Chapter 11
Speech Functions, Politeness and
Cross-Cultural Communication
Speech functions
There is a number of ways of
categorizing speech functions:
1.
Expressive:
utterances that express feelings of speaker
2.
Directive:
utterances to make someone do something
3.
Referential:
utterances that provide information
4.
Metalinguistic:
utterances that comment on language itself
5.
Poetic:
utterances that focus on aesthetic features of language
6.
Phatic:
utterances that express solidarity. Phatic utterances convey an affective or
social message rather than referential one. Ex: “hi, how are you? Lovely day,
isn’t it?”
That list does
not cover all speech functions. For example, Halliday termed a new function as
“tell me why” when he was studying language acquisition in children. Other
researches added more terms to deal with vows, promises, threats and bets and
declarations of war. Each category has its own distinctive characteristics and
precise linguistic forms. For example, by uttering the linguistic form “I bet”
means that the speaker is performing a bet.
Researches have
studied particular speech functions and how they are used in different
contexts, by whom they used and for whom they are used. If we take the
directive function for example, we will find that speech acts that express
directives vary in strength. Interrogatives and declaratives are more polite
than imperatives. Also, a great deal depends on intonation, tone of voice and
context. There are social factors that determine the choice of the appropriate
form of directive. Social dimensions, as well as gender and routines of task
affect such a choice.
Social dimensions
Relative
status Gender Routineness of the task
Relative status:
· people who are close friends use more
imperatives
· Superiors tend to use imperatives to
subordinates. For example, a teacher would use imperative utterances to
students.
· Formality + status also affect the
choice of directive forms. For example, a chancellor directive form would be embedded
in a subordinate sentence to make a professor read a speech in a gathering or a
graduation festival. “Now I call on the vice chancellor to read the speech”.
This is a grammatical pattern used to express directives less directly and more
politely.
· The imperatives in a less formal context
were also studied by researches at a child care centre in New Zealand, where
bigger and older children used more imperatives
Gender (of speaker and addressee):
Women and girls
were noted as using less direct and interrogative forms than males. Male
doctors use imperatives like “eat more fruit”, while female doctors tended to
use less directive forms like “may be you could add more fruits to your food”.
The addressee’s gender is also significant. Women receive less directive forms
Routineness of the task:
An employer would
use a direct imperative form to an employee when assigning him/her with a usual
task. But if the task is unusual or out of the employees’ specialty the
employer would use a less direct form like interrogatives and declaratives,
including hints, are used in such a case.
The general
pattern is that imperatives used by people who know each other well, and
superiors to subordinates. While interrogatives, declaratives and hints are
used by less familiar people and when the tasks required are not usual or have
some difficulty. However, there is an exception that is found in the Lower-Class
male migrant agricultural workers which does not follow this pattern. They use imperative forms of directives regardless
of social status or context. This is due to the lack of trust and unpleasant
work conditions.
Linguistic Politeness
Politeness means
getting the linguistic expressions of social distance right as far as the
addressee is concerned. To know what is polite and what is not polite, we must
a-
assess
social relationship according to dimensions of social status (power) and social
distance (solidarity).These two dimensions provide the basis for the
distinction between two kinds of politeness: Positive and negative politeness.
Positive politeness is solidarity oriented. It expresses solidarity and
minimizes status differences. When an employer allows an employee to address
him/her with FN this is a positive politeness move (dispensation). Also a shift
towards a more informal style like the use of slang or swear words will also
express positive politeness. By contrast, negative politeness pays people
respect and does not intrude on them. It involves expressing oneself in terms
of social distance. Indirect derivatives express negative politeness. Also
using TLNs to older people and to employers are expressions of negative
politeness.
b-
There
are also formality dimensions. In a formal situation, or context, we will
choose the appropriate addressing form according to the role played in the
context. If your brother is a judge, and the context is a court, you will not
be able to address him with his FN but rather you will address him with “your
honor”. This is because forms of address will be derived from the identity in the
context. According to the person’s identity we will choose the right address
term like “Your honor”, “your Excellency”, “Prime Minister”. In home context,
addressing him with “your honor” will be equally considered rude.
We can cause
offense when treating someone too familiarly or too distantly. This leads to
the fact that Social distance is variable from one community to another. In north
of England, bus drivers and news papers vendors call everyone “love”
regardless of how well they know them, and regardless of their gender. Upper
working class neighbors who live close to each other use title + last name. In
north of USA the workers use first names with each other regardless of the fact
that they like each other or not. In other English speaking cultures,
FNs are used with familiar people, while TLNs are used until you get acquainted
and become familiar with someone.
In earlier
centuries the status
was the only consideration. People used FNs with subordinates and TLNs with
superiors. Then solidarity emerged between equals, friends. Equals used TLNs
with people whom they did not know well. Also, LNs were used among some male
people to subordinates, and patterns of (madam, sir) to superiors.
In the present
time, the relation
between social distance and status in western communities is more complicated,
which led to conflicts in norms in two situations: (a) high status with high
solidarity (b) low status with low solidarity.
c-
Type
of relationship: transactional relationships prefer TLNs. Shop keepers and
customers use mutual TLNs even if they know each other for a long time, as well
as doctors and patients. These relationships emphasize the social distance
dimension. Transactional relationships are usually one-dimensional.
d-
Age:
adults use FNs to children. Young people like shop assistants, hairdresser or
office junior also receive FNs usually, and will use TLNs back.
Norms of western address usage have changed over time to
place more emphasis on solidarity rather than status. But this is not the case
universally. (How)
In many eastern
and Asian societies, the emphasis remains on status differences. In Javanese,
being polite requires a very complicated linguistic system. Javanese speaking
people add another dimension to politeness which is low and high honorifics.
These are alternative words for people, body parts, possessions and human
actions which are used to raise the style to a higher style. Choosing the
appropriate forms is also based on previous factors (education, occupation,
status, age, kinship relationship, context formality) as well as some extra
factors like the family status which is not relevant to the English speaking
societies’ factors.
Although
the relative dimensions may be universal, people from different speech
communities may offend each other unintentionally. (How) sociolinguistic norms can reflect social
values (how)
Due to cultural
differences, any speaker may unintentionally offend another speaker who belongs
to a different culture. All in all, the same speech act is expressed
differently.
One of the
aspects that may cause misunderstanding between speakers who belong to
different cultures is acceptance and refusal
There are
sociolinguistic rules for accepting or refusing an invitation. For example, if
your boss is inviting you to dinner and you apologized, you have to come up
with a reasonable excuse. Where solidarity is the social dimension, privacy is
reduced.
Another aspect is
the form by which you start a meal. The Maori speaking family would say a
prayer, an Italian family would say buon appetite, and a French family would
say bon appetite.
In parts of the
Arab world, accepting food from the first time is considered impolite, only on
the third offer it is appropriate to accept food, and a third refusal is also
regarded as definitive by the offerer. People who live with such norms view
their English hosts as ungenerous because they offer a second helping only
once.
In these cases,
we see how social values are reflected by sociolinguistic norms.
As for greetings,
greeting formulas serve affective and social functions of establishing a
non-threatening contact, but they are also culture specific. (Meaning: they are
related to culture).
So, when
responding to “how are you?” by explaining that I’m feeling tired or I have
cold would be unexpected.
In the Polynesian
culture, welcoming people is very important. That is why Polynesian parents
would not be satisfied when the principal (in good intensions) dispenses with
the formalities and does not use introductions. Moving to business before
welcoming people is not acceptable to the Polynesian speaking people. Also,
sharing food is a sign that the occasion was concluded appropriately.
Glossary:
FN: first name
TLN: title + last name
Dispensation الاستغناء
عن الألقاب
LN: last name
Formulae الصيغ
Linguistic
politeness التأدب في اللغة
Honorifics صيغ التعظيم
Metalinguistic ما هو متجاوز للمعنى
Embedded in يقع ضمن المعنى
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