Understanding Politeness

Abstract

Politeness is key to all of our relationships and plays a fundamental part in the way we communicate with each other and the way we define ourselves. It is not limited only to conventional aspects of linguistic etiquette, but encompasses all types of interpersonal behaviour through which we explore and maintain our relationships. This groundbreaking exploration navigates the reader through this fascinating area and introduces them to a variety of new insights. The book is divided into three parts and is based on an innovative framework which relies on the concepts of social practice, time and space. In this multidisciplinary approach, the authors capture a range of user and observer understandings and provide a variety of examples from different languages and cultures. With its reader-friendly style, carefully constructed exercises and useful glossary, Understanding Politeness will be welcomed by both researchers and postgraduate students working on politeness, pragmatics and sociolinguistics more broadly.

Interpreting Impoliteness: Interpreters’ Voices

“…Our understanding of impoliteness follows Kádár and Haugh (2013), who claimed that politeness and impoliteness are forms of social action that cannot be found in particular behaviors or linguistic forms themselves but in evaluations of behaviors and linguistic forms. Thus, the central object of this study is to analyze interpreters' constructions of their own evaluations of impoliteness.…”

A discursive approach to the analysis of politeness data

“…Although new research outputs that make use of adapted versions of Brown and Levinson's model do make important contributions to the field of politeness research, too, in this article we would like to address some of the critiques of discursive approaches to politeness, and establish discursive approaches more markedly as an alternative starting point for the analysis of politeness. In line with Locher 1 However, see Watts' paper on blended space (2008 Culpeper (2011a) and Kadar and Haugh (2013), we argue in this essay that the discursive approach is not simply a critique, but constitutes a mode of analysis itself, and our aim in this essay is therefore to spell out the way that this approach can be drawn on in analysis. Thus, our essay first charts the way that the discursive approach has developed and the impact it has had on the field of politeness research.…”

The Non-Observance of Grice’s Maxims in Sasak

“…While the rules of politeness that are triggered by Lakoff (1973) are 'do not impose' (rule 1) and 'give option' (rule 2), and 'make them feel good and be friendly'(rule 3) are always present in any interaction, different cultures tend to emphasise one or a combination of the other since politeness differs according to cultures (Eelen 2001, Watts 2003, Ide 1989, Gu 1990). Recent theories have attributed politeness as a social practice (Kadar & Haugh 2013, Haugh 2013 which suggests that politeness resides in evaluations of behaviours and linguistic forms. This perspective allows politeness to be an evaluation that can vary across individuals even when they are from the same social group.…”

“…Thus, politeness is embedded in the evaluation of behaviours and realised through the lengthy explanation by A. It would therefore imply that being in the same social group (as suggested by Kadar & Haugh 2013), E would understand perfectly what it meant for A to sacrifice her pride and how important it was to ensure that the spouse and guests are kept happy.…”