SPEECH FUNCTIONS, POLITENESS

AND CROSS-CULTURAL
COMMUNICATION

Group 11 : Andita Wulandari & Zulkifli

 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, e.g. I’m feeling great today.
2. Directive utterances attempt to get someone to do something, e.g. Clear the table.
3. Referential utterances provide information, e.g. At the third stroke it will be three o’clock
precisely.
4. Metalinguistic utterances comment on language itself, e.g. ‘Hegemony’ is not a common
word.
5. Poetic utterances focus on aesthetic features of language, e.g. a poem, an ear-catching
motto, a rhyme, Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.
6. Phatic utterances express solidarity and empathy with others, e.g. Hi, how are you,
lovely
day isn’t it!
 DIRECTIVES

Directives are concerned with getting peoples to do things.

There are three ways to expressing the directives, such as The
interrogative, declarative, and imperative.

Examples :

Could you sit down? Interrogative

Sit down Imperative
I want you to sit down. Declarative
 POLITENESS AND ADDRESS FORMS

Being polite is a complicated business in any language. It is diffi cult to

learn because it involves understanding not just the language, but also
the social and cultural values of the community. 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.

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.
 TYPES OF POLITENESS

1. Positive Politeness

Positive politeness is solidarity oriented. It emphasises shared attitudes and

values. When the boss suggests that a subordinate should use first name to her,
this is a positive politeness move, expressing solidarity and minimising status
differences.

2. Negative Politeness

negative politeness pays people respect and avoids intruding on them. Negative
politeness involves expressing oneself appro-priately in terms of social distance
and respecting status differences. Using title and last name to your superiors, and
to older people that you don’t know well, are further examples of the expression of
negative politeness.
 LINGUISTIC POLITENESS IN DIFFERENT CULTURES

Anyone who has travelled outside their own speech community is likely
to have had some experience of miscommunication based on cultural differences.

Often these relate to different assumptions deriving from different ‘normal’

environments. A Thai student in Britain, for example, reported not being able to
understand what her hostess meant when she asked On which day of the week
would you like to have your bath ? Coming from a very hot country with a ‘water-
oriented culture’, the notion that she might have a bath only once a week was very
diffi cult to grasp. Learning another language usually involves a great deal more
than learning the literal meaning of the words, how to put them together and how
to pronounce them. We need to know what they mean in the cultural context in
which they are normally used. And that involves some understanding of the cultural
and social norms
of their users.
THANK YOU!