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Concept
Politeness
Summary
Politeness is the practical application of good manners or etiquette so as not to offend others. It is a culturally defined phenomenon, and therefore what is considered polite in one culture can sometimes be quite rude or simply eccentric in another cultural context.
While the goal of politeness is to refrain from behaving in an offensive way so as not to offend others and make all people feel relaxed and comfortable with one another, these culturally defined standards at times may be manipulated.
Anthropologists Penelope Brown and Stephen Levinson identified two kinds of politeness, deriving from Erving Goffman's concept of face:
Negative politeness: Making a request less infringing, such as "If you don't mind..." or "If it isn't too much trouble..."; respects a person's right to act freely. In other words, deference. There is a greater use of indirect speech acts. Also considered a part of being assertive.
Non-assertive politeness: when a person refrains from making a comment or asserting their beliefs during a discussion so as to remain polite to others present. Also when a person goes along with a decision made by someone else so as not to appear impolite.
Assertive politeness: when a person offers their opinion in a positive and constructive way to be assistive and helpful during an interaction. Or to refrain from agreeing with something they do not actually agree with in a way that does not offend others.
Positive politeness: Seeks to establish a positive relationship between parties; respects a person's need to be liked and understood. Direct speech acts, swearing and flouting Grice's maxims can be considered aspects of positive politeness because:
they show an awareness that the relationship is strong enough to cope with what would normally be considered impolite (in the popular understanding of the term);
they articulate an awareness of the other person's values, which fulfills the person's desire to be accepted.
Some cultures seem to prefer one of these kinds of politeness over the other.
Official source
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Related concepts (3)
Cooperative principle
In social science generally and linguistics specifically, the cooperative principle describes how people achieve effective conversational communication in common social situations—that is, how listeners and speakers act cooperatively and mutually accept one another to be understood in a particular way. The philosopher of language Paul Grice introduced the concept in his pragmatic theory, argued such:Make your contribution such as is required, at the stage at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged.
Etiquette
Etiquette (ˈɛtikɛt,_-kᵻt) is the set of norms of personal behaviour in polite society, usually occurring in the form of an ethical code of the expected and accepted social behaviours that accord with the conventions and norms observed and practised by a society, a social class, or a social group. In modern English usage, the French word étiquette (label and tag) dates from the year 1750. In , the Ancient Egyptian vizier Ptahhotep wrote The Maxims of Ptahhotep (), a didactic book of precepts extolling civil virtues, such as truthfulness, self-control, and kindness towards other people.
Conversation
Conversation is interactive communication between two or more people. The development of conversational skills and etiquette is an important part of socialization. The development of conversational skills in a new language is a frequent focus of language teaching and learning. Conversation analysis is a branch of sociology which studies the structure and organization of human interaction, with a more specific focus on conversational interaction.