Politeness

Politeness is best expressed as the practical application of good manners or etiquette. It is a culturally defined phenomenon, and what is considered polite in one culture can often be quite rude or simply strange in another.

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While the goal of politeness is to make all of the parties relaxed and comfortable with one another, these culturally defined standards at times may be manipulated to inflict shame on a designated party.

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Sociolinguists Brown and Levinson identified two kinds of politeness, deriving from Erving Goffman's concept of face:

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• Negative politeness: Making a request less infringing, such as "If you don't mind..." or "If it isn't too much trouble..."; respects a person's right to act freely. In other words, deference. There is a greater use of indirect speech acts.
• Positive politeness: Seeks to establish a positive relationship between parties; respects a person's need to be liked and understood. Direct speech acts, swearing and flouting Grice's maxims can be considered aspects of positive politeness because:
• they show an awareness that the relationship is strong enough to cope with what would normally be considered impolite (in the popular understanding of the term);
• they articulate an awareness of the other person's values, which fulfils the person's desire to be accepted.

Some cultures seem to prefer one of these kinds of politeness over the other.

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Politeness: Techniques to show politeness ►



 

Manners: In sociology, manners are the unenforced standards of conduct which show the actor to be cultured, polite, and refined. They are like laws in that they codify or set a standard for human behavior, but they are unlike laws in that there is no formal system for punishing transgressions. They are a kin...

Etiquette: Etiquette is the code that governs the expectations of social behavior, the conventional norm. It is an unwritten code, which evolves from written rules, for the Greek equivalent of etiquette is protokollon, protocol, the written formula for ceremonial. It usually reflects a theory of conduct that ...

Culture: :For other uses of Culture or Cultures, see Culture (disambiguation)....