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Unit 4: Politeness in Conversation Contents 1.0 Introduction 2.0
Unit Objectives 3.0 Main Content
3.1 What is Politeness
3.2
Face and Politeness 3.3 Politeness Strategies
3.4 Self-assessed Exercises
3.5
Politeness Principle Self-assessed Exercises
4.0 Conclusion
5.0
Summary 6.0 Tutor-marked Assignment
7.0 References/Further Reading
1.0 Introduction Politeness is one of the most important factors in language use. Users of every language practice politeness in one form or the other. In our daily interactions, we have ways of speaking to and addressing people that shows that we have some form of respect for them. There are ways we speak to our friends and there are ways we speak to people we are not familiar with. We are more polite in our use of language in informal settings than informal settings. This Unit looks at the whole idea of politeness in conversations. The idea of politeness in the study of Pragmatics is closely tied to the concept of face. Some scholars have identified some politeness strategies and maxims generally used by speakers. We shall be examining these and other issues connected with politeness in conversation and writing.
2.0 Unit Objectives By
the end of this Unit, you should be able to do the following
• explain the whole concept of politeness in discourse
• show how
politeness and face relate 102
• use the politeness principles identified to analyze a text for occurrences of politeness or otherwise
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