My Diary: Solidarity & Politeness

SOLIDARITY AND POLITENESS

Solidarity

    Solidarity or intimacy are given linguistic expression by address systems consisting of a T/V distinction and address terms. This way, speakers are given the chance to either be more formal or less formal with their interlocutor on certain occasions.

Tu and Vous

·         This distinction began as a difference between plural and singular.

·         IV century : the use of plural vous was to address the emperor. There were two emprors : one in Constatinople and another in Rome, but  the empaire was administravtily unified. By addressing one, you were in fact addressing both emperors.

·         As a consequence, the medieval uper class began to use V-forms among them to show mutual respect and politeness

·         Lower classes used mutual T forms.

·         Upper classes used T to address lower classes, but received V addressing.

·         Asymmetrical T/V usage symbolized a power relationship.

·         Symmetrical V usage became “polite” usage, spreading downwards in society. It was used, for instance, between wife and husband, parents and children and lovers

·         Symmetrical T usage showed intimacy. People using this for had strong common interests, showed solidarity.

·         Mutual T for solidarity gradually replaced mutual V for politeness

·         Use of asymmetrical T/V decreased and mutual V was often used in its place

·         Nowadays, the right to initiate the reciprocal T belongs to the member of the dyad having the better power based claim to say T without reciprocation – an interesting residual of the power relation

·         If you cannot judge who has the power, settle for polite V usage !

·         But.. once a pair of speakers decide on mutual T, it is impossible to go back to either T/V or V/V usage.

Politeness

·         Politeness is socially prescribed, we adjust to others in social relationships in ways society deems appropriate.

·         Impoliteness depends on existence of standards.

There ara two kinds of politeness ;

·         Positive : we try to achieve solidarity and treat others as friends. We do not impose and never threaten their face. Example : symmetrical pronominal use

·         Negative : it leads to deference, indirectness and formality in language use. Example : Asymmetric T/V use.

Brown and Levinson (1987) provide the definition of Face “(it is) the public self – image that every member wants to claim for himself.”

They make a distinction between :

·         Positive face : it is the desire to gain the approval of others, the positive consistent self – image or personality. It look to SOLIDARITY.

·         Negative face : it is desire to be unimpeded by others’ actions ; a claim for freedom of action and from imposition.

·         Each interaction is a FACE WORK and the goal is the maintenance of as much of each individual’s positive face as possible

Pinker (2007) argues that “politeness theory is a good start, but not enough (because) it assumes that the speaker and the hearer are working in perfect harmony, each trying to save each other’s face”

Some languages seem to have built into them very complex systems of politeness. Javanese, one of the principal language of indonesia

Select this paragraph to edit

Level names :

·         3 A krama inggil ( high style and honorifics too)

·         3 krama biasa (high style, no honorifics)

·         2 krama madya (middle style, no honorifics)

·         1 b ngoko sae ( low style, high honorofics)

·         1 ngoko biasa (low style, no honorifics)