Towards a Cognitive Approach to Politeness  

Oleh:

Escandell-Vidal, Victoria

Jenis: Article from Journal - ilmiah internasional
Dalam koleksi: Language Sciences (Full Text) vol. 18 no. 3-4 (1996), page 629-650..
Topik: Cognitive pragmatics; politeness; specific knowledge; mental models; flames; relevance theory; universality; culture-specificity; intercultural (mis)communication
Fulltext: 18_03-04_Escandell-Vidal.pdf (2.25MB)

Isi artikel

The aim of this paper is to argue for the possibility of a cognitive approach to politeness. Modern research on politeness was dominated by a strategic approach for several years: politeness was seen as a result of the rational need for balanced interpersonal relations, and politeness mechanisms were considered universal. However, the investigations carried out on different cultures soon began to show that things were not that simple: cultures strongly differ not only in forms, but also in the social meanings associated with various strategies, in the internal structure of speech acts, or in the expectations concerning verbal behaviour. The conclusion was easily drawn that politeness is a social matter, and hence culture-specific. As a consequence, politeness studies seem to have fallen into an unavoidable contradiction between universality and culture-specificity. It is my purpose to explore to what extent cognitive pragmatics can provide a suitable framework to cope with such a contradiction. The notion of frame as an organized set of specific knowledge reveals itself as a useful tool. From such a perspective, evidence against universality is no longer crucial, and cultural differences regarding basic assumptions fit in quite naturally, so a new approach to the relationship between politeness and universality can be suggested.

Opini Anda

Klik untuk menuliskan opini Anda tentang koleksi ini!

Kembali