The Varying Definition Of Politeness Across Cultures English Language Essay

The Varying Definition Of Politeness Across Cultures face Language EssayCHAPTER 1INTRODUCTION1.0 INTRODUCTION1.1 minimise of the leaseThe definition of address varies across cultures and the claims for universals have shown divergence and also lack of clarity as they have received serious attention since the brownish and Levinson theory was proposed (1978, 1987). Lakoff (1989) defined the barrier Polite as the use of discretion rules regard little of expectation whereas the term non-polite behaviour refers to the act of non using ingenuity rules when they atomic number 18 not expected. The dark-brown and Levinsons (BLs) model has contributed a lot in the correction of adroitness discourse although there ar many criticisms that have been do by some queryers due to its lack of clarity concerning the definition of politeness and concomitant concepts of across studies and within the same studies (A. J. Meier, 1995). Furthermore, the BLs theory is said to be ethnocentri c because it is derived directly from the high value which is based on individualism in the Western culture (Kasper, 1990 252-253) and the fact that their distinction between the negative and positive politeness is dubious (Meier, 1995 384). Goffmans (1967) work has also contributed a lot in the field of politeness discourse and has become one of the most signifi crowd outt in the research of verbiage use. Goffman has introduced the notion of face (BL, 1987 61). The BL defined the term politeness in terms of speakers need to say things which enable them to mitigate the imposition inherent in savoir-faire acts and also the face that those speech acts threaten including the face of the speaker as well as the face of others. A mitigated form is a form that is used in speech by expressing a constituten prepositional content in decree not to offend others (Linde, 1988). t aloney to phlebotomize (1983), politeness is needed and Copernican in the theory of linguistic pragmatics in o rder to explain the reasons that cause speakers to violate Grices Co-operative principles and its maxims. Self-politeness is taken seriously in Leechs framework. The self-politeness is important in the theory of linguistic politeness because it involves the face of the speaker which tends to be as vulnerable as the face of the auditor. This vulnerability is viewed in two ship canal and is described in the BL model. First, there are speech acts that threaten faces of others and speech acts that threaten the self-face. Second, the face of the speaker can also be attacked by the hearer just as the face of the hearer can be attacked by the speaker in a conversation.Brown and Levinson have devoted an entire defend of politeness although its concept is never actually defined. They concentrateed on two types of politeness strategies which are the negative and positive strategies that are used in order to reduce the imposition or threat to an addressees face upon the enactment of an inhe rently face-threatening act. Negative strategies are characterized as expressions of restraint, formality, and distancing whereas positive strategies are described as expressions of solidarity, intimacy, informality, and familiarity (A. J. Meier, 1995). These strategies focus on the positive and negative face notions. Positive face refers to a persons self-esteem and how he or she wants to be appreciated and accepted by the society. On the other hand, negative face refers to a persons freedom to act. Every individual has the rights to be involved in making decision. Speakers have to perform various speech acts in communication and these acts tend to threaten the face of the speaker or the hearer or both which can cause mis reasons among them. There are tailfin superstrategies that were proposed by the Brown and Levinson theory which areWithout redressive action, baldlyPositive politenessNegative PolitenessOff recordWithhold the FTARudeness is the contrast of the term politeness. La koff (1989) defined the term rude as an act that disregards politeness rules when they are in fact expected although there is no clarity in engageing what politeness rules consist of and on what basis they are determined in order to be considered as polite (A. J. Meier,1995). An apology is an act of politeness which is stated in Holmes (1990 156) and is practised in most cultures of the world. According to Britain (1992), high rising tones which are used in declarative sentences are considered as markers of politeness in modern Zealand English. In the work of Bublitz (1980), the terms please, just, passive voice, and tag questions are considered as the expressions of politeness. Politeness routines such as Thank you and Youre welcome are also native in communication. In order not to fathom rude when speaking to others, the appropriate politeness strategies should be implied and practised which can avoid misunderstandings between the speakers and hearers. According to Janney and Arndt (1992), tact resembles the BLs concepts and it is important in order to avoid conflicts. Blum-Kulka (198967) on the other hand considers tact as an aspect of the appropriate polite behaviour. Kasper (1990200) argued that the strategies and means of politeness are not exactly endowed with politeness values, which creates a question mark in ones mind. If polite strategies are not always polite as what is said by her, one would wonder what qualifies them as politeness strategies to begin with. Furthermore, some would argue that there is no particular style nor particular syntactical constructions (Fraser and Nolen, 1981 Zimin, 1981) can be polite or impolite. Many would question when and where to be polite and this is when sociolinguistic competence becomes important. Sociolinguistic competence is the knowledge of appropriate language use (Joseph A. DeVito, 2008). Lakoff (1989 103) made an equate clarity with non-politeness where she maintained that politeness only differs in imp ortance depending on the discourse genre which she believed that the more transactional the interaction is, the less important politeness will be.1.2 Statement of the problemThe universality of politeness is yet to be clarified because politeness varies across cultures which create problems in establishing physical object measures for application across cultures. In this case, misunderstandings in communication can occur when one is unaware of another ones culture. Ehlich (1992) has warned of the dangers of ethnocentricity in determining the standards of politeness that apply to all groups whereas Hymes (198649) emphasized on the cautions of the tendencies in seeking the satisfaction of universal framework without considering the empirical inadequacy of them. Malaysia is a country that consists of various culturals that have different practices, cultures and beliefs. Its biggest ethnic groups are the Malays, followed by the Chinese, Indian, and lastly the minority ethnics. Politen ess is important because it can cause misunderstandings if it is not taken seriously. However, due to the culture differences politeness is viewed differently by different groups of society in Malaysia. The BLs model cannot be applied in some of these cultures because they do not seem to fulfil each others wants. Gu (1990) argued that the BLs concepts are not adequate to account for aspects of Chinese and Matsumoto (1988, 1989) argued that the BLs notion of face with its individual territorial rights cannot be applied to the Japanese since the Japanese are more relate with positional relation to others rather than with the individual territory.Everyone has the tendency to be rude when speaking to other people and they can in fact choose to be or not to be rude whenever and wherever they want. However, does this mean that they do not know the rules of politeness? According to the BL theory of politeness, an utterance is considered polite when there is an implicature that is generate d due to the ravishment of the conversational maxims in order to save the face of others. An utterance can be polite even though the implicature is not. If that is so, how can soul tell when someone else meant to be polite or rude? A speakers communication competence is correlated to the degree of politeness. In order to be a efficient speaker, one must possess communicative competence which consists of four types of competencies which are Grammatical competence, Sociolinguistic competence, Discourse competence, and Strategic competence. Grammatical competence is the program line of the language and Sociolinguistic competence is the knowledge of appropriate language use. Discourse competence on the other hand means the knowledge of how to connect utterances in a text in order to make sure it is both cohesive and coherent. Finally, strategic competence refers to the mastery of the strategies used by speakers to compensate for breakdowns in communication as well as the strategies t hat they use in order to enhance the effectiveness of the communications.The BLs model agreed with Grices co-operative principles and the conversational maxims which consider politeness as part of rational communication. Grices theory assumed that communication involves the intention of a speaker which is directed at a hearer and intended to be accept (Brown and Levinson, 19877) and that communication is governed by a rational Cooperative Principle and also a number of maxims which give rise to conversational implicatures (19873). The co-operative principles emphasized four maxims which are the maxim of quantity, maxim of quality, maxim of relation, and maxim of manner which are formulated under the assumption that the common purpose of the talk exchange is to be maximally efficient and reliable. If one has to follow the BLs concepts, one probably has to flout the co-operative principles. Ones utterance can be polite even if the speaker doesnt mean anything polite. One can be rude even though it is not done on purpose and one can be polite even though it is not meant. According to Grice (1957219, 1968122), in order to mean something by an utterance one must have the intention to produce some effect in an interview by means of the recognition of this intention. In short, one can choose to follow the Brown and Levinsons concepts or neglect its message to save the face of others.Interruptions are not tolerated in the English language but it is tolerated in the Italian language. It is considered rude for a person to interrupt another persons speech in the English culture. (Brian Paltridge, 2005). Interruption is also considered as a Face Threatening Act. (Jonas Pfister, 2010). For this reason, interruption is considered rude among Malaysians for example interrupting a persons conversation when he or she is not unblemished talking. If this is true, what about the practice of interruptions in a debate competition? One may question when and where can politeness be applied. Some would even consider interruption by permission in a conversation is tolerable. If so, one may question the accuracy of the definition of the terms rude and polite. Both able and incompetent speakers can choose to neglect the politeness rules whenever they want and yet, they are still considered as competent and incompetent speakers of a language.1.3 Objectives of studyThis study seeks toTo look into the politeness practices among competent and incompetent speakers of English in Malaysia.To understand the many reasons that lead to rudeness among most incompetent and competent speakers of English in their conversations.To give guidance to incompetent and competent speakers of English in share them to understand the politeness strategies.To help us understand the needs in educating these incompetent and competent speakers of English in language usage.1.4 Research questionsThe following are the research questions for the study1.4.1 What are the factors that cause incomp etent and competent speakers of English to have the tendencies to sound rude in their speeches?1.4.2 What are the ways that may help the incompetent and competent speakers of English in improving their speeches?Who are responsible in helping the incompetent and competent speakers of English in improving their speeches?When and where should the incompetent and competent speakers of English be polite when having a conversation with others?Significance of the StudyThis study is important in order to help us understand about the problems faced by the incompetent and competent speakers of English in their day-after-day conversations. This study is also concern whether there is a need for maxim of politeness in our everyday conversation. Politeness is hardly defined due to the lack of light of its term and its definition has been argued by many researchers in their various theories of politeness. Researchers such as Lakoff (1973), Leech (1983), Kingwell (1993), Davis (1998), and Kalia ( 2004, 2007) believed that a maxim of politeness is needed in our everyday conversation and their views will help us to understand the significance of the term polite. This study also explores the competent and incompetent speaker of English in Malaysias patch of views of the term polite based on their own understandings and practices since politeness can differ across cultures. I will also explain why the Brown and Levinsons theory is not satisfactory and cannot be universally accepted. Through this study, a Malaysian perspective of the term polite can be explored, understood and compared. celestial orbit of the studyThis study is conducted in Fakulti Bahasa Moden dan Komunikasi (FBMK) UPM which is confined to the population of 12 selected ESL learners in Malaysia. All of the respondents are picked randomly from 3 major races in Malaysia which are Malay, Chinese, and India besides. However, the natives of Sabah and Sarawak are not included.Definition of TermsFor the purpose of the study, the following terms are defined below in order to facilitate a better understanding of the studys main concern.1.7.1 PoliteThe term polite refers to the use of politeness rules regardless of expectation (Lakoff, 1989). Besides that, an utterance is considered polite if and only if there is an implicature that is generated due to the violation of a conversational maxims because of concerns of face (Brown and Levinson, 1987).1.7.2 Non-politeThe term non-polite refers to the behaviour of not using politeness rules and yet not expected (Lakoff,1989).1.7.3 RudeThe term rude on the other hand includes the disregarding of the politeness rules when they are in fact expected (Lakoff, 1989).1.7.4 Positive FaceThe term Positive face refers to the want that the wants be sexually attractive to others and also the wants be approved of by others (Brown and Levinson, 1987).1.7.5 Negative FaceThe term Negative face refers to the want of every member that his wants be desirable to at least so me others. Negative politeness is said to be more polite than the positive politeness.