to your parents, the
  elder, boss and professor in your society?
• -Western vs. Asian.
• Question 2
• Have you ever felt offended by impolite action
  or speech from different cultural background?