MODULE 2 Meaning and discourse in English

FACE,COOPERATION AND POLITENESS Week 5

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Key concepts

 Positive and negative face  Cooperation and speaker support  Cooperative principles (Grice)  Politeness  Analysing cooperation 2

Why do we need to cooperate?

because of FACE 3

The concept of “face” (Brown and Levinson)

 B and L (looking at politeness in different cultures) suggest that we must acknowledge the face of other people if we want to enter into social relationships with them.

 Talk may be a face-threatening act which may damage

negative face

and

positive face

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Positive face = wanting to be liked and approved of

 Positive face is “I want to be liked”  Disagreeing with another person threatens their positive face  If you want not to threaten positive face you should show interest and seek agreement  Thanking another person does not threaten another person’s positive face 5

Negative face

 Negative face is a SENSE of … “I do not like to be imposed on” ”don’t tell me what to do” “I want to be free”  Telling someone what to do threatens their negative face  So we have to mitigate our responses by hedging and politeness 6

A: B: Could you pass the salt please?

Could you give me £100 please?

A’s request doesn’t need mitigation B’s request is inappropriate because it is more imposing and needs more mitigation 7

“This food is delicious”

If you have cooked the meal, which is the most appropriate response?

- yes, it is I’m afraid it’s a bit overcooked I’m glad you like it Why do we respond in this way?

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Responding to compliments

 If you agree with a compliment you are boasting  If you do not agree with a compliment you are threatening the speaker’s

positive face

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Cooperation

You need to be able to identify cooperation 10

Speaker support

 Speakers usually work together to help and reassure each other. This is called speaker support. It is important to recognise the techniques used in a conversation for speaker support (e.g. for showing agreement, for checking understanding 11

A: B: Will you condemn the violence on the picket lines?

I condemn the police and the National Coal Board This is an uncooperative response because it is not relevant

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A: B: I’m tired There’s the Leonardo Hotel

This is a cooperative response. We assume that it is relevant and that B is telling the truth 13

A: B: When was your first sexual experience What wonderful weather we’re having?

B’s response is not relevant so we assume that B does not want to cooperate 14

Grice’s maxims

 1. Quantity - make your contribution as informative as required  2. Quality -be true; do not say what you believe to be false  3. Relation - be relevant  4. Manner - avoid obscurity of expression, ambiguity; be brief, orderly 15

Politeness

Politeness is closely connected to cooperation 16

The more polite you are, the more you risk losing the message

It’s very windy here.

I’m very sorry but I wonder if you could move over a bit?

Could you move over please?

Can we move please?

Please move Move!

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Being polite

 The more politeness we use in our speech, the more indirect we are.

 The advantage of using politeness terms is that there is no threat to face. The disadvantage is that a polite message might be so indirect that it doesn’t come across (“it’s very windy here”) 18

Oh, sorry. I heard voices and I wondered who it was.

Please could you stop talking I’m trying to work Hey, I’ve got an exam to study for. Is there somewhere else you could talk?

Shut up, will you?

The level of politeness used in an utterance depends on the role of the person you are talking to and the power relations that exist between speaker and hearer 19

Analyse the role

 Sometimes a speaker’s role gives them the authority to challenge others. Presenting a challenge to someone is difficult but there are various politeness techniques which help us to do it (see summary) 20

A speaker can also imply respect for the hearer’s value system and membership of the same group

POSITIVE POLITENESS  Show interest in hearer  Claim common ground with hearer  Seek agreement  Give sympathy NEGATIVE POLITENESS  Be conventionally indirect  Minimise imposition on hearer  Ask for forgiveness  Give deference 21

Being polite

 The more politeness we use in our speech, the more indirect we are.

 The advantage of using politeness terms is that there is no threat to face. The disadvantage is that a polite message might be so indirect that it doesn’t come across (“it’s very windy here”) 22

Lakoff’s maxims of politeness

 Don’t impose  Give options  Make the hearer feel good 23

Analysing cooperation

 Features of interaction  Markers of politeness  Markers of respect  Vague language 24

Features of interaction

      Questions (open, closed, tag, + options) Commands Interruptions Overlaps Pauses Topic management  Grice’s maxims (are they followed?)  Discourse markers (see previous lessons  Markers of politeness and respect 25

Markers of politeness

  Specific words ( please, thanks ) Hedges ( if it’s not too much trouble )  Hidden commands ( could you pass the salt please )  Provisional language ( if would, can ) to show negotiation is possible  Qualifiers, modifiers ( quite , a bit ) 26

Markers of respect

 Inclusive pronouns -

we

,

us

 Similar vocabulary, dialect, colloquial language  Pseudo-agreement - (

to another time

)

Would you like to come to my house? Well, I’d love

This avoids saying no or disagreeing with a speaker 27

James and Simon

  a.

… stops the poetry …

b.

occasional; sometimes; ….doesn’t quite come off

 c. support (

yeah)

repetition  vague language (

quite, kind of

) d. No 28

Mum and Ruksana - uncooperative talk

 a. R challenges her mother, attempts to close the conversation, interrupts, contradicts without mitigation; lots of simultaneous talk, questions not answered by M and R  b. Do parents have more positive face or negative face?

Do adolescents have more positive or negative face’ 29