ELOY ALFARO UNIVERSITY

(EXTENSIÓN CHONE)

PEDAGOGÍA DE LOS IDIOMAS NACIONALES Y EXTRANJEROS

SEMANTICS AND PRAMAGTICS

MEMBERS:
DIMAS ALEXANDER AYALA MOREIRA
JOSÉ EDUARDO CONFORME QUIÑONEZ
CARMEN LORENA ZAMBRANO MANZABA

TOPIC:
POLITENESS POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE FACE

PROFESSOR:
LIC. RAISA MACÍAS SERA

SIXTH SEMESTER
PERIOD: 2021 (1)
 Politeness…..?
The politeness are actually not merely determined
or influenced by the social distance and age of the
participants. Politeness may also be influenced by
other factor like degree of friendliness.
(Brown & Levinson, 1987)
EXAMPLE
We may look at the following examples.
Both of them are asking what someone else
said. In the example (a) the speaker has
been familiar with the addressee/hearer.
While in example (b) the speaker is not
familiar with the addressee.

(a) ‘What did you say?’

(b) ‘Excuse me, could you repeat what you said?
 Brown & Levinson’s Politeness
Theory
• Brown & Levinson are socio-linguists
• Extend Goffman’s notion of face
– Positive face
– Negative face
• And focus only on preventive
facework
• And face needs (positive and
negative)
 Positive Face
EXAMPLE 1: (the dog) is the desire to be
valued and included by relevant or significant
others
EXAMPLE 2
Want a help buddy?
The sentence is straight without any attributes that create a
‘distance’ between the speaker and the addressee. ‘buddy’ is
used instead of ‘Mr/Miss’ to lessen the formality. And the
sentence sounds very friendly, as though the speaker had been
quite close to the addressee.
 Negative Face
Example 1: (the cat) is the desire to be free
from imposition and restraint and to have control
of our time, property, space, and resources
EXAMPLE 2

Would you please do me a little favour to

carry my suitcase in?
Would and please show euphemism to the
addressee. And little minimizes the quantity of
help that might be given by the addressee to
the speaker/addresser.
 Bibliography
Brown, P. & Levinson, S.C. (1987) Politeness: some universals in
language usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Coulmas, F. (1997). The Handbook of Sociolinguistics. Oxford:
Blackwell Publishers.
Davies, B. Discourse Analysis Lecture: Lecture 10. Lectured on 2
November 2000.
Grundy, P. (2000). Doing Pragmatics (Second Edition). London:
Arnold Publishers.
Leech, G.N. (1983). Principles of Pragmatics. New York:
Longman.
Thomas, J. (1995). Meaning in Interaction: An Introduction to
Pragmatics. London: Longman.