Address as a Sociolinguistic Marker.

Sociolinguistic markers of communication and Politeness Theory

Prof. Valentyna Ushchyna

Address as a Sociolinguistic Marker
• Politeness and politeness formulas
• Positive politeness vs. negative politeness
• Face-saving acts
• Greetings
TU / VOUS DISTINCTION
• Today most western languages have at least two forms of address:
one reserved for the family, intimate friends, children, pets; the other
for formal usage, or merely addressing a stranger.
• The use of pronouns of address may indicate one’s attitude, social
class and the relationship between the speaker and the listener.
The choice of second-person pronoun
• The choice of second-person pronoun in Western European languages
in particular shows the formalization of politeness and status in a
language.
• Most European nations have two-componential pronominal address
forms based on the opposition between polite and familiar modes of
address: tu – vous, du – sie, tu – Lei, ты – вы, ти – ви, the choice of
which being determined by social and psychological factors.
How to mark a deferential address if there is no
TU/VOUS distinction?
• A related phenomenon in languages that do not have T/V distinction
is the use of address terms.
• In English nominal address forms (proper names, kin terms, titles) are
used to indicate the relation to social groups and settings.
• English once also had a T/V distinction (THOU/YOU), which was
substituted by a range of address terms, ranging from a Title alone
(Sir, Your Majesty, Madam), through Title + Last Name (Mr. Jones, Lord
Evans) to First Name (Edward) and even nicknames
Obligatory Address Forms in English

• Thus, in Great Britain there are absolute

forms of address to special persons of
title, rank and office, obligatory in
correspondence, namely:
• to the King – Sir, Your Majesty
• to the Queen – Madam, Your Majesty
• to prince or princess of Wales –
Sir/Madam
• to earl, viscount – My Lord, My Lady.
Address in Arabic culture
In Arabic, there is an elaborate set of address patterns. One interesting
feature is the custom of addressing friends and acquaintances by the
name of their eldest son: a woman is addressed as ‘um Ahmed’ (the
mother of Ahmed), and a man ‘abu Ahmed’ (father of Ahmed). The
custom is even extended to people without children.
The Choice of Address
The choice of address form in asymmetric relations in
society is determined at least by eleven socially-marked
parameters, or factors, namely: social status, age,
generation, education, acquaintance/non-
acquaintance, nationality, race, sex, profession, topic of
discourse, residence.
Japanese Culture
• There are at least four levels
of politeness in Japanese,
with some subtleties on top
of that.
• First is rude speech, or blunt
speech, that you wouldn't
use in a normal conversation.
It is either rough language
that consists of "talking
down" to your listener, or it
is very colloquial and only
appropriate for very familiar
friends.
Levels of Politeness in Japan
• First is rude speech, or blunt speech, that you wouldn't use in a normal
conversation. It is either rough language that consists of "talking down" to your
listener, or it is very colloquial and only appropriate for very familiar friends.
• Then there is casual speech. It is used between family members and between
equal adults who are part of the same "in-group," such as within a company.
• The language you will use most often is polite language, also called normal-polite.
. It is used by adults who are not part of the same in-group or who don't know
each other well. Polite language is almost always used with foreigners, who are
by definition part of the "out-group."
Highest Level of Polite Address in Japan

Finally, there is honorific language,

which is sometimes simply called
formal language. (In Japanese, it
is keigo). You use it when speaking
with or about those far above you,
such as company presidents or
royalty. It may also be used with
elderly people, clients, or other
people whom you are treating with
extreme respect.
Some terminologies for polite language (keigo)
        Honorific                         Formal                                                  
                    Exalted/   Humble      Honorific/  Humble

Respect language      
A few other notes about being polite:
COMMANDS
One goal in Japanese conversation is to make your listener feel
comfortable and assured. But sometimes you must ask people to do
things, and that's bordering on the abrupt. Not surprisingly,
commands in Japanese are dealt with very carefully, using forms that
are slightly more polite than usual.
• There is a true command form, but if you really say it as a command,
it borders on being a direct insult. You wouldn't really say this form
unless you were addressing an inferior or very close friend.
Sit down!
• Let's look at the verb suwaru (to sit down).
• Impolite, true command form: Suware (don't use this as a matter of
course)
Casual: Suwari nasai
Polite: Suwatte kudasai
Honorific: Osuwari kudasai
Don't Not Do It!

In addition to commands, there are forms for giving suggestions,

permission, and prohibition of actions. Like commands, these have
the potential to sound too abrupt, and so they are treated carefully.
To say "I must go out," you literally say, "If I don't go out, [it] will not
become." I suppose [it] refers to life in general-- if you don't do X, the
whole future will fail to develop properly.
This is a typical Japanese subtlety
Indirectness

• Another aspect of Japanese politeness is its indirectness; Japanese is

an incredibly indirect language. The forthrightness that we value in
the West-- "speaking your mind," "making things clear," "being a
straight-shooter" -- is considered a bit rude in Japanese culture. Crass.
Embarrassingly blunt. And frankly, low-brow.
• The real art of Japanese communication is to be subtle in just the
right way. To be indirect, and therefore polite. To steer the
conversation, without being obvious about it, such that the person
you're talking to feels comfortable and honored.
Politeness in English

• As you've seen, Japanese politeness levels are almost like different

languages! And some European languages have special polite
pronouns that take special verb forms.
• English has none of these explicit politeness constructions, which has
led people to believe that English is much simpler and more
straightforward. True to an American character, they don't fuss with
all those silly honorifics and hoity-toity polite expressions, right?
Politeness forms in English (1)
 First, the use of "softened" verbs, such as "would." When talking to
my boss, one says "I would like..." instead of "I want...". One might
also include "would" to add some uncertainty, such as "Would it be
possible to talk with you about this tomorrow?" [and note the use of
"talk with" instead of "talk to"-- that's also more polite]. Another
softened verb is "could" instead of "can."
Politeness Forms in English (2)
 Softened verbs are actually part of a broader polite speaking style
that is more indirect than casual English.
 Speaking politely means making things sound uncertain, so the other
person is actually still in control. For example, you could say to a
friend, "I'd love to meet for lunch! Let's try out that new restaurant
downtown. I'm free on Friday as long as it's after 12:15." This is very
direct, but since it's your friend, they understand that they can come
back with their own suggestions.
Politeness Forms in English (3)
 To a business colleague you don't know well, or to a superior, you
would probably say something more like, "Thanks for the invitation; I
would like to meet for lunch. There is a new Italian place downtown
that got great reviews-- would you like to try it? Friday is best for me,
but I'd prefer to meet after 12:15 since I have a meeting in the late
morning."
Politeness Forms in English (4)
• Polite English is also more grammatically correct than casual English,
which is probably true in any language. And it uses fewer
contractions. Some examples are:
• Casual: "I've got four forks-- do you need one?"
More polite: "I have four forks. Would you like one?"
Politeness Forms in English (5)
Another way to make English sound more polite is simply to use
more sophisticated vocabulary. Instead of saying, "I don't get it. Why
does he care?" you might say, "I don't understand why it matters to
him." Or instead of "It's no good to take the bus because it's too
slow," you might say, "The bus isn't an efficient way to get there
because it tends to arrive late and makes frequent stops."
Politeness strategies and Face needs
According to Brown and Levinson, politeness strategies
are developed in order to save the hearers’ “FACE”.
FACE refers to the respect that an individual has for him
or herself, and maintaining that self-esteem in public or
in private situations.
Positive vs. negative politeness
• They distinguish positive politeness versus negative politeness.
• Positive politeness is usually seen in groups of friends, or where
people in the given social situation know each other fairly well. It
usually tries to minimize the distance between them, expressing
friendliness and solidarity.
• Negative politeness is assuming that the speaker may be imposing on
the hearer, and intruding in his/her space, therefore meaning that
there might be some social distance or awkwardness in the situation.
Greetings
• The most common kinds of politeness formulas are involved with greetings. Greetings
are the basic oil of social relations. To fail to greet someone who expects to be
greeted, signals either some unusual distraction or a desire to insult a person. Each
social group has its own set of rules about who has to be greeted, who should greet
first, and what is the appropriate form of greeting.
• English greetings range from informal “Hi!” through a neutral “Good morning!” to a
slowly disappearing formal “How do you do!” Nowadays it is common to add a second
part of the greeting, a purely phatic “How are you!” to which no reply is expected.
• Thus, greetings have two main functions: one is to initiate conversation
(communicative function), and the other is to let the interlocutor know that we care
(phatic function – the speech for the sake of social contact). The study of greetings
provides a useful method of exploring a structure of a social group, and is the subject
of conversation analysis and ethnomethodology.
Summary
• In summary, polite declarative language in English is focused on
being clearer because it requires the use of more precise words.
Polite interrogative language is softened to sound more tentative.