On Politeness in Classroom Conversational Communication

郝帅

Abstract：To make effective communication，Politeness Principle has become an important part in the research of pragmatics.So politeness can first of all be considered as a phenomenon，an observable social phenomenon.According to the Cooperative Principle put forward by Grice，the users of language in communication usually have the desire to cooperate with each other and observe the four maxims of good communicative behavior：Quality Maxim，Quantity Maxim，Relation Maxim，and Manner Maxim.However，people often violate these maxims intentionally，expressing themselves in an indirect way to convey the intended meaning.It is mainly for politeness that speakers tend to talk indirectly.Therefore，I intend to explore how to adopt proper politeness strategies and use English polite language appropriately to make communication successful，especially in classroom daily communication.

Key words：Politeness；Characters and Principles；Classroom Communication.

中图分类号：H319 文献标志码：A 文章编号：1674-9324（2013）06-0123-03

I Politeness Principle

As Brown and Levinson notes that “politeness is not only the main reason of infringing Cooperative Principle，but also can be conveyed exactly by these infringing actions.”（George Yule，2003）

Polite words and expressions can shorten the communicative distance，ease the tension and clear up the conflict.The maxims of the Politeness Principle are generalization and summation of the polite language mechanism.Only by obeying the Politeness Principle can one properly keep and maintain a communicative distance and effectively fulfill the communicative behavior.It has been suggested that politeness is another level to conversational interaction besides the rules of Cooperative Principle.

The Politeness Principle consists of the following maxims：（Leech，1983）

i.Tact Maxim （in impositives and commissives）

a）Minimize cost to other （b）Maximize benefit to other

e.g.Could you close the door？

Can I help you？

ii.Generosity Maxim （in impositives and commissives）

a）Minimize benefit to self （b）Maximize cost to self

e.g.Do have another award please.

Sit down.

iii.Approbation Maxim （in expressives and assertives）

a）Minimize dispraise of other （b）Maximize praise of other

e.g.A：You are very smart！

B：Thank you！

iv.Modesty Maxim （in expressives and assertives）

a）Minimize praise of self （b）Maximize dispraise of self

e.g.A：What a bright boy you are！You always get full marks.

B：Thank you.I have very good teachers.

v.Agreement Maxim （in assertives）

a）Minimize disagreement between self and other

b）Maximize agreement between self and other

e.g.A：I thought the lecture was good tonight.

B：Yes，quite good！

vi.Sympathy Maxim （in assertives）

a）Minimize antipathy between self and other

b）Maximize sympathy between self and other

e.g.A：I lost my important reference book last week and I still can't get over it.

B：I'm sorry to hear that.

According to Leech，the point of politeness is to minimize the effects of impolite statements and to maximize the politeness of polite illocutions.Here are some examples：

Teacher：Someone must have broken the window.

Student：It wasn't me.

This teacher's hinting a possible misbehavior committed by the student is considered to be more polite than a direct accusation.If the teacher said something like “You must have broken the window”to the student，the student would have been insulted，especially if the accusation in fact was incorrect.Though the teacher violates the maxim of quantity under the Cooperative Principle，she /he obeys the principle of politeness.

Similarly，in the following example：

John：We'll miss my classmates Mary and Jean，won't we？

Peter：Well，we all miss Jean.

Here，cooperation takes a back seat to politeness.Peter doesn't offer any comment on John's utterance，knowingly and willfully.He sins against the maxim of quantity，but he does so for reasons of politeness.

There are many general characters on politeness about each politeness norm.The ideological core is trying to reduce others' cost and to exaggerate others' benefit.

Ⅱ The characters of Politeness Principle

i.The rank of Politeness Principle

Languages can be divided into politeness and impoliteness in verbal communication.Further more，there are different polite ranks within polite language.Such ranks can be reflected in the way of speech act and content of utterances.

1）Polite ranks in the way of speech act.This point is very obvious in English.For example：

①Lend me your pen.

②I want you to lend me your pen.

③Will you lend me your pen？

④Can you lend me your pen？

⑤Would you lend me your pen？

⑥Could you lend me your pen？

The examples above are about lending the pen，but polite ranks are different.The first two sentences are impolite，while the other four sentences are polite.And the degree of politeness is becoming strong gradually.

2）Polite ranks in the content of utterance.The Politeness Principle aims at maximizing benefit to other.So the more benefit others get，the higher the degree of politeness is.The following sentences are all imperative sentences，but different speech content result in different polite degree.

⑦Close the window.

⑧Hand me the English newspaper.

⑨Sit down.

⑩Give me five.

Both persons in sentences ⑦ and ⑧ suffer loss.But the loss first person suffers is greater than the second person suffers.While both persons in sentences ⑨ and ⑩ are beneficial，but the latter gets more than the former.

ii.The conflict of Politeness Principle

The conflict of Politeness Principle refers to the conflict among the sub-maxims.

1）Tact and Generosity

e.g.Let me help you move the desk.

These two maxims will conflict unless the speaker really wants to do so.

2）Modesty and Agreement

e.g.A：Your handwriting is very beautiful.

B：No，no，you overpraise me！

If B's handwriting is beautiful indeed，in order to obey the Modesty Maxim，B must violate Agreement Maxim.Conversely，if B wants to obey Agreement Maxim，B has to say，“Yes，my handwriting is not bad.”Meanwhile，he violates the Modesty Maxim.

3）Agreement and Agreement

e.g.A：English is difficult to learn.

B：Yes，but the grammar is easy.

B says，“yes”，which obeys the Agreement Maxim；but he says，“the grammar is easy”，which violates the Agreement Maxim.

iii.The appropriateness of Politeness Principle

It means that we should choose polite ranks according to the concrete context.From the angle of speech forms，it doesn't imply that the polite form and speech are not direct proportion.Concretely speaking：

a.Choosing the proper manner of politeness according to speech contente.g.If I want somebody send me the newspaper，in order to be polite，I can just say：“Hand me the newspaper，please.” If I say like this：“Could you possibly hand me the newspaper？” Obviously this isn't the proper way.

b.Choosing the proper speech forms according to speech target

The speech target may be a stranger or a acquaintance，may be higher power or lower power，may be elder generation or younger generation，etc.Consequently，the polite forms of speech should be different.

e.g.Tell me the time，John？

Excuse me，would you please tell me the time？

The speaker in the first sentence must ask acquaintance the time，and in the second sentence，the speech target must be a stranger.

c.Choosing the proper manner of politeness according to the context of situation

Many people neglect different settings，which causes the inappropriateness in English performance and shows their failure in the actual communication.Generally speaking，we have formal situation and informal situation.The languages in both situations are distinguishing，which can not be confused.

e.g.①Come and meet our dean，professor Liu.

or：I don't think you've met our dean，professor Liu.

②Allow me to introduce to you our dean，professor Liu.

or：Shall I introduce to you our dean，professor Liu.

Sentence ①can be used in informal situation，while sentence ②should be used in formal situation.

iv.The nationality of Politeness Principle

The nationality of Politeness Principle means that different nations have their own various opinions on “what is politeness”.Take“praise”for example，the response of westerners will probably be “thank you”.But this violates the Modesty Maxim in Chinese convention.On the contrary，Chinese will make a negative response，a means of self-depreciate，in order to express modesty.But such an answer violates the Agreement Maxim obviously in western convention.And from the angle of Cooperative Principle，it violates the Quantity Maxim.It is hypocritical.

e.g.Chinese speakers A：Your speech is wonderful！

B：No，you overpraise me.Just so-so！

Westerners A：You look very nice in this red jacket.B：Thank you.

III.Conclusion

The strategies and suggestions above are only some hints.Politeness can be realized in a number of ways，among which the use of language is an important one.With the development of pragmatics in the past thirty years or so，more and more attention has been paid to the ways in which language is used to show politeness and also the difference between different languages and cultures.

Politeness is what people of different cultural background all try to observe and maintain，and the politeness maxims proposed by Leech are to a large extent applicable in cultures.To sum up，politeness can at once be understood as a social phenomenon，a means to achieve good interpersonal relationships，and a norm imposed by social conventions.So it is phenomenal，instrumental，and normative by nature.As English learners，we should be aware that cultures differ in the actual ways to realize politeness and also in the standards for its judgement.

Bibliography：

[1]George Yule，Pragmatics[M].上海外语教育出版社，2003.

[2]Leech G N，Principles of Pragmatics[M].Longman Group Limited，1983.

[3]何兆熊.A New Introduction to Pragmatics[M].上海外语教育出版社，2001.

[4]申小龙.语言学纲要[M].上海：复旦大学出版社，2003.