Language and Situation Politeness.

Question 1

Define Hedging as a method of positive politeness.

Answer 1

Tentative language.

Question 2

Define Inclusive First person Pronouns as a method of positive politeness.

Answer 2

‘We’

Question 3

Outline how you would show interest in a conversation as a method of positive politeness.

Answer 3

Backchanneling.

Question 4

Define form of address.

Answer 4

Words or words used when politely speaking or writing to someone.
E.g. when addressing a teacher ‘Miss’ or ‘Sir’.

Question 5

Define a Modal expression.

Answer 5

We use certain modal verbs, especially the past forms of the modal verbs can, may, shall, and will (could, might, should and would), to be more polite or less direct. We can also use other modal expressions (certainty, possibility, be likely to or be supposed to). We often do this to ask for something or ask someone to do something.

Question 6

Outline the methods of non-verbal communication to signal politeness.

Answer 6

Make yourself comfortable.

Have a firm handshake.

Maintain a straight posture.

Maintain eye contact.

Smile whenever possible.

Avoid fidgeting.

Correct hand movements are important.
Show interest.

Be polite.

Leave on a positive note.

Question 7

Outline Lakoff’s politeness principle (1973).

Answer 7

Lakoff suggested that the conversational interaction is governed by what she called the politeness principle. She defined this by specifying three rules or maxims which speakers usually observed.

1. Don’t impose - ‘I’m sorry to bother you’.
2. Give options - ‘I wouldn’t be offended if you don’t want to’.
3. Make your receiver feel good - ‘What would I have done without you?’.

Question 8

Outline Giles Accommodation theory (1970’s).

Answer 8

This is where we try to make ourselves closer to our partner in a conversation by adapting our speech to be more like them; we do this through converging our language.

Convergence – making the social distance closer

Sometimes, we make our speech more different to emphasise the distance between each other; we do this through diverging our language.

Divergence – increasing the social distance

Mutual convergence – both speakers adapt language to make it easier for each other to understand

Upward convergence – make our speech more like Received Pronunciation (RP) and less dialectal

Downward convergence – making our speech less RP and more informal