Politeness And Interaction

CHAPTER 7
POLITENESS AND INTERACTION
A linguistic interaction is necessarily a social interaction. Factors which relate to social distance and closeness are established prior to interaction. Theytypically involve the relative status of the participants, based on social values tied to such things as age and power. We take part in a wide range of interactions ( mostly with strangers ) where thesocial distance determined by external factors is dominant. However, there are other factors, such as amount of imposition or degree of friendliness, which are often negotiated during in interaction.These are internal to the interaction and can result in the initial social distance changing and being marked as less, or more, during its course. These internal factors are typically in the processof being worked out within the interaction. Both types of factors, external and internal, have an influence not only on what we say, but also on how we are interpreted. Recognizing the impact isnormally carried out in terms of politeness.

Within interaction, however, there is a more narrowly specified type of politeness at work. Face means the public self-image of a person. It refers to thatemotional and social sense of selfs that everyone has and expects everyone else to recognize. Politeness can then be defined as the means employed to show awareness of another person’s face. Showingawareness for another person’s face when that other seems socially distant is often described in terms of respect or deference.

Within their everyday social interactions, people generally behave as iftheir expectations concerning their public self-image, or their face wants, will be respected. Alternatively, given the possibility that some action might be interpreted as a threat to another’sface, the speaker can say something to lessen the possible threat. This is called a face saving act. Because it is generally expected that each person will attempt to respect the face wants of others,...