Politeness and interaction BASIC CONCEPTS Much of what we say and communicate is determined by our social relationships. A linguistic interaction is necessarily a social interaction external factors relating to social distance/clo seness are established prior to an interaction: > relative status of the participants as determined by factors like age and power - speakers who see themselves as lower status tend to mark social distance between themselves and higher status speakers by using address forms that include a title and a last name, but not the first name (Mrs. Jones, Mr. Adams, Dr. Miller) internal factors (amount of imposition, degree of friendliness) are negotiated during an interaction > can result in the initial social distance changing and being marked as less or more during the course of the interaction (e.g., moving to first name basis) - these factors are more relevant to participants whos e social relationships are actually in the process of being worked out within the interaction Both types of factors (external/internal) have an influence on what we say and how we are interpreted > interpretation includes also evaluations such as rude, considerate or thoughtful which represent an additional aspect of co mmunication perceived in terms of politeness
Posted on: Fri, 25 Jul 2014 18:14:51 +0000
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