Speech Function, Politeness and Cross Cultural Communication

There are the functions of speech

1. Expressive (express speaker's feelings)

e.g. 

Good morning sue

Lovely day

Yes, it’s beautiful

Makes see you wonder what we are doing here, doesn’t it.

That’s right

Thanks that’s great.

No problem

I feel great today

2.    Directive (get others to do things)

e.g Look I wonder if you could possibly sort this lot out by ten

Clean up your room

3. Referential (provide information)

I need them for a meeting.

The apples are on the table

v         4.  Metalinguistic (comments on language)

e.g: ‘hegemony’ is not a common word

Nouns can be mass or count

v         5.  Poetic (aesthetic language--poems, mottos, rhymes)

e.g. Piper picked a pack of pickled peppers.

A stitch in time saves nine

v         6. Phatic (language for solidarity and empathy)

e.g. Hi, how are you, lovely day isn’t it.

Politeness and address forms

Being polite is a complicated business in any languages. It’s difficult to learn because it involves understanding not just the language, but all so the social and cultural values of the community. We often do not appreciate just how complicated it is, because we tend to think of politeness simply as a matter of saying “please and Thank you” in the right place.

Take the word “please”  for example, children are told to say please when they are making request, as a way of expressing themselves politely. But adult uses please far less than want might suppose, and when they do, it often has the effect of making a directive sound less polite and more peremptory.

Example:        

A 1       :  Could you give me the tea”

A2       : Could you give me the tea, please”.

B1        : Answer the phone Jo”.

B2        : Please answer the phone Jo

 There are two different types of politeness:

• I.                   Positive politeness

Positive politeness is solidarity oriented. It emphasizes shares attitudes and values. When the boss suggest that a subordinate should use first name (FN) to her, this is a positive politeness move, expressing solidariting and minimising status differences.

• II         Negative politeness

            Negative politeness pays people respect and avoids intruding on them. Negative politeness involves expressing oneself appropriately in terms of social distance and respecting status differences. For xample, using title and last name to your superior and to older people that you don’t know well are futher examples of the expression of negative politeness.

Linguistic Politeness in Different Cultures

Anyone who has travelled outside their own speech community is likely to have had some experience of misscommunication base on cultural differences.

For example: when Rebecca arrived in New Zealand from nottingham, she and her family were invited to a christmas party at a neighbour’s house. Bring a plate she was told, and, thinking her host must be having a very big party if they expected to run out of plates, she oblingingly brought four. Empty ones! Whwn she arrived she was embrassed to discover that bring a plate meant bring contribution to the food. Fortunately she had some flowers with her to cover her confusion.