Some means of politeness in English face-to-face conversation.
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2007 |
| Type | Article in Periodical |
| Magazine / Source | Topics in Linguistics. Politeness and Interaction. Vol. 1. |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Field | Linguistics |
| Keywords | communication; face-to-face interaction; co-operation; turn-taking; conversational maxims; coherence; politeness; negative and positive politeness strategies; interactive D-items |
| Description | Politeness plays a crucial role in human communication, particularly in communication taking the form of spoken face-to-face interaction in which participants have to face immediate reactions from their conversational partners. By taking turns and co-operating in spoken interaction speakers attempt to establish a social contact with other discourse participants and contribute to the further development of communication. The present paper investigates some language means that enhance the smooth flow of spoken interaction and which facilitate coherent interpretation and understanding on the part of the current hearer(s), thus establishing discourse coherence. It is suggested that these language means, labelled interactive D-items by the author (e.g. you know, you see, I think, I suppose, I m sure) can operate as part of politeness strategies recognized by Brown & Levinson (1987) and used in order to communicate not only efficiently, i.e. in agreement with Co-operative Principle (Grice 1975), but also in accordance with Politeness Principle (Leech 1983). |