Linguistic Politeness and Greeting Rituals in German-speaking Switzerland

Abstract

This paper describes the results of research into linguistic politeness in German-speaking Switzerland (GSS) and into one type of politeness in particular, namely the speech acts of greeting and leave-taking denoted by the German verb grüssen.[1] German-speaking Swiss people adhere to strict conventions of polite behaviour which have been eroded over time in the English-speaking world. My research shows that speakers of Swiss German, both young and old, and from all walks of life, believe that it is important to retain their traditional politeness rituals, and that greetings formulae are especially important. Very few germanophone Swiss that people conform to polite greeting practices out of self-interest (as one of my informants suggested), rather they believe that politeness is important for social cohesion and a sign of respect and affection for one's fellow human beings.

Politeness Strategies Used in Text Messaging

“…Sociolinguistic aspect of the language used in SMS, particularly in identifying gender differences, and some cultural aspects have been highlighted by a number of studies (Dittrich, Johansen, & Kulinskaya, 2011;Yuen, Gill, & Noorezam, 2012;Ling, 2005;Lorenzo-Dus & Bou-Franch, 2003;Syahri, 2013). These works have obtained results similar to the findings of Rash's (2004) study, which shows women write longer and more lexical messages using more emoticons and abbreviations, and they also are more polite and prefer positive politeness strategies more than men.…”

“…In politeness theory, the main concept is referred to face, a feeling of self-worth (Abdul-Majeed, 2009) or self-image (Brown & Levinson, 1978) every person has about himself. Rash (2004) emphasized, although the face is a universal element in all communicative societies, it depends on cross-cultural issues and factors such as the relationship between interactants and the social situation. As Kuntsi (2012) noted, the politeness theory raised by Penelope Stephen C. Levinson (1978, 1987) is dominated and well known on linguistic politeness.…”

“…Being a sub-discipline of pragmatics, politeness is at the focus of attention. Many pragmatic studies (Akutsu, 2006;Chandra, 2009;Chen, 2001;Félix-Brasdefer, 2005;Handayani, 2013;Pishghadam & Navari, 2012;Rash, 2004) show the use of politeness strategies in different situations and contexts such as textbooks, TV advertisements, academic emails, commercial companies' emails, and letters. In daily communication, we should apply language politely to minimize the addressee's face threatening.…”

Do you kiss when you text? Cross-cultural differences in the use of the kissing emojis in three WhatsApp corpora

“…In informal encounters, the Spanish and Swiss usually cheek kiss when they meet and part ways, usually twice in Spain and three times in Switzerland (Evason 2018;Rash 2004) 1 . However, there are differences between these two regions.…”

“…The only exception is between males, who rarely kiss each other. In Switzerland, cheek kissing is common among friends, family members, and close acquaintances (Rash 2004). In Germany, people usually greet each other with a handshake and cheek kisses may take place only among close relatives or young people (Evason 2017).…”