Geoffrey Leech
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- August 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780195341386
- eISBN:
- 9780190225933
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195341386.003.0001
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Semantics and Pragmatics
This chapter and the three that follow lay the foundations, within this framework, for the study of politeness. For a start, eight characteristics of politeness are illustrated: politeness as ...
More
This chapter and the three that follow lay the foundations, within this framework, for the study of politeness. For a start, eight characteristics of politeness are illustrated: politeness as nonobligatory, graded, normative, dependent on situation, and characterized by reciprocal asymmetry, battles of politeness, transactions of value, and balance between participants. The latter part of the chapter outlines six distinctions that, it is argued, are necessary for a clear understanding of the topic: trivalent vs. bivalent politeness, pos-politeness vs. neg-politeness, pragmalinguistics vs. sociopragmatics, pragmalinguistic vs. sociopragmatic politeness, addressee politeness vs. third-person politeness, and social vs. psychological explanations of politeness. The chapter concludes that both social and psychological explanations are tenable, with the sociopsychological concept of face forming a bridge between the two.Less
This chapter and the three that follow lay the foundations, within this framework, for the study of politeness. For a start, eight characteristics of politeness are illustrated: politeness as nonobligatory, graded, normative, dependent on situation, and characterized by reciprocal asymmetry, battles of politeness, transactions of value, and balance between participants. The latter part of the chapter outlines six distinctions that, it is argued, are necessary for a clear understanding of the topic: trivalent vs. bivalent politeness, pos-politeness vs. neg-politeness, pragmalinguistics vs. sociopragmatics, pragmalinguistic vs. sociopragmatic politeness, addressee politeness vs. third-person politeness, and social vs. psychological explanations of politeness. The chapter concludes that both social and psychological explanations are tenable, with the sociopsychological concept of face forming a bridge between the two.
Geoffrey Leech
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- August 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780195341386
- eISBN:
- 9780190225933
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195341386.003.0005
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Semantics and Pragmatics
This chapter focuses on a particular type of speech event manifesting politeness: the apology. First, the nature of speech-event categories such as apology is investigated. There are rarely ...
More
This chapter focuses on a particular type of speech event manifesting politeness: the apology. First, the nature of speech-event categories such as apology is investigated. There are rarely all-or-nothing distinctions in politeness behavior; thus apologies are manifested in scales of gradience and are found in nonprototypical as well as prototypical instances. Apologies are potentially more than a simple speech act: they can involve a main or head act such as I’m sorry, and also subsidiary acts such as an admission of guilt, or an explanation of why the fault occurred. Politeness is also characteristic of respons to apologies, manifesting the neg-politeness of the Maxim of Obligation by the hearer, and thereby contrasting with the pos-polite Maxim of speaker’s Obligation that is typically found in apologies. Finally, the chapter gives attention to public apologies.Less
This chapter focuses on a particular type of speech event manifesting politeness: the apology. First, the nature of speech-event categories such as apology is investigated. There are rarely all-or-nothing distinctions in politeness behavior; thus apologies are manifested in scales of gradience and are found in nonprototypical as well as prototypical instances. Apologies are potentially more than a simple speech act: they can involve a main or head act such as I’m sorry, and also subsidiary acts such as an admission of guilt, or an explanation of why the fault occurred. Politeness is also characteristic of respons to apologies, manifesting the neg-politeness of the Maxim of Obligation by the hearer, and thereby contrasting with the pos-polite Maxim of speaker’s Obligation that is typically found in apologies. Finally, the chapter gives attention to public apologies.
