Politeness theory

1.4. Theoretical Framework 1.4.1. Definition of the politeness theory. Watts (2003) explains, “Politeness is not something we are born with, but something we have to learn and be socialized into” (p. 9). Each linguist defines politeness in a different way. Cobley (2010) says that politeness is a way of showing consideration and social position in language. Politeness includes words that show respect such as 'please '. He indicates, “The phenomenon has been the object of the considerable

Brown and Levinson’s politeness theory was designed to expound on the methods used by speakers who wish to mitigate face threats realised by face threatening acts toward the hearer. Two significant divisions of the theory involve the fundamental explanation of politeness and politeness strategies that also function as the core framework to the theory. The two linguists elaborately explained on the workings of ‘politeness’ as well as as how it functions in different social interactions. Complementarily

different ways to express politeness and they usually use a range of different linguistic expressions to do so, depending on the relationship with the addressee. This research will explain Browns and Levinson’s politeness theory and will recognize how universal this theory is and weather it can be applied on Japanese language taking into account the difference in cultures. Brown and Levinson’s theory of Politeness and how it applies in Arabic: Brown and Levinson`s theory is mainly based on three

The theory of politeness is based on the notion of face. From the perspective of politeness, face is categorized into two types in opinion of Goffman (1967); positive face, which expresses a desire by an individual to be amenable, liked and appreciated, and negative face, which expresses a desire to remain autonomous, not to be imposed upon and not to disobey upon others. Certain conventions, practices and rules in a language guide individuals in order to achieve a positive or negative face. Both

2.1 Politeness Theory The term politeness is defined as a verbal approach to maintain harmony between a speaker and a hearer by reducing the risk of damaged face (Brown and Levinson, 1987; Clark and Schunk, 1980; Lakoff, 1973, 1977). Therefore, politeness has been considered as one of the conflict-avoidance strategies since it builds collaborative social interaction (Eelen, 2001; Watts, 2003). For instance, when a speaker makes request to the listener, the speaker will use politeness as a strategy

Examining other authors’ categorizations of positive and negative politeness in an attempt to identify the confounding factor as well as looking into the context Brown and Levinson may have used in the formulation of their Politeness theory which produced conflicting dichotomies that might have been because of some untenable assumptions of that age. If the linguistic community were to then accept the assumption as criteria for politeness, what then should be done to clarify the dichotomies? An intercultural

1.3 Politeness Politeness is a commonsense term which refers to as showing good manners or having respect for the feelings of others (Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, 2015). The ‘social norm’ view of politeness believes that a society has its own set of arbitrary rules which determine what constitutes as good manners in any given situation. According to this view “a positive evaluation (politeness) arises when an action is in congruence with the norm, a negative evaluation (impoliteness, rudeness)

Implicature as a Device for Politeness It is important to clarify if politeness itself constitutes an implicature or not. This notion has been explained by Brown and Levinson (1987: 6, 95) who claims that politeness arises from the speaker attributing “a polite intention” to the speaker in the form of a particularized implicature. Leech (1983:80) proposes that politeness arises in the form of implicatures from utterances that are consistent with the “Principle of Politeness”. He maintains that in order

Fat Greek Wedding, I realized myself grasping onto what was going on and being able to relate certain scenes and situations to topics I had previously learned about. Interactions in My Big Fat Greek Wedding display concepts of conflict and politeness theory, which can be pointed out in a few specific scenes. During the movie, I found that these concepts that were

This theory was developed by Brown and Levinson (1978, 1987) clarifies the way how we manage our identities through our interactions. Brown and Levinson determined when , why and how interpersonal interaction is constructed though the way we talk and present ourselves .The first assumption that guides the politeness theory is that all individuals are concerned with keeping the face ( Brown and Levinson ,1978 ,1987