SPEECH FUNCTIONS, POLITENESS, AND CROSS-CULTURAL

COMMUNICATION

The functions of speech

There are a number of ways of categorising the functions of speech. The following list has
proved a useful one in sociolinguistic research.

1. Expressive utterances express the speaker’s feelings.

2. Directive utterances attempt to get someone to do something.

3. Referential utterances provide information

4. Metalinguistic utterances comment on language itself.

5. Poetic utterances focus on aesthetic features of language.

6. Phatic utterances express solidarity and empathy with others.

The phatic function is, however, equally important from a sociolinguistic perspective. Phatic
communication conveys an affective or social message rather than a referential one. One of the
insights provided by sociolinguists has been precisely that language is not used to convey only
referential information, but also expresses information about social relationships.

Directives

Directives are concerned with getting people to do things. The speech acts which express
directive force vary in strength. We can attempt to get people to sit down, for instance, by
suggesting or inviting them to do so, or by ordering or commanding them to sit down. as the
following examples illustrate

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
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? A number of factors have
been suggested. The social distance between participants, their relative status, and the formality
of the context are usually relevant. People who are close friends or intimates use more
imperatives.

The required action (‘read the citation’) is embedded as a subordinate clause in the second part of
the declarative sentence, and this is a common grammatical means of expressing directives less
directly and more politely.

In general, 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. Hints may also be used for humorous effect between people who are
close friends. It has also been noted that girls and women tend to favour more polite and less
direct forms of directives than males – at least in many of the (mainly middle class) social
contexts investigated. The forms used by the girls are clearly less direct and more polite than
those used by the boys.

In a study of a community of lowerclass male migrant agricultural workers on the eastern

seaboard of the USA, for instance, it was found that almost all the directives took the form of
imperatives, regardless of differences in social status, social distance, the presence of outsiders
and the setting or location.
For example :
(a) Stay away from them social workers.
(b) Well if you don’t want to work, get out of the fi eld.
(c) Grab that there hand truck.

Discussing the ways in which speech functions are expressed in different contexts has repeatedly
involved considerations of politeness. Choosing the appropriate linguistic form for directives to
family, friends and foreigners involves taking account of the dimensions of solidarity (or social
distance) and social status (or power).

Politeness and address forms

We often don’t appreciate just how complicated it is, because we tend to think
of politeness mainly as a matter of saying please and thank you in the right places. In fact, it
involves a great deal more than the superfi cial politeness routines that parents explicitly
teach their children.
Take the word please for example. Children are told to say please when they are making
requests, as a way of expressing themselves politely. But adults use please far less than one
might suppose and, when they do, it often has the effect of making a directive sound less polite
and more peremptory.
For example :
(a1) Could you take my bags up?
(a2) Could you take my bags up, please.
(b1) Answer the phone Jo.
(b2) Please answer the phone Jo.

As always, a great deal depends on intonation and tone of voice, but clearly please does not
necessarily increase the politeness of these directives. Being polite may also involve the
dimension of formality. In a formal situation, the appropriate way of talking to your brother will
depend on your roles in the context.

Linguistic politeness in different cultures

 There are sociolinguistic norms for polite acceptance and refusal which differ cross-
culturally.
 Being polite in such contexts involves knowing how to express a range of speech
functions in a culturally appropriate way.
 The sociolinguistic rules governing more formal meetings are usually equally culturally
prescribed. The Maori ritual of encounter, for instance, is a complex procedure. The bare
structure of the ritual is represented by the following sequence of speech events.
 There are also rules about who is eligible to contribute different elements. The gender,
age and status of appropriate participants is pre-determined
 Speech functions are expressed differently in different communities. Being polite
involves understanding the social values which govern the way social dimensions such as
status, solidarity and formality are expressed. A sociolinguistic description aims to
identify the different weight put on these factors in different cultures.