|
Brown & Levinson 1987: politeness examples - positive politeness
Grundlagen | 'face' | FTAs: neg.-H-face / pos.-H-face / S-face / strategies | strategy selection | Bsp: bald / pos. |
exaggeration Perhaps the only feature that distinguishes positive-politeness redress from normal everyday intimate language behaviour is an element of exaggeration; this serves as a marker of the face-redress aspect of positive-politeness expression, by indicating that even if S can't with total sincerity say 'I want your wants', he can at least sincerely indicate 'I want your positive face to be satsified'. … It is precisely this association with intimate language usage that gives the linguistics of positive politeness its redressive force. Positive-politeness utterances are used as a kind of metaphorical extension of intimacy. … but in general as a kind of social accelerator, where S, in using them, indicates that he wants to 'come closer' to H. | |
Strategy 1 | Notice, attend to H (his interests, wants, needs, goods) |
1 |
Goodness, you cut your hair! (…) By the way, I came to borrow some flour. |
2 |
You must be hungry, it's a long time since breakfast. How about some lunch? |
3 |
What a beautiful vase this is! Where did it come from? |
Strategy 3 | Intensify interest to H |
This may be done by using the 'vivid present', for example; this is a common feature of positive-politeness conversations, as it pulls H right into the middle of the events being discussed, metaphorically at any rate, thereby increasing their intrinsic interest to him. For example: | |
19 |
I come down the stairs, and what do you think I see? - a huge mess all over the place, the phone's off the hook and clothes are scattered all over … |
Sometimes this can involve swithcing back and forth between past and present tenses, as in the following passage where the speaker is relating her family's reactions to a past event: | |
20 |
Black I like. I used to wear it more than I do now, I very rarely wear it now. I wore a black jumper, and when I wear it my Mum says 'Ah', she said. But Len likes it, he thinks it looks ever so nice and quite a few people do. But when my Mum sees it she said: 'Oh, it's not your colour, you're more for pinks and blues.' |
 |
Brown, Penelope & Levinson, Stephen (1987) Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage. Cambridge u.a.: Cambridge University Press |
W. Grießhaber 2003-2005 |