This paper focuses on the notion of politeness formulae in linguistic politeness research. It argues that the formal make-up of politeness formulae is crucially motivated by their function. The major claim of this paper is thus that there is a link between form and function of expressions of linguistic politeness. The usefulness of this account will be illustrated by the analysis of empirical data from Slavic languages and German. Reference to Roman Jakobson's markedness theory will show that the choice of linguistic means is not only dependent on concrete contexts (as is usually claimed in linguistic politeness theory) but also motivated by the language system itself.
Morphologically unmarked transitive (or accusative) impersonals, often also referred to as Adversity Impersonals or Elemental Constructions, have long been considered a primarily East Slavic phenomenon, with a somewhat marginal status in Polish. More recent research has claimed that these impersonal constructions also occur in other West Slavic languages and even in Slovenian. The present paper refines some of the previous assumptions about morphologically unmarked transitive impersonals in twelve Slavic and two non-Slavic languages by drawing on the results of a parallel corpus study. The analysis of empirical data suggests that it is necessary to identify the Štokavian dialectal continuum as a transitional area with a declining acceptability of morphologically unmarked transitive impersonals from the Northwest (Croatian) to the Southeast (Serbian). Moreover it will be shown that impersonals of this type are not an exclusively Slavic phenomenon. Аннотация Морфологически нейтральные безличные конструкции с переходными глаголами, часто также называемые 'Adversity Impersonals' или 'стихийные конструкции', традиционно считаются особенностью в основном восточнославянских языков и маргинальным явлением в польском языке. Недавние исследования показали, что такого рода безличные конструкции также встречаются в других западнославянских языках и даже в словенском. В настоящей статье, исходя из анализа данных параллельного корпуса и учитывая двенадцать славянских и два неславянских языка, пересматривается ряд предположений о морфологически нейтральных безличных конструкциях с переходными глаголами. Анализ эмпирических данных указывает на то, что штокавский диалектный континуум следует воспринимать как переходное пространство, в котором приемлемость безличных конструкций с переходными глаголами снижается с северо-запада (хорватский) на юго-восток (сербский). Кроме того, показывается, что такого рода безличные конструкции не являются исключительно славянским явлением.
The article investigates forms of address and request behaviour in Serbian as compared to German. It is based on an empirical study with authentic speech data and a survey among na-tive speakers of the two languages. While the corpora of authentic speech data document mainly service encounters and other minimal everyday interactions, the survey aims at reveal-ing the judgements and attitudes of native speakers towards different request strategies. The results point towards the well-known distinction between "solidarity cultures" in the East and "distance cultures" in the West. However, such findings must be treated with caution as other factors seem to influence the range of strategies available in the two languages as well.
SummaryDespite the ever-growing number of studies about impersonal constructions, there is still no unanimity about which constructions actually fall under the label of impersonality. Consensus on how to define impersonals, even within one language, remains elusive in part because of the opposition between formal (subject-centred) and functional (agent-centred) approaches to impersonality, as outlined by Siewierska (2008). The paper attempts to combine both lines of reasoning. It suggests that the impersonal domain in Russian is represented by a network of constructions that are all related to one another by the formal marker of impersonality on the verb (i. e., third person singular neuter) and by semantic and pragmatic characteristics (namely, deviation from prototypical subject properties; Malchukov & Ogawa 2011).
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