TOPIC 3

THE INTERPERSONAL
DIMENSION OF LANGUAGE USE
Eva Codó - English Pragmatics
Filologia Anglesa i Germanística
2021/22

1
Introduction
• Different reasons for variation in speech act
realisation:
a. Cultural
b. Situational
c. Interpersonal
d. Emotional

Example (from Alba-Juez and Mackenzie, 2016):

(1) Tim: Dad, give me some money for the bus, please.
(2) Tim: Dad, I don’t want to bother you but I have to go to the
library now and I need some money for the bus, but I can
also walk there, no problem, if necessary.

2
Introduction
• We generally expect our interlocutors to
behave in a rational way, and to be tactful and
kind to us.
• Sometimes, though, people may be impolite
because they feel unbalanced, annoyed or
attacked, or because the particular speech
situation requires them to disregard their
interlocutors’ wishes or take them out of their
“comfort zone”.
• Political debates.
• Journalistic interviews.

3
Introduction
• This does not mean interactants are not
following any social rules.
• They are following certain rules and using
certain strategies of impoliteness.
• Politeness is, in fact, a continuum.
• (Im)politeness as a universal phenomenon but
strategies differ inter-culturally and intra-
culturally.
• It is unthinkable to achieve a high command of a
language without learning to handle its
(im)politeness strategies and rules.
4
A definition of politeness
• What politeness is not about in pragmatic
theory:
• A real-life goal (=people’s desire to be really
pleasant to others).
• Good manners, social etiquette (social norms of
culturally appropriate behaviour): giving way; not
cursing, saying please and thank you, etc.
• Showing deference (e.g.T/V distinction).
Conventionalised way of addressing certain
interlocutors.

5
A definition of politeness
• What politeness is about in pragmatics:
• Strategic use of linguistic formulae to maintain or
promote harmonious interpersonal relationships.

6
Brown and Levinson’s
Theory
• Most influential approach in Politeness Theory:
Brown, Penelope and Stephen C. Levinson
(1987) Politeness. Some universals in language
usage. Cambridge: CUP.
• Central notion: face (Goffman 1967)  “the
public self-image that every member wants to
claim for himself.”
• Not a static concept: (i) constantly constructed
socially and interactionally (on loan from
society); (ii) may be destroyed (lost) depending
on how one behaves.

7
Brown and Levinson’s
model
• B & L seek to unveil the rational principles by
which participants in interaction deploy
strategies to achieve their ends.
• Claim to universality (data employed comes
from English, Tzetal and South Indian Tamil).
• B & L assume that all competent adult
members of a society have (and know each
other to have) two properties:

8
Brown and Levinson’s
model
(a) Face
(b) certain rational capacities, in particular
consistent modes of reasoning from
ends to the means to achieve those
ends

9
Brown and Levinson’s
model
• They also posit that interactants
cooperate (and assume each other’s
cooperation) to maintain each other’s
face in interaction.

• B&L divide Goffman’s notion of face into

two aspects:
• Negative face  an individual’s basic claim
to freedom of action and freedom from
imposition (one’s autonomy).

10
Brown and Levinson’s
model
• Positive face  an individual’s desire to be
liked, respected and appreciated by others,
to have his/her actions highly considered
(one’s sense of self-worth).

11
FTAs
• They can be divided into two categories
depending on whether they are perceived to
primarily threaten the speaker’s (S) or the
hearer’s (H) face (many acts actually threaten
both; any definite categorisations are
unrealistic). In each case, we can further
distinguish between positive and negative
face.

12
FTAs that threaten the
Hearer’s (H) face
• Positive face (damaging or being
indifferent to the other’s good image).
• Expressions of disapproval, ridicule or criticism:
You burned the toast again, you blockhead!
• Challenges and disagreements:
You’re totally wrong about that.
• Inattention, interruption
What was that you said right now?
• Bad news
You failed your exam.

13
FTAs that threaten the
Hearer’s (H) face
• Negative face (limiting others’ freedom to
act as they wish).
• Orders, requests.
Give up your seat on the bus to elderly
passengers.
• Suggestions, advice
You should not wear that lipstick colour.
• Threats, warnings, dares
I dare you to go into that field with the bull in it.
• Offers, promises and compliments
I’d like to make you a loan of 5000€.
14
FTAs that threaten the
Speaker’s (S) face
• Positive (damaging one’s good image)
• Confessing, admitting guilt or responsibility
I haven’t done the homework.
• Apologising
• Self-humiliation, lack of control over one’s body
I’d like to introduce you to my [HICCUP] parents.
• Acceptance of a compliment
Really, I just threw that cake together, nothing to it.

15
FTAs that threaten the
Speaker’s (S) face
• Negative (limiting one’s own freedom of
action).
• Acceptance of offers.
I’m very glad to be getting this ride home.
• Unwilling promises
Of course I’ll do your taxes for you next year too.

• What and whose face would be threatened in

panhandling (i.e. begging for money in the
streets)?

16
Strategies for doing FTAs

17
Strategies for doing FTAs
• Off record:
• Hinting, doing the act very indirectly.
I wonder where on earth that website is. I wish I could
remember the address.
• The speaker is being polite by not being seen as (1)
explicitly asking to do something; (2) asking anyone in
particular.
• Illocutionary force will probably be understood by
addressees, but they can choose to ignore it, and
speakers can always “retreat” behind literal meanings.
Strategies for doing FTAs
• On record:
• Bald on record (without redressive action).
Bring me my tea.
• With redressive action, that is, using a variety of
politeness strategies (face saving strategies).
• Negative politeness strategies (oriented primarily to
respecting/caring for addressee’s freedom of action).
• Positive politeness strategies (oriented primarily to
satisfying addressee’s need to be appreciated and
liked).
FTAs
• Most communicative acts are believed to threaten
participants’ face in some way or other: Face
Threatening Acts (FTAs).
• Three key factors in assessing the threatening
potential of a SA are:
• SOCIAL DISTANCE: how socially close speakers are
(distant: strangers; close: friends or family
members). The less socially close, the more
threatening the act will be.
• Low for family members, high between strangers.
• POWER: how much power can hearer exert over
speaker (the more powerful the hearer, the more
threatening the speaker’s act and viceversa: the
more powerful the speaker, the less threatening
his/her acts).

20
FTAs
• TYPES OF POWER:
• Physical force (police forces)
• Financial capacity (managers; parents)
• “Metaphysical” power (moral or knowledge authority;
admiration): priests; pop stars; doctors; teachers.
• DEGREE TO WHICH ACT X IS AN IMPOSITION IN A
GIVEN CULTURE (R): how imposing an act is
considered to be in a given culture (the more
imposing it is, the more threatening the act will be).
• Culturally variable: asking for a certain piece of
information.
• How sensitive are these topics in your culture?
• Politics
• Religion
• Money (salary)
21
FTAs
• B&L claim that S’s choice of strategy results from an
interaction among the three factors: D, P and R.
• They devised an equation to calculate the weightiness of an
FTA.

• Weighty FTA:
Asking an armed total stranger for a gift of 50,000€
• “Light” FTA:
To a beloved sibling: Buy me a coffee!

22
Examples of FTAs
• Request to use cell pone (From: Alba-Juez and Mackenzie, 2016).

• D low, P low, R moderate (e.g. To S’s brother): Gimme your cell for a
couple of minutes!
• D moderate, P low, R moderate (e.g. To a work colleague): Can you
lend me your cell for a couple of minutes to make a single call home?
• D moderate, P moderate, R moderate (.e.g. To the office manager):
Excuse me, I’ve forgotten my cell phone, could I possibly borrow yours
for a minute to make a quick call home?
• D moderate, P high, R moderate (e.g. To a member of senior
management): I’m very sorry to trouble you, but this is a bit of an
emergency: I’ve stupidly left my cell phone at home and I really need
to call my husband about a very important matter, and I just wondered
if there was any way I could possibly borrow your phone from the
briefest of calls?

23
Examples of FTAs
• D high, P moderate, R high (e.g. To a stranger in the street):
Excuse me, madam, I’m terribly sorry to trouble you but the
thing is that I have a real emergency going on. I’ve come out
without my cell phone and I desperately need to make an
important call home. I know I’m a complete stranger to you
and you’re probably anxious about me approaching you like
this, but I’d like to know if there’s any way at all I might borrow
your cell phone for two seconds?

24
Negative politeness
strategies
General criteria:
• Recognising hearer’s fundamental right to unimpeded action.
• Non-imposing or mitigating behaviour.

25
Negative politeness
strategies
Specific strategies (aka
restraint/detachment strategies)

1. Be conventionally indirect:
One of the most frequent type of
conventional indirectness is ability
questions for directives: they have
contextually unambiguous meanings (on
record expressions) by virtue of
conventionalisation
Can you pass the salt?
26
Negative politeness
strategies
2. Question, hedge (not
presuming/assuming)
For comments/evaluations of people, work, etc:
I think/guess/suppose (subjectivity marker) that Frank
is a bit of (tentativizer) a mean person. (vs. Frank is....)
This is perhaps too strong a claim to make (pragmatic
idiom)
It was amazing, wasn’t it? (question tag)
You may be late if you don’t go now. (modality)
That’s just what it is, as it were/it seems to me/don’t
you agree?

A. Are you doing anything tonight? (presequence)

B. No
A. Do you fancy going out for a drink?

27
Negative politeness
strategies
For directives:
Close the window, will you?
Could I borrow your bike if you’re not
planning on using it this afternoon?
(incorporating excuses)

Also, intonation, kinesic means, gestures…

28
Negative politeness
strategies
3. Be pessimistic
You couldn’t possibly lend me your car?
In general, the use of could, would, and might seem
related to the satisfaction of this want.
Could you do X (instead of ‘Can you do X?’) – this
includes two strategies: using conventionalised
indirectness and being pessimistic

4. Minimise size of imposition on H

(downgraders)
Would you mind moving just slightly? I can’t see the
screen.
I just want to ask you if I can borrow a tiny bit of
paper.
29
Negative politeness
strategies
5. Give deference (humble yourself
or treating A as superior)
Excuse me. I am a complete ignorant.
Could you tell me who Jef Verschueren is?
(humbling yourself)
6. Apologise, admit impingement,
indicate reluctance to do the FTA,
give overwhelming reasons…
I’m sorry to bother you but (apologising +
admitting impingement).

30
Negative politeness
strategies
I’m sure you must be very busy,
but… (admitting impingement)
I don’t want to interrupt you, but…
(indicating reluctance)
I can’t think of anybody else who
could… (giving overwhelming
reasons)

31
Negative politeness
strategies
7. Impersonalise S and H (avoid I and you)
The aim is not to gain weight (instead of “do not put
on weight”).
It would be appreciated if someone could...
We are very sorry to inform you...
It broke.

32
Negative politeness
strategy
8. State the FTA as some kind of
general social rule, regulation or
obligation
University students are obliged to fulfil at
least 15 credits per term to be allowed to
continue in their studies.
We don’t sit on tables; we sit on chairs, Johnny.

33
Negative Politeness
Strategies
9. Nominalise
I’m surprised at your failure to reply (vs
I’m surprised that you failed to reply)
10. Go on record as incurring a debt
I’d be grateful if you would lend me 500€.

34
Positive politeness
strategies
General criteria:
• demonstrate closeness & solidarity
• show concern for others
• emphasise common ground

35
Positive politeness
strategies
Specific strategies:
1.Notice / attend to the hearer’s
interests, wants, needs, goods.
Oh! You had your hair cut. It looks nice.
Listen, can I ask you something?
2. Exaggerate approval / sympathy
of H
Mary, you’re an excellent cook, will you give
me a hand with the cake?

36
Positive politeness
strategies
3. Use informal language, solidarity
(T) forms, in-group identity markers
and terms of endearment (luv,
cutie, sweetie, honey...).
Hey, mate, can you lend me two quid?
Mind if I smoke?

Codeswitching into interlocutor’s preferred

language...

37
Positive politeness
strategies
The opposite move (from informal to formal
terms of address, language or code) may
signal a withdrawal from positive politeness.

First call: Come here, Johnny.

Second call: John Henry Smith, you come
here right away.

38
Positive politeness
strategies
4. Avoid disagreement, maximise
agreement (by e.g. raising safe
topics)

A: That’s were you live, Florida?

B: That’s were I was born.(vs No, I don’t live
there)

A: This is a rather long text.

B: Not short, certainly. (vs I don’t think it’s that
long)

39
Positive politeness
strategies
5. Presuppose, assert common ground
(gossip, make small talk)

I know you hate parties, Katie, but do come

anyway. We’ll all be there. It’ll be cool. Do you
think Mark and Jane will still be together?

I know you hate parties, Katie, but do come

anyway. We’ll all be there. It’ll be cool. Do you
think Mark and Jane will still be together?
40
Positive politeness
strategies
6. Joke
7. Assert knowledge of H’s wants,
likes, etc.
I know you like marshmallows so I brought
to a whole box of them... Listen, could I ask
you for a favour?
8. Offer, promise.
(after someone does you a favour) I’ll drop by
your office some time next week.

41
Positive politeness
strategies
9. Be optimistic
You’ll come to my birthday party, I
hope.
10. Include both speaker and hearer
in the activity
If we help each other, we’ll both sink or
swim in this course.
Teacher to Ss: do we understand?
11. Give (or ask) for reasons.
I think you’ve had too much to drink.
Why don’t we go home now?
42
Positive politeness
strategies
12. Assume or assert reciprocity
Can you lend me your notes and I’ll lend
you mine next week?

13. Give gifts to H (goods, but also

sympathy, understanding, cooperation).
Compliment H.

43
Criticisms of B+L’s
Theory
• Emphasis on invidualism as a reflection of
Western/Anglo-Saxon values (‘individualist bias’).
• In other cultures (more collectivist), the group may be
more important than the individual.
• In Eastern cultures (China, Korea, Japan, etc.) people tend to
give high importance to their rights and obligations in
relation to in-group and out-group members, as well as to
superiors and inferiors.
• Oversimplification of important differences
between social groups; not all share the same
‘wants’.

44
Criticisms of B+L
• Undefined influence of culture on relative
weight of negative/positive politeness.
• British (negative politeness).
• Mediterranean countries (positive politeness).

45
Criticisms of B+L
• The power and social distance holding for a
specific social relationship are culturally
determined, and so is the weight of the FTA
being performed. However, B+L do not take into
account cultural variability in expectations about
what one can ask other individuals to do.
• Certain politeness moves may cause offence in certain
countries.
• Power as not an appropriate variable in certain countries
(Eastern countries).
• Cumulative effect of three factors?
• Factors as objectively measurable?

46
Criticisms of B+L
• The notion of what constitutes ‘polite behaviour’ is viewed in a
decontextualised way (normative system of prescripts which
are predictive).
• Not accounting for how politeness is perceived.
• Better viewed as a dynamic/interactional social practice.

47
Criticisms of B+L
• B+L’s model believe impolitenes is a marginal phenomenon.
They do not describe it.
• It may not be so peripheral in certain institutional contexts.
• Check the following webpage:
• https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/fass/projects/impoliteness/index.htm

48