GROUP MEMBERS:

TASK 1. PRAGMATICS (POLITENESS, INDIRECTNESS, FACE)

INSTRUCTIONS
Read carefully Chapter 6 (Theories of Politeness) by Thomas and the paper Pragmatics by
Hickey and summarize the main points discussed by both authors below. NOTE: do not pay
attention to questions on discourse analysis in Hickeys paper, just the notions dealing directly
with Pragmatics discussed in class.
Summary
In the last years pragmatic has been focused on politeness, even considering it a subdiscipline.
Pragmatic studies way that people use the terms and words in order to express other statements.
It is important to mention the register because depending on the situation is used one or other
way to speak and express yourself, making relevant the connotation of the conversation. When
we talk we use phrases with a double sense we try to define with other words what we really want
to say. That is the importance and what pragmatic really studies. For instance, when you say it is
cold here! you are expecting someone closes the window but you do not tell the exact sentence
you want to be acted. For example another explanation of pragmatic could be. When you are at
home and your mother is in the toilet and the phone rings and she says I am on the bathroom
what she really wants to say is if you could answer the phone instead of her. All these statements
depend on the speech act that we want to show or express.

Choose a film or TV series you particularly like and explore how TWO of the following
notions is illustrated by the dialogues among the characters.
OPTION 1. Address forms and politeness (0.5 points)

Speech acts have been studied both by philosophers and linguists. One aspect of the use of
speech acts is how speakers choose a particular form to address the listener or a larger
audience. This will be the topic in the task below, which deals with address forms in TV series or
films. The aim of this task is to explore how the choice of address form is affected by the social
relationship between the speakers.
Download the subtitles or transcript of the film or episode of the TV series you have chosen
and complete the dialogue by watching it. Pay attention to the different address forms used in it
such as common nouns (e.g. guys, folk, chaps, dear), a personal name or a pronoun (e.g.
everybody), nicknames etc. Have a look at Dickeys paper (Moodle).

Questions to answer:

How many different categories of address forms can you find?

Try to identify the functions of the address forms you find in terms of their social function
(i.e. establishing intimacy or group feeling, greeting, catching attention or picking out a
particular participant).

ADDRESS FORMS AND POLITENESS

Address forms depends on certain factors concerning the speakers such as
their social status, their ages, their level of kinship, their social or work
position...
We have analyzed the film 'When a man loves a woman' and the TV series
"How to get away with murder" and "Gossip girl" and we have extracted
many examples from the different ways of addressing we have studied from
the Dickey's paper.

- The social meaning of a word when used as an address form does not
necessarily have a close connection to that word's literal meaning.
For example in the Gossip Girl's chapter, Blair's father calls her 'my bear
Blair'. (She is not a bear.)
- The way of addressing somebody is socially determined. Social status
involves a determinate way of addressing. For instance, the position in the
academic hierarchy, teacher and student. Depending on the social position
they used FN, TLN, or FNLN. If they have the same academic status they
used to use FN.
For example: in the TV series 'how to get away with murder', students
addresses to Professor Annalise Keating as 'Ms Keating' or 'Professor
Keating' while the other teachers, their mates call her Anni. Since Mr. or Ms
indicates distance or respect.
- There is difference between referential and address meaning.
For example: In the film 'When a man loves a woman' the grandmother
addresses her granddaughter 'sweet angel'. She is not an angel, it is an
endearment term to refer.
- When speakers refer to people unknown to their addressees use words in
reference which are not used in address.
For example: To refer to Lionel Bryant in the judge in the series "How to get
away with murder", she says: Mr. Kaufman's jealous business partner,
Lionel Bryant.

- Family members of a younger or the same generation that the speaker

were almost always addressed by FN, nickname or a term of endearment.
Michael addresses to their children like 'my beautiful girls' or 'my babies' .
Michael calls his wife as Alice, her first name and vice versa (she generally
calls him Michael).
- Family members of ascending generations were normally addressed with
kinship terms. Genetic parents with kinship terms and step-parents with FN .
In the film 'when a man loves a woman' Casey, the little girl and biological
daughter of Michael addresses to him by daddy while Jess who is his
stepdaughter calls him Michael.
- It is worth mentioning that teachers speak to colleagues about his
students with nicknames as well as close friends do it.
Professor Keating addresses a student Mr Gibbins while She refers to him
such as Wes, his FN, when she talks to her husband or her mates.
- Nicknames were more noticeable in academic than in family interaction.
Nicknames can replace FNs within the community. Nicknames can be
diminutives.
For example in the film when a man loves a woman the older little girl Jess is
addressed like Jessy by her parents.

To conclude, it can be said that generally teachers who like to be addressed

to their FN, call their students the same way, while teachers who prefer to
keep a different social status address to their students as Mr. or Ms, followed
by their last name. Between people of the same class, they address each
other by FN or nicknames, but when it is an important person they refer to
them by TLN or FNLN. Moreover, if the speakers have an intimate
acquaintance they tend to use terms of endearment such as daddy,
mummy, sweet girl, honey... On the contrary, to address to somebody
unknown, older or from a higher status we can use Sir, Madam, Mr. or Ms...
We use all these different ways of address in our daily lives showing respect,
tenderness or whatever.

OPTION 2. Evasiveness and indirectness (0.5 points)

According to Grice (1989: 30), a speaker may say, indicate or allow it to become plain that he is
unwilling to co-operate in the way a maxim or maxims require. Below weve provided some
typical opt outs of the Relation, Quantity and Manner Maxims:

I know Im changing the topic, but...

As you all know...; I cannot say any more...

This may be a bit obscure...

Notice that, in each case, the speaker makes explicit his unwillingness to adhere to the maxim in
question.
Watch the film or episode of the series you have chosen carefully and find evidence of how
speakers flout/violate the cooperative maxims. Explain why this happens in the film/series you are
exploring.
-

In How to Get Away with Murder, when everybody in the class starts talking, Mrs.
Keating, the teacher, says Its getting a bit noisy here, in order to make the students
stop talking, instead of directly telling them to shut up.
In Gossip Girl, the character Rufus tells his wife during a conversation Im a loyal guy.
Once I commit to something, I stick with it. Although the conversation does not refer to it,
its previously hinted that Rufus was cheated on by his wife, and this is a subtle attack
about that.
In that same series, the character Nate refuses to testify in favour of his father during a
court against him by simply telling him; You better hope they dont call your son to the
stand. This does not only mean that he will not testify in his favour, but also that if hes
called, he may testify against him.
In the movie When a man loves a woman, a woman is very worried because her
husband works too much and has no time for her. She tells him to have the grandest
time in the world, and come home rested, which is, basically, telling him to take some
time away from his work, in order to be more time together.
From the same movie, the man is told by his wife I'm waiting for my spanking and the
man tells her I know we have pressures, and we need to have fun. But wringing you out
at the end of an evening is less fun than it used to be. But wringing you out at the end of
an evening is less fun than it used to be. And thinking back, it's been going on for quite a
while, Alice. The previous day, Alice got drunk, and her husband tries to explain her this
way that she lost her control.

TASK 2. SOCIOLINGUISTICS (0.5 points)

INSTRUCTIONS

Choose one reading between the chapters by Johnson, Romaine and Tannen (all of them
discussing different aspects of the differences between male and female speech interaction).
Read carefully the chapter and summarize the main points discussed in it.
Summary
We are going to summarize the topics about the text Discourse Patterns of Males and
Females by Fern L. Johnson. It is a very interesting text which talks about the differences
between male and female (from their youth to their adultness) speaking.
First of all, we want to specify that boys/men do not talk in the same way as girls/women. Boys
are more direct, reluctant to show their feelings and use more slang in conversations. They are
more confident and forceful. However, girls and women are less assertive, more talkative and
they tend to show their feelings. Their use of grammar is more polite (the use of slang is lower).
Little girls (4 years old) tend to talk about wishes but the same-aged boys talk about sports (and
they are more confident than girls). When they (both: girls and boys) have to play the role of
mothers and fathers, they use a low ton for males and a high pitch for females.
Second grade girls are comfortable in speaking about personal life (quite the opposite in boys).
They have the same way to confront issues but girls are more reluctant to dialogue and
negotiation. Adults determine children since they were born (putting pink clothes on girls and blue
ones on boys) and by telling them how to behave themselves (Sit up properly and Toughen up
for girls and boys respectively).
When they become adult, the same behavior is shown. Males tend to talk about games, sports
and females about feelings and personal concerns. The comparison between their speech is
made with the phrases chatty/gossip woman and taciturn men/men of few words. These show
that women are more talkative (but with unimportant substance of the talk) than men.
We can see in some studies that men talk about a lot of topics with few comments but women
talk about few topics with a lot of opinions (although men give their own opinions in a
conversation with women and women only ask, agree or disagree with a topic given in a
conversation with men).
The last point we want to remark is that most of the interruptions are initiated by men, when they
are speaking with a woman (about 96% in a first study and 75% in a second one).
Make a list of the notions/aspects you are going to explore in your film or TV episode (at least
three aspects of the ones discussed in the chapter you have chosen):
Aspects to explore
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)

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Add as many as you need

Prepare an oral presentation to show what you found in ONE TASK AMONG THE
ONES YOU HAVE DONE (0.5 points)