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o It is culturally determined and thus it differs
from one speech community to another.

o It is often a matter of selecting linguistic forms

which express the appropriate degree of
social distance or which recognise relevant
status or power differences.
1) EXPRESSIVE UTTERANCES

o Express the speaker’s feelings.

Example(s):
1) I’m feeling great today.
2) I’m happy today.
3) I’m afraid.
 2) REFERENTIAL UTTERANCES

o Provide information.

Example(s):
1) At the third stroke it will be three o’clock precisely.
2) The capital city of Malaysia is Kuala Lumpur.
3) The second presenter will be Mr Izham.
 3) METALINGUISTIC UTTERANCES

o Comment on the language itself.

o To make sure that the addressee understands the
meaning of the code which the speaker is using.

Example(s):
1) ‘Hegemony’ is not a common word.
2) Poetic art is the art of writing a literary work.
3) Stylistics is science about language style in a literary work.
4) POETIC UTTERANCES

o Focus on the aesthetic features of language.

o It is rarely used in daily conversation.
o Used in poems, an ear-catching motto, a rhyme.

Example(s):
1) Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.
2) How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a
woodchuck could chuck wood?
5) PHATIC UTTERANCES
o Express solidarity and empathy with others.
o It is the non-referential use of language to share
feelings or establish a mood of sociability rather
than to communicate information or ideas.

Example(s):
1) Hi, how are you, lovely day isn’t it!
2) Hey, how’s it going?
3) What’s up?
6) DIRECTIVE UTTERANCES

o Attempt to get someone to do

something.

Example(s):
1) Clear the table.
2) Sit down.
3) Set the table, Edward.
 6) DIRECTIVE UTTERANCES
o These utterances which express directive
force vary in strength.
Example(s):
Sit down. IMPERATIVE
You sit down. You IMPERATIVE
Could you sit down? INTERROGATIVE WITH MODAL VERB
Sit down will you? INTERROGATIVE WITH TAG
Won’t you sit down? INTERROGATIVE WITH NEGATIVE MODAL
I want you to sit down. DECLARATIVE
I’d like you to sit down. DECLARATIVE
You’d be more comfortable sitting down. DECLARATIVE

*Interrogatives and declaratives are more polite than imperatives.

How do people decide which form to use in a
particular context?

WHAT ARE THE SOCIAL

FACTORS WHICH AFFECT A
SPEAKER’S CHOICE OF THE
APPROPRIATE FORM OF
DIRECTIVE?
1) Social Distance between Participants
o People who are close friends or
intimates use more imperatives.
Example(s):
2) STATUS
o Where status differences are clearly
marked and accepted, superiors tend
to use imperatives to subordinates.

Example(s):
3) FORMALITY
o In a formal setting, a less direct and polite
directives will be used.

Example(s):
At a graduation ceremony, the University Chancellor
gave the Vice-Chancellor the directive below:

*The required action ‘read the citation’ is embedded as a

subordinate clause in the second part of the declarative
sentence to express the directive less directly and more politely.
4) ROUTINENESS OR REASONABLENESS OF THE
TASK o When a boss is giving a routine task…

Example(s):
Direct form

o When a boss is expecting his worker to do something

out of the ordinary or especially difficult…

Example(s): Less direct

form

Hint form
GENERALLY…
 IMPERATIVES are used between people who
know each other well or to subordinates.

 INTERROGATIVES AND DECLARATIVES, including hints,

tend to be used between those who are less familiar
with each other, or where there is some reason to feel
the task being requested is not routine.
o HINTS may also be used for humorous effect
between people who are close friends.

Example(s):
5) GENDER
o Girls and women tend to favour more polite
and less direct forms of directives than males.

Example(s):
&
What do we mean by politeness?
o Speaking politeness involves taking into
account the feelings of others.
o Being linguistically polite involves speaking to people
appropriately according to their relationship to you.

o Making decisions about what is or is not considered polite

in any community therefore involves assessing social
relationships along the dimensions of social distance or
solidarity, and relative power or status.

o We need to understand the social values

of a society in order to speak politely.
What are the relevant dimensions in
determining ways of speaking politely?

1) Social status

2) Social distance or solidarity

3) Degree of formality
 Dimension of formality.
o In a formal situation, the appropriate way
of talking to your brother will depend on
your roles in the context.

Example of situation:
If he is acting as the judge in a law court then calling him Tom
will be considered disrespectful, while at the dinner table, calling
him Your honour will be perceived as inappropriate or humorous.
TYPES OF POLITENESS
POSITIVE POLITENESS
o Solidarity oriented.
o Emphasizes shared attitudes and values.

Examples of situation:
1) When a boss suggests that a subordinate should
use first name (FN) to her.
2) A shift to a more informal style using slang and
swear words.
 NEGATIVE POLITENESS
o Pays people respect and avoids intruding on them.
o Involves expressing oneself appropriately in terms of
social distance and respecting status differences.

Examples of situation:
1) Using title + last name (TLN) to your superiors and
to older people that you don’t know well.
2) Using indirect directives: “Could you stay a bit
later tonight, do you think, and finish this job?
Examples:

We can cause offence by treating someone too familiarly,

as in (a), or by treating them too distantly as in (b).

So how do you decide which address form to

use?
This varies a lot from one speech community to another.
Refer to your textbook page 306
Different speech communities have it differently

In the north of England

o Many newspaper vendors, bus conductors and

people selling railway tickets call everyone love
regardless to how well they know them.

o Mutual TLN - upper-working class neighbours who

live closely to each other, but who are not friends.
Different speech communities have it differently
In north America

o It is usual to use first names to people you work with,

regardless of how little or how much you like them.

In OTHER ENGLISH-SPEAKING CULTURES

o Mutual FN – when used, is considered as being too familiar.

o Mutual TLN – is considered appropriate until you have

worked together for a period of time or develop a friendship.
 Different speech communities have it differently
In earlier centuries

o Status was the major consideration.

o People used TLN upwards to superiors, and FN downwards
to subordinates, no matter how well you know them.
o Solidarity is relevant only between equals.
o TLN – with people they did not know well
o FN – with friends
o A non-reciprocal pattern involving madam/sir upwards and LN
downwards to subordinates (clean that blackboard, Hadley.)
Different speech communities have it differently
Western today
- Conflict of norms in two situations:
Situation 1: High status with high solidarity
o If your addressee is of lower status and you know them well,
then you use FN to them. But what form do they use to you?
o Because they know you well, they could assume FN is
appropriate, but their subordinate status predicts TLN.
o One common solution is to avoid address terms altogether.
o In other words, solidarity dimension is given greater weight.
Example of situation:
Secretaries use FN to their bosses if they have worked for them for some time.
Different speech communities have it differently
Western today - Conflict of norms in two situations:
Situation 2: Low status with low solidarity

o When you don’t know someone well and they are your
superiors, you’ll use TLN.
o But when someone is your subordinate and you don’t know
them well, what do you use?

o Again, degree of solidarity (social distance) is what counts.

Example of situation:
British office workers tend to use TLN to the caretaker whom they rarely see.
 Different speech communities have it differently
Many communities
Other factor affecting choice of address form: Types of relationship

o Transactional relationship favour TLN.

Example of situation:
1) Shopkeepers and customers may exchange mutual TLN even when they
have known each other for a long time.
2) Doctors and patients use mutual TLN.

o These relationships put emphasis on social distance dimension in that

even when they are long-standing, they do not involve intimacy.
o When they shift to become more personal, they often also shift to FN.
Different speech communities have it differently
Many communities
Other factor affecting choice of address form: Age

o Adults use FN to children on first meeting.

Example of situation:
A young shop assistant, hairdresser, cleaner, or an office
junior will receive FN from customer or client.

o Young people are more likely to receive FN in any

context and expected to use TLN back, especially if the
person is a generation or more older.
Different speech communities have it differently
Eastern societies

o Even though the norms of Western address usage have

changed over time to place more emphasis on solidarity
and less on status, in Eastern societies, being polite still
remains on status differences.

o Age, gender, kinship relationship, and social status as

determined by occupation and education are all
relevant as well as the formality of the context.
Linguistic Politeness
in
Different Cultures
o Anyone who has travelled outside their own speech
community is likely to have had some experience of
miscommunication based on cultural differences.

o Often this relates to different assumptions

deriving from different ‘normal’ environments.

Example of situation:
A Thai student in Britain, will not be able to understand what her
hostess meant when she asked On which day of the week would
you like to have your bath?

Coming from a very hot country, the notion that she might have a
bath only once a week was very difficult to grasp.
 o Learning another language involves a great deal more
than learning the literal meaning of the words, how to
put them together and how to pronounce them.

o We need to know what they mean in the cultural

context in which they are normally used.

o We automatically make many unconscious sociolinguistic

assumptions about what people mean when they ask a
particular question or make a statement.

Example:
When we ask someone to dinner, we assume they will know the
norms concerning appropriate dress, time of arrival and possible
topics for discussion.
 Example of situation:

o There are sociolinguistics rules for polite acceptance and

refusal which differ cross-culturally.

o In Western culture, refusing requires a reasonably specific excuse.

o In some cultures, very general vague answer
like I’m busy that night I’m afraid is acceptable.
o Where solidarity is the dominant social dimension, privacy is
reduced and people expect a more specific reason for refusal.
 Having been invited for dinner…
Situation:

“Ladies a plate, gentlemen a crate” – women

should bring some food and men some beer.
What is the linguistic formula for the
beginning of a meal?

Italy Buon appetito

France Bon appetit
Holland Smakelijk eten
Germany Guten appetit
Maori Gathering prayer
 How you get enough to eat?
o In some parts of India, Taiwan and Arabic-speaking world, it is
considered impolite to accept food when it is first offered.
o Only on third offer it is appropriate to accept, and
only a third refusal is considered definitive.

o They might perceive English people as being ungenerous

because a second helping is offered only once.
o Plying someone with food is regarded as a polite behaviour in
cultures with sharp economic differences between social group.
o However, in Western society, thinness is highly valued and their dinner
norms take into account that guests are dieting.
 What about greeting
people?
Example:

Greeting formulas universally serve an affective function

of establishing non-threatening contact and rapport,
but their precise content is clearly culture specific.
 In a more formal meeting…
Example:

Read more about

Maori greeting
ritual on page 315
in your textbook.

To these people, welcoming someone properly, even in a relatively

informal context, is very important, and sharing food is an important
sign that the occasion has been concluded appropriately.