Linguistic politeness in different cultures
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| LANGUAGE AND POLITENESS
Since language reflects the culture of the language owner, so in their speech performance people at the same time express their cultures. One of the cultures reflected in language is politeness.
Linusia Marsih, S. S., M. Pd. dosen Prodi Bahasa dan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra Untag Surabaya CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided by Jurnal Universitas 17 Agustus 1945 Surabaya
Parafrase Vol. 10 No. 01 Februari 2010
2 Spolsky (2001:19-20) sees politeness as the recognition of the listener and his or her rights in the situation. Each language may have certain formula to show politeness. For example, in English requests are made indirectly as a question such as “could you possibly pass me the salt?” or a statement like “I think that is the salt beside your plate”, or by adding formula like ‘Please’ and ‘if you would be so kind.’ In Javanese the difference in social status be tween a speaker and a listener will determine the choice of expression used. For example, the expression “
” and “ Menapa sami sugeng? ” both meaning “Are you well?” but the first is used to greet a subordinate and the second is used to greet a superior (Ohoiwutun, 1997: 87).
In line with Spolsky, Holmes (2001: 268) states that politeness involves taking account of the feeling of others, so being polite means to make others feel comfortable. Linguistically, being polite means to speak appropriately based on the relationship between the speaker and the listener. In other words, in speaking to one another people have to select their words carefully according to the situation in which they are speaking. For example, when someone wants to say something, he or she will choose an appropriate way to say it since inappropriate words choice may be considered rude. Moreover, politeness according to Yule (1997: 60) is “the means employed to show awareness of another person face.” The term
means a person’s self image. In Brown and Levinson’s term (in Cook, 1992: 34) acknowledge the face of other people means that “people both avoid intruding upon each other territory (physical territory, a particular field of knowledge, a friendship) and also seek to enlarge the territory of others.” Yule ( ibid ) states that awareness showed to another person’s face when he or she is socially close is called friendliness, camaraderie, or solidarity. In everyday communication people may often unwittingly offend each other by saying something that threat one’s expectation regarding public self image (
).
This is called face threatening act . Alternatively, one may say something that lessens the possible threat to save other people face. This is called
. When one intends to save another’s face, he or she should pay attention to the hearer’s negative face wants that is the hearer’s need to be independent, to have freedom of action, and not to be imposed by others. He or she should also pay attention to the hearer’s positive face that is the need to be accepted by others, to be treated as a member of the same group, and to know that his or her wants are shared by others (Yule, 1997: 61-62). Both Holmes (2001: 268) and Yule (1997: 64) differentiate politeness into two types namely, positive politeness and negative politeness. Positive politeness is an appeal to solidarity toward others, that is how to make hearer feel good or to make him or her feel that his or her values are shared. Positive politeness is used to extent intimacy, to imply common ground or to share wants. When the boss suggests that the subordinate should use first name to him or her, this is a positive politeness move, expressing solidarity and minimizing status difference. Negative politeness pays people respect and avoids intruding them. Negative politeness is usually expressed by indirect directive such as “Could you stay a bit later tonight, do you think, and finish this job?” Negative politeness includes expressing oneself appropriately in terms of social distance and respecting status difference, for example, using title + last name to the superiors or older people we do not know well.
Parafrase Vol. 10 No. 01 Februari 2010
3 Moreover, in relation to politeness principle in the process of communication, Grice in Brown (2000: 257) proposes four maxims called conversational maxim, namely: (1)
Quantity This maxim requires each participant in a conversation says as much as is necessary for understanding the communication. (2)
This maxim obliges each participant in a conversation to say only what is true. (3)
Relevance This maxim obliges each participant in a conversation to say only what is relevant. (4)
Manner
This maxim requires that what the speaker talk about must be clear. Being clear means that the speakers have to: (a) avoid obscurity, (b) avoid ambiguity, (c) be brief, and (d) be orderly. The other politeness principle is proposed by Chaer and Agustina (2004: 172). They state that speech performance must be accompanied by the norms that prevail in the culture of the language society. This is called language etiquette. Further Chaer and Agustina (
) state: “Language etiquette regulate about: (1) what have to say at certain time and situation to a certain participant concerning with social status and culture in the society; (2) what language variety is the most appropriate to be used in sociolinguistic situation and in certain culture; (3) when and how to use the turn-taking and interrupt the speech of others; (4) when to have to quiet; and (5) how the voice quality and physical attitude in speaking is.”
The language etiquette proposed by Chaer and Agustina above indicates that in interacting with others people must have sociolinguistic competence i.e. the knowledge of the sociocultural rules of language and of discourse (Brown, 2000: 247). Yüklə 153,64 Kb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
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