In View of Sociolinguistics： Politeness in Conversation

Introduction

As Mills（2003） claims， politeness is to respect the speech of the person you are talking to and avoid to hurt his/her feeling or upset him/her. Politeness is also 'an behaviour which actively expresses positive concern for others， as well as non-imposing distancing behaviour'（Holmes， 1995：5）. In this paper， several terms will be explained and exemplified by means of politeness from the field of sociolinguistics.

Turn-taking

In conversation， the role of speaker and hearer are changing constantly and the person who speaks first becomes a listener as soon as the person addressed takes his or her turn in the conversation by beginning to speak（Richards et al.，1992： 390）. It is essential for people to know when and how it is appropriate and acceptable to take a turn to develop a conversation in a cooperative and progressive way. Therefore， skills and rules for turn-taking are needed and employed here， both for speaker and hearer. Here are some examples for turn-taking：

A： The movie we watched tonight is awful， isn't it？

B： Yes， definitely yes.

R： How's the weather in Liverpool？ Is it still raining every now and then？

V： Oh， yeah， it's usually windy and rainy at this time of year.

Backchannels

Backchannels are minimal responses that are usually made to show one is paying attention or to encourage the speaker to continue（Hawes， 2011）.There are several signals of backchannels， sounds such as m-hm， yeah； gestures like nods of head； expressions such as 'oh， really？'， 'you've got to be kidding'； request clarification； complete speaker's sentence and restate what speaker just said（Dunken Fiske， Cited by Hawes， 2011）. By giving backchannel signals， hearer indicates that s/he doesn't want to take the turn but wishes speaker to continue. Moreover， hearer helps speaker to construct his/her own speech in a cooperative way which shows politeness and solidarity. For example：

F： I was looking at myself in the mirror.

B： Uh-huh？

F： I wish I had a pot.

B： You were lookin' in the mirror and you wish you had some pot？

F： A pot. A pot belly. Pot bellies are sexy.

（Pulp Fiction， 1994）

FTAs

When talking about politeness， another term should be mentioned， that is 'face'. Brown and Lavinson （1987： 61） define face as 'the public self-image that every member wants to claim himself'. One way to communicate and behave successfully in a conversation is to protect 'face' both for oneself and for other participants. A FTA is an act which challenges the 'face' wanted by a participant， or participants. FTAs may threaten not only hearer's 'face' but also speaker's 'face'. By means of politeness， we can mitigate and soften the FTAs which we may encounter in daily interaction. For example：

There are some pens on the boss's desk， and one wants to use one of them， he may say：

（1）'Oh， is it ok if I use one of those pens？

（2）'Excuse me， I'm sorry to bother you but I just want to ask if I can use one of your pens？'

（3）'I just want to write down the task you give me and I suddenly realize that I don't get a pen at hand'

E.g. （1） uses positive politeness strategy as it shows speaker's respect to hearer while maintaining solidarity between them. E.g. （2） uses negative politeness strategy which not only shows speaker's respect but to assume s/he is imposing on hearer in some way. E.g. （3） is a typical 'off-record' strategy， which releases speaker's pressure and also rely on hearer's awareness of speaker's intention.

Indirectness

As Searle's definition （1979：60）， indirect speech acts are 'cases in which one illocutionary act can be performed indirectly by way of performing another'. Indirectness and politeness are closely related to each other in everyday interaction， as to minimize the threat， protect hearer's face properly and avoid unnecessary conflict and disagreement. The more indirectness one applies， the more politeness s/he will convey. For example：

（1） A： See！ I dyed my hair into light blue！

B1： Oh， you look amazing！

B2： You look like a maniac！！！

In e.g. （1）， it shows indirect negative response is more favorable than direct one. In B1， the ambiguity lies in the word 'amazing'， either for beauty or for irony. Compared with B2， B1 enables the speaker to be honest in one hand， and also be more polite in another.

Gaze

Gaze， is a way of looking， which is a social code. It is socially and culturally regulated， which means， in different social and cultural contexts， this social code may differ in its implication and interpretation. For example， in chinese culture， if you want to show politeness and sincerity to the interlocutor in conversation， you should gaze， i.e. look directly into the his/her eyes. However， in other cultures， gaze at the high-status people can be impolite and offensive， such as in Nigeria.

Tag- Question

Tag question is a grammatical structure that consist of a declarative statement and an interrogative fragment. It is not a true question because it doesn't need an actual response. Tag question can be used as a positive politeness strategy， for instance， speaker can apply tag question to ensure hearer know that it's his/her turn to speak. By asking for a confirmation or a quick reaction from the hearer， the turn-taking has been progressed smoothly and cooperatively between speaker and hearer. For example：

（1）A： Amy is doing well in Singapore， isn't she？

（2） A： The weather is awful， isn't it？

Interruption

A way of violation and break-down of the basic turn-taking rules in a conversation. Interruption represents the impoliteness and aggressiveness of interruptor. It has a close relation with the power of speakers in face-to-face interaction and also relates to the issue of language and gender. For example：

A： How's your assignment going？

B： Alright， I suppose.

A： Mine isn't processing well becau…

B： （Interruption） Hey， you wanna go to pub tonight？

A： Well， I'm afraid that…

B： （Interruption） Oh， shit， it gotta be late for the football match， I have to rush， see ya！

Conclusion

This paper has explained and exemplified several terms related to politeness in conversation in view of sociolinguistics. One implication we can have is that， to be a polite and efficient conversationalist， one should not only take the above speech terms， either positive or negative， formal or informal， into consideration， but also apply such politeness strategies properly and skillfully in order to have a pleasant， harmonious and successful conversation with different speaker as well as in different conditions. Surely， it will be of benefit to the conversationalist to some degree.

【References】

[1]Brown， P. and Levinson， S. 1987. Politeness： Some Universals in Language Use. Cambridge： Cambridge University Press.

[2]Hawes， T. 2011. （7b）Turn-taking（Powerpoint）.

[3]Hawes， T. 2011. Politeness（Powerpoint）.

[4]Holmes， J. 1995. Women， men and politeness. London： Longman.

[5]Mills， S. 2003， Gender and politeness， Cambridge University Press， United Kingdom.

[6]Richards， Jack C.， John Platt and Heidi Platt. 1992. Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics 2nd Ed. Longman.