Politeness, Communication and Identity Flashcards
What does Bald on record mean?
A technical term in Brown and Levinson’s theory of politeness. It refers to an inherently face-threatening act made without any softening through positive or negative politeness strategies. Notice they do no call this ‘impolite’.
What is the definition of collectivist?
A society that emphasises the relationships and interdependence of the individuals it is comprised of
What is the cost of imposition?
A scalar measure of how serious a face-threatening act is in a particular society, and given the power and distance difference between speaker and hearer
What are face wants?
A hypothesised function for language variation. Social and regional varieties index group boundaries. In some theories of social psychology this process is argued to be an important basis for forming positive self-image.
What is the meaning of individualistic?
A society that emphasises and celebrates the individual over relationships
What are Inherently face-threatening acts?
Speech acts which necessarily threaten the speaker’s and/or hearer’s positive face and/or negative face. In Brown and Levinson’s framework, they require the speaker to decide whether or not to mitigate the threat and which politeness strategies to use.
What is negative face?
The want of every competent adult member of a community that their actions be unimpeded by others: ‘Don’t tread on me.’
What is negative politeness strategy?
An action, phrase or utterance that indicates attention is being paid to the negative face wants of an interlocutor; often achieved through shows of deference, one type of action available to mitigate an inherently face-threatening act
What is politeness?
The actions taken by competent speakers in a community in order to attend to possible social or interpersonal disturbance
What is politeness theory?
A theory, associated with Brown and Levinson, that accounts for the redressing of affronts to a person’s face by face threatening acts
What is positive face?
The want of every competent adult member of a community that they, their actions and wants be desirable to at least some others: ‘Love me, love my dog.’
What is Positive politeness strategy?
An action, phrase or utterance that indicates attention is being paid to the positive face wants of an interlocutor; often achieved through shows of friendliness, one type of action available to mitigate an inherently face-threatening act
What is power?
A vertical relationship between speaker and hearer. In politeness theory, along with distance and cost of imposition, this notion determines how much and what kind of redressive action the speaker might take with a face-threatening act.
What is pragmatic competence?
The ability of a well-socialised speaker to know when certain speech acts are required, appropriate or inappropriate
What is the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis?
A theory that states that the structure of a language determines or influences the modes of thought and behaviour of speakers in the culture in which the language is spoken
