Linguistic Etiquette

LINGUISTIC ETIQUETTE

Sociolinguistics CourseProf Necdet Osam

All the world is a stage, and we are players!

As you will see using language involves costs and benefits in what Holmes (1992) refers to as “linguistic market”. It also involves role-playing, forging identity, power-sharing, alternating converging and diverging strategies, power and solidarity, which, all in all, signify that “language is a behavior” or, better said, “language is an act.”

The Agenda Some definitions Conversational Principles Implicatures Politeness Face Is politeness diglossic? Are implicatures accidental? The issue of identity The issue of ideology

Grice (1975) says ‘we are able to converse with one another because we recognize common goals in conversation and specific ways of achieving it.’ In other words, how we say something is as important as what we say.

To Grice, conversation is cooperative in that both interlocutors accept each other for what they claim to be. Conversation is also bound to some principles which calls Conversational Maxims or Cooperative Principles.

Gricean Cooperative Principles

Maxim of quantity

Maxim of qualityMaxim of relationMaxim of manner

Maxim of Quantity

Make your contribution as informative as is required.

A: Excuse me, have you got the time on you?B: 10 of 5.

A: Sorry, love. Got the time?B: Yes. The time on my Swiss watch given to me

by my mum on my birthday is 10 of 5.

“war is war.”So, what?

Maxim of Quality Do not say what you believe is

false or lacks adequate evidence.

A: Do you know who invented the

telephone?B: Wasn’t it Graham Bell?

A: Dad, do you know what a Green car means?B: It is a car than runs on grass, son.

Maxim of Relation

Be relevant.

A: Is Tom seeing anyone lately?B: I suspect he is. His phone bills are

massive!

A: Did I say you look gorgeous?B: By the way, did you manage to

freeze your stolen credit card?

Maxim of Manner Avoid obscurity and ambiguity,

and be brief and orderly.

A: ‘Cuse me, is there a phone box round here?

B: Yes. Not far. Just round the next corner.

You’ll first break the eggs, no first you heat the pan. Add some salt. Of course, before you break the eggs put some oil in the pan.

Implicature Grice maintains that speech often

occurs in less than ideal circumstances in which speakers compromise or flout the maxims as a result of which an implicature is driven from what has been said. It is also possible an act of conversation involves implicature of more than one maxim at a time.

Politeness Leech defines politeness as forms of behavior that establish and maintain comity. That is the ability of participants in a social interaction to engage in interaction in an atmosphere of relative harmony.

Leech’s Maxims of Politeness Tact maxim Generosity maxim Approbation maxim Modesty maxim Agreement maxim Sympathy maxim

Tact maxim1. Minimize cost to

other; maximize benefit to other.

Ex: Could I interrupt you for a second? If I could just clarify this then.

Generosity Maxim

Minimize benefit to self; maximize cost to self.

Ex: You relax and let me do the dishes. You must come and have dinner with us.

Approbation Maxim

Minimize dispraise of other; maximize praise of other.

Ex: John, I know you're a genius - would you know how to solve this math problem here?

Modesty Maxim

Minimize praise of self; maximize dispraise of self.

Ex: Oh, I'm so stupid - I didn't make a note of our lecture! Did you?

Agreement Maxim

Minimize disagreement between self and other; maximize agreement between self and other.

A: Do you like this skirt, John?     B: Yes, it looks great, but I am sure

you can find a better one.

Yes, but ma'am, I thought we resolved this already on your last visit.

Sympathy Maxim

Minimize antipathy between self and other; maximize sympathy between self and other.

Ex: I was sorry to hear about your accident.

Face Face is something that is

emotionally invested, and that can be lost, maintained, or enhanced, and must be constantly attended to in interaction. Normally everyone’s face depends on everyone else’s being maintained, and it is in general in every participant’s interest to maintain each other’s face.

Face “Face” (as in “lose face”) refers to a

speaker's sense of linguistic and social identity. Any speech act may impose on this sense, and is therefore face threatening. And speakers have strategies for lessening the threat. Positive politeness means being complimentary and gracious to the addressee. Negative politeness is found in ways of mitigating the imposition.

In Goffman (1955) terminology an act of face-changing is called face-work. Whatever face one adopts, it will be ‘the affective state of the speaker’ and ‘the profile of his/her identity’.

Is politeness diglossic? V/V & V/T forms are common

among the U class and in addressing the M & L classes as a marker of exercising power.

T/T & T/V forms are a marker of solidarity and intimacy among M & L classes. T/V is also used to address members of the U class.

Is politeness ideological? T/T is common among young Italian U

members who want to dissociate themselves from the aristocracy or power.

T/T is a useful implement for the politicians who aspire to reflect vox populi –the voice of the public. Consider ‘revolutionary’ Ahmadinejad.

T/T used by a young male French student would mean he favors nationalization of the industry, free love, trial marriage, abolition of capital punishment, weakening of religious loyalties.

Solidarity or power?

With the decline of aristocracy and growth of democratization it appears that non-reciprocal T/V is now being replaced by mutual V as between officer and soldier.

In former T/V situations we can now find mutual T as between father and son, and employer and employee.

Questions:

How do power and politeness correlate?

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