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| | '''Politeness''' is a kind of [[behaviour]] in which people express consideration for accepted standards of social interaction. They may display what others consider 'good manners' or use [[language (general)|language]] which is associated with respect for the social position of whom they are [[communication|communicating]] with. For example, in [[English language|English]], saying ''thank you'' can be polite in a range of situations, though it depends on ''how'' this is said; in other words, polite language is not inherently polite, but requires sincerity on the part of the user. |
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| '''Politeness''' is best expressed as the practical application of good [[manners]] or [[etiquette]]. It is a culturally defined phenomenon, and what is considered polite in one [[culture]] can often be quite rude or simply strange in another.
| | Other examples of politeness may include physical behaviour or dress. In [[Japan]], for example, [[bowing]] is a polite way of showing respect, and the deeper the bow, the more respect is being offered. However, bowing inappropriately or at all may be embarrassing if it is not generally accepted that one party or the other should bow. This exemplifies how what is polite in one [[culture]] may not be in another. Likewise, different social circles and different cultures have different standards of dress depending on the situation, and the rules may be rather complex. To take another Japanese example, it is usually acceptable to wear a ''yukata'' (summertime robe) outside one's room at a [[onsen|Japanese hot spring]] or [[ryokan|inn]], but not in a Western-style [[hotel]]. |
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| While the goal of politeness is to make all of the parties relaxed and comfortable with one another, these culturally defined standards at times may be manipulated to inflict [[shame]] on a designated party.
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| Sociolinguists Brown and Levinson identified two kinds of politeness, deriving from [[Erving Goffman]]'s concept of [[Face (self image)|face]]:
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| *'''Negative politeness''': Making a request less infringing, such as "If you don't mind..." or "If it isn't too much trouble..."; respects a person's right to act freely. In other words, ''deference''. There is a greater use of indirect [[speech acts]].
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| *'''Positive politeness''': Seeks to establish a positive relationship between parties; respects a person's need to be liked and understood. Direct speech acts, [[swearing]] and flouting [[Gricean maxim|Grice's maxims]] can be considered aspects of positive politeness because:
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| **they show an awareness that the relationship is strong enough to cope with what would normally be considered impolite (in the popular understanding of the term);
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| **they articulate an awareness of the other person's values, which fulfils the person's desire to be accepted.
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| Some cultures seem to prefer one of these kinds of politeness over the other. In this way politeness is culturally-bound.
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| ==Techniques to show politeness==
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| *Expressing uncertainty and ambiguity through [[Hedge (linguistics)|hedging]] and [[indirectness]].
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| *Use of [[euphemism]] (which make use of ambiguity as well as [[connotation]])
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| *Preferring [[tag question]]s to direct statements, such as "You were at the store, weren't you?
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| **[[modal tag]]s request information of which the speaker is uncertain. "You didn't go to the store yet, did you?"
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| **[[affective tag]]s indicate concern for the listener. "You haven't been here long, have you?"
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| *** [[softener]]s reduce the force of what would be a brusque demand. "Hand me that thing, could you?"
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| *** [[facilitative tag]]s invite the addressee to comment on the request being made. "You can do that, can't you?"
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| Some studies (Lakoff, 1976; Beeching, 2002) have shown that women are more likely to use politeness formulas than men, though the exact differences are not clear.
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| ===Linguistic devices===
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| Besides and additionally to the above, many languages have specific means to show politeness, deference, respect, or a recognition of the social status of the speaker and the hearer. There are two main ways in which a given language shows politeness: in its [[lexicon]] (for example, employing certain words in formal occasions, and colloquial forms in informal contexts), and in its [[morphology (linguistics)|morphology]] (for example, using special verb forms for polite discourse).
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| [[Japanese language|Japanese]] is perhaps the most widely known example of a language that encodes politeness at its very core. Many complications aside, Japanese has two main levels of politeness, one for intimate acquaintances, family and friends, and other for the rest of the people, and verb morphology reflects these levels. Besides that, some verbs have special hyper-polite [[suppletion|suppletive]] forms. This happens also with some nouns and interrogative pronouns. Japanese also employs different personal pronouns for each person according to gender, age, rank, degree of acquaintance, and other cultural factors.
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| ==References==
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| * Beeching, K. (2002) ''Gender, Politeness and Pragmatic Particles in French''. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
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| * Brown, P. and [[Stephen C. Levinson|Levinson, S.]] (1987) ''Politeness: Some Universals in Language''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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| * Lakoff, R. (1975) ''Language and Woman’s Place''. New York: Harper & Row.
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| * Watts, R. J. (2003) ''Politeness''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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| == See also ==
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| * [[Politeness theory]]
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| * Leech's [[politeness maxims]]
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| * [[Intercultural competence]]
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| * [[Rudeness]]
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| ==External links==
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| * [http://logos.uoregon.edu/explore/socioling/politeness.html Sociolinguistics: Politeness]
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| * [http://www.edice.org Sociolinguistics: Politeness in Spanish]
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Politeness is a kind of behaviour in which people express consideration for accepted standards of social interaction. They may display what others consider 'good manners' or use language which is associated with respect for the social position of whom they are communicating with. For example, in English, saying thank you can be polite in a range of situations, though it depends on how this is said; in other words, polite language is not inherently polite, but requires sincerity on the part of the user.
Other examples of politeness may include physical behaviour or dress. In Japan, for example, bowing is a polite way of showing respect, and the deeper the bow, the more respect is being offered. However, bowing inappropriately or at all may be embarrassing if it is not generally accepted that one party or the other should bow. This exemplifies how what is polite in one culture may not be in another. Likewise, different social circles and different cultures have different standards of dress depending on the situation, and the rules may be rather complex. To take another Japanese example, it is usually acceptable to wear a yukata (summertime robe) outside one's room at a Japanese hot spring or inn, but not in a Western-style hotel.
