Pragmatics

Question 1

Goffman’s face theory

Answer 1

We have a negative and positive face
Most interactions we are trying to save ours and others’ faces
A face threatening act is one in which a persons’ face is threatened

Question 2

Brown and Levinson: Positive politeness strategy

Answer 2

positive politeness strategies seek to form a closer relationship with the listener and the receiver

Question 3

Brown and Levinson: Negative politeness

Answer 3

seeks to maintain a distance between the speaker and the listener, tries not to impose upon the listener

Question 4

Brown and Levinson: Bald on-record

Answer 4

the speaker is direct and blunt, doesn’t seek to avoid threatening face

Question 5

Brown and Levinson: Off-record

Answer 5

face isn’t threatened at all

Question 6

Brown and Levinson: Context and Politeness

Answer 6

3 sociological variables: social distance of speaker and hearer, relative ‘power’ of speaker over the hearer, absolute ranking of impositions in the particular culture
greater social distance between speakers the more politeness is generally expected
greater perceived relative power of hearer over speaker, the more politeness is recommended
the heavier the imposition made on the hearer the more politeness will generally have to be used

Question 7

Pragmatics

Answer 7

studying the use of language in social contexts and the way in which people produce and comprehend meanings

Question 8

Face

Answer 8

the positive social value a person effectively claims for themself by the line others assume they have taken during a particular contact

Question 9

Face threatening act

Answer 9

one that would make someone possible lose face or damage it in some way

Question 10

negative face

Answer 10

needs independence and not to be imposed upon

Question 11

positive face

Answer 11

needs to be accepted and liked in social situations

Question 12

Positive politeness strategies

Answer 12

juxtaposing criticism with compliments, establishing common ground, jokes, nicknames, honourifics, tag questions, special discourse markers, informal language/slang

Question 13

negative politeness strategies

Answer 13

questioning, hedging, pessimism, presenting disagreements as opinion, negative constructions, indirect route, showing deference, apologising

Question 14

Grice’s Maxims: Maxim of quality

Answer 14

do not say what you believe to be false, do not say that which you lack adequate evidence

Question 15

Grice’s Maxims: maxim of relevance

Answer 15

be relevant

Question 16

Grice’s Maxims: maxim of quantity

Answer 16

make your contribution as informative as is required, do not make your contribution more informative than is required

Question 17

Grice’s Maxims: maxim of manner

Answer 17

avoid obscurity of expression, avoid ambiguity, be brief, be orderly

Question 18

Lakoff’s 5th maxim: maxim of politness

Answer 18

avoid imposing, make the hearer feel good, give the hearer options

Question 19

Speech Act Theory, Austin

Answer 19

for communications to be successful, illocution and perlocution should be aligned in meaning; we convey meaning through prosodic and paralinguistic features to convey what we mean

Question 20

Accommodation Theory, Howard Giles:

Answer 20

a speaker adapts to another speaker’s accent, dialect or sociolect

Question 21

Accommodation Theory, Howard Giles: upward convergence

Answer 21

changing your accent or lexical choices to something you might perceive was more prestigious

Question 22

Accommodation Theory, Howard Giles: downward convergence

Answer 22

use more informal, colloquial language, or non-SE to fit in

Question 23

Accommodation Theory, Howard Giles: overt prestige

Answer 23

using more formal standard english, received pronunciation