formality - politness strategies and positive face needs

why do we choose politeness strategies based on three factors

1. the power difference between interlocutors

2. the social distance between the interlocutors

3. the cost of imposition - how threatening an act is

reason why we choose politness strategies - power

• more effort into being polite when communicating with people in positions with greater social power.

• Consider how you would speak to a police officer, compared with a sibling at home

reason why we choose politness strategies - social distance

• we are more polite with people that we don’t know

reason why we choose politness strategies - imposition

• a demand or burden put on someone. Different request have a different ‘social weight’ or burden to them.

social distance

• people use strategies when they are speaking to either keep the listeners at a personal distance, or to bring them close to establish a more intimate relationship

reinforced social distance

• choosing language that maintains the social distance between speaker and listeners

• no effort being made to bring a listener closer

  • example - speaker with a cultivated accent may emphasise the accent to indicate they belong to a superior social group compared to the listener

reinforced social distance to maintain authority

to assert authority

• example - police using formal language to assert themselves as more knowledgable, having more authority and to keep a professional distance when speaking with a civilian

to show deference to authority

• to gain approval and have some autonomy around those with more power than use, we use formal language to show deference (polite submission and respect)

strategies in formal language

• titles

• honorifcs

• sentence types

• openings and closings

• elevated lexis