Pragmatics In Business and Professional Settings

EPC 541

Brown and Levinson Politeness Theory

Prepared by:Salwa Binti OthmanNurul Nadiah Dewi Binti Faizul Ganapathy

Prepared for : Dr. Chai Academy of Language Studies

Institute of Technology MARA (UiTM, Shah Alam)

Definitions of Politeness

Natural attribute of ‘good’ character

Ability to please others through one’s external actions

Ideal union between the character of an individual and his external actions

(Watts, 2003)

Definitions of Politeness

Forms of behavior that establish and maintain comity to engage in interaction in an atmosphere of relative harmony

(Leech, 1983)

Politeness in every situation?

Brown and Levinson TheoryThis theory holds that the speakers considering the

performance of a speech act will generally choose more polite strategies in proportion to the seriousness of the act.

There are four different levels of polite strategies that have the potential to gain the goal. The list of sub-strategies that go with the four super strategies are presented below:

Bald On-Record StrategyPositive Politeness StrategyNegative Politeness StrategyOff-record Strategy

Bald On-Record Strategy

This strategy is a direct way of saying things, without any minimization to the imposition, in a direct, clear, unambiguous and concise way.

e.g.imperative form without any redress:

‘‘Wash your hands’’ – Command“Help!” – An emergency“Give me those” – Task oriented“Put your jacket away please” –

Request“Turn your lights on! (while driving)”

– Alerting

Positive Politeness Strategy

This strategy is directed to the addressee’s positive face, her/his perennial desire that her/his wants – or the actions, acquisitions, values resulting from them – should be thought of as desirable.

Positive Politeness StrategyExamples:

“Wash your hands, honey” - use in-group identity marker

“You must be hungry, it’s a long time since breakfast. How about some lunch?” – Attend to the hearer.

“A: What is she, small?B: Yes, yes, she’s small, smallish, umm, not really small but certainly not very big.” – avoid disagreement

“So when are you coming to see us?” – assume agreement

“I think you are really good at singing – be optimistic

List of politeness strategies by B&L

Positive politeness

Strategy 1: Notice, attend to H (his interests, wants, needs,

goods)Strategy 2: Exaggerate (interest, approval, sympathy with H)Strategy 3: Intensify interest to HStrategy 4: Use in-group identity markersStrategy 5: Seek agreementStrategy 6: Avoid disagreementStrategy 7: Presuppose/raise/assert common ground

List of politeness strategies by B&L

Strategy 8: JokeStrategy 9: Assert or presuppose S's knowledge of and concern

for H's wantsStrategy 10: Offer, promiseStrategy 11: Be optimisticStrategy 12: Include both S and H in the activityStrategy 13: Give (or ask for) reasonsStrategy 14: Assume or assert reciprocityStrategy 15: Give gifts to H (goods, sympathy, understanding,

cooperation)

List of politeness strategies by B&L

Negative Politeness

Negative politeness attends to a person's negative face needs and includes indirectness and apologies. It expresses respect and consideration.

List of Negative Politeness

Strategy 1: Be conventionally indirectStrategy 2: Question, hedgeStrategy 3: Be pessimisticStrategy 4: Minimize the impositionStrategy 5: Give deferenceStrategy 6: ApologizeStrategy 7: Impersonalize S and HStrategy 8: State the FTA as a general ruleStrategy 9: NominalizeStrategy 10: Go on record as incurring a debt, or as not indebting H

Negative PolitenessExamples:

Be pessimistic – “You don’t happen to have an eyebrow tint. Do you?”Apologize – “You must forgive me but…”Minimize the imposition – “ I just want to ask you if I could use your computer for a little while.”State the FTA as a general rule – “Plagiarism is forbidden.”

Give deference – “Would you mind if I respectfully request you to stop picking your nose, Sir?”

Off – Record Strategy

This strategy is the indirect strategy. It uses indirect language and removes the speaker from the potential to being imposing.

e.g. off-record strategies, which consist of all types of hints,

metaphors, tautologies, etc.

Example:

`Gardening makes your hands dirty` - Give hints‘Perhaps someone should have been more responsible’ – Be vague‘Yeah! He’s a real Einstein’ – Be sarcastic‘I think we need some time off in our relationship’ – Be ambigous‘Police officers in our country are a bunch of money-sucking losers’ – Over-generalize

Off –Record utterances can be constructed in a number of ways:

Strategy 1:Giving hintsStrategy 2: Giving association cluesStrategy 3: PresuppositionStrategy 4: UnderstatingStrategy 5: OverstatingStrategy 6: Using tautologiesStrategy 7: Using contradictionsStrategy 8: Being ironic

Strategy 9: Using metaphorsStrategy 10: Using rhetorical questionsStrategy 11: Being ambiguousStrategy 12: Being vagueStrategy 13: Over-generalizationStrategy 14: Displacing HStrategy 15: Being incomplete, using ellipsis