Politeness in English Literary Discourse

Politeness in English Literary Discourse:

A Diachronic Study

by

Wang Xueyu

Under the Supervision of

Professor Chen Xinren

Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

For the Degree of Master of Arts

A. English Department

School of Foreign Studies

Nanjing University

November 2005

I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, it contains no material previously published or written by another person or material which has to a substantial extent been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma at any university or other institute of higher learning, except where due acknowledgement has been made in the text.

Signature: __________

Name: Wang Xueyu

Date: Nov. 27, 2005

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to those who have offered me all kinds of help in completing this thesis.

Firs of all, my sincere thanks go to my supervisor, Professor Chen Xinren, who helped me a lot throughout the development and revision of this thesis. He also helped me get the core references I needed in the thesis. He read several drafts of the thesis and offered many valuable suggestions. Without his encouragement and guidance, I could not have completed this thesis.

I also owe thanks to Professor Ding Yanren, Professor Wen Qiufang, Professor Wang Wenyu, Professor Zhang Ren, Professor Ke Ping and Professor Don Snow, whose instruction benefited me a lot.

My special thanks also go to Miss Nie Yuefang, Miss Chen Ying, Miss Wu Jue, and Mr. Ren Yuxin from the English Department of Nanjing University, who helped me solve problems in planning of the study and the research design in the thesis seminar; and to Miss Xu Fangfang, Miss Wang Yuanfei and Miss Wang Xiaoyan in my dormitory, who gave me a lot of valuable advice in this thesis.

Last but not least, I want to express my thanks to my parents and my husband, who not only provided me with the encouragement and financial support but also released me from the housework during my thesis writing and my postgraduate studies.

W. X. Y.

ABSTRACT

This thesis reports a comparative study of the politeness phenomenon in English literary discourse. It aims at figuring out how people perform directive speech acts politely in two literary texts written in two different historical periods, how politeness strategies develop diachronically and how social distance between speakers and hearers influence the choice of politeness levels.

Two English dramas written in different historical periods, The Tragedy of Hamlet (2004), written by William Shakespeare in the 16th century and Major Barbara (1999), written by George Bernard Shaw in the 19th century, were employed as data sources of this study. After careful screening, a total of 268 directives were picked out from the former and 279 from the latter. Detailed data analysis yielded the following findings:

1) In both of these two dramas, a good many politeness strategies were used to perform the directives politely. However, different preferences were found in the use of politeness strategies. Specifically, the differences lie in the following three respects:

a. Characters in The Tragedy of Hamlet preferred to use more negative politeness strategies when performing the directive speech acts, while people in Major Barbara used more positive politeness strategies. This difference is caused by different social systems in different historical periods.

b. In The Tragedy of Hamlet, speakers preferred to use more deferential address forms but less in-group address forms than speakers in Major Barbara did. Besides, speakers in The Tragedy of Hamlet preferred to use more complex address forms and more address forms indicating social status, but speakers in Major Barbara preferred to use much simpler ones and more of those indicating kinship or endearment. The change on the use of address forms is also related with different social systems.

c. In these two different dramas, people preferred to use different ways to construct indirect requests to express politeness. Most obviously, in The Tragedy of Hamlet, people preferred to construct the indirect requests by stating speakers’ sincerity, whereas in Major Barbara, people preferred to state or question hearers’ ability, willingness or desire to do something as well as hearers’ reason for doing or not doing something. This change is related to the development of English language itself.

2) The social distance (D) between speakers and hearers affected the choice of politeness levels in both dramas, as it does in daily conversations. In terms of the interactive relationship between speaker and hearer, as between strangers or intimates, the bigger the D was, the more polite speakers tended to be; the smaller the D was, the less polite speakers tended to be. However, as far as the speaker’s attitude toward the hearer, i.e. liking or disliking, was concerned, the situation would be the other way around. This suggests that in testing the effect of social distance on the choice of politeness levels, attitudinal factors such as liking or disliking should be taken into consideration.

By exploring the diachronic development of politeness phenomenon in literary discourse, this study enriched Brown and Levinson’s politeness theory (1987). Besides, it provided a new scoring system for politeness levels. In spite of its limitations on data collection and data analysis, it raises some suggestions for the follow-up studies on politeness phenomenon.

摘 要

本文通过调查对比两篇不同历史时期的文学作品中人们使用指令性言语行为时所用的不同礼貌策略，探索了英语文学作品中礼貌现象的历时变化，验证了Brown和Levinson礼貌理论的准确性以及对文学作品分析的适用性。

本研究中选择的两篇文学作品分别是16世纪的剧本《哈姆雷特》以及19世纪的剧本《芭芭拉上校》。在两篇剧本中，笔者分别收集了268和279句指令性言语行为作为研究数据。通过数据分析，本文得出以下结论：

一、在两篇不同时期的剧本中，人们都使用了大量的礼貌策略。可见，Brown 和 Levinson所划分的礼貌策略在文学作品分析中同样适用。但另一方面，在两篇剧本中，人们对不同的礼貌策略有不同的偏爱，主要表现在以下三个方面：

(1) 剧本《哈姆雷特》中，人们偏爱使用大量的“消极礼貌”策略，而在剧本《芭芭拉上校》中，人们则更多地使用了“积极礼貌”策略。礼貌使用的这一变化与社会制度密切相关。

(2)称呼语的使用方面，剧本《哈姆雷特》中的说话者偏爱使用尊称来称呼对方，以突出对方的身份地位，而《芭芭拉上校》中的说话者则更喜欢使用“圈内语言”来称呼对方，以显示与对方的亲密友好的关系。这种变化也是由不同的社会制度引起的。

(3)在两部不同的剧本中，人们还使用了不同的间接请求语的构成方法。主要表现为：在剧本《哈姆雷特》中，说话者主要通过陈述自己的诚意来构成间接请求语，而在剧本《芭芭拉上校》中，说话者主要通过陈述或置疑听话者的能力、意愿以及欲望或是听话者要做或不做某事的原因来构成间接请求语。这种变化则与英语语言本身的发展相关。

二、研究证明，与在实际会话中一样，文学作品中的说话者与听话者之间的社会距离同样是影响礼貌策略使用的一个重要因素。在研究这两部剧本中社会距离对礼貌影响的过程中，笔者发现如果是体现亲疏关系的社会距离对礼貌的影响与Brown和 Levinson的研究发现一样，即社会距离越大，说话者使用的语言越礼貌，反之，则越不礼貌。然而，一旦体现态度方面的社会距离（喜欢或憎恶）对礼貌的影响则大不一样，即说话者越喜欢对方，使用的语言越礼貌，反之，则越不礼貌。

本研究将礼貌研究和文学作品结合，探讨了文学作品中礼貌的历时性变化，验证了Brown和 Levinson礼貌原理的准确性以及在文学领域的适用性。此外，本研究还改进了礼貌策略的分类方式，引进了礼貌程度的测量方式，因而在一定的程度上丰富了Brown 和 Levinson的礼貌理论。尽管本研究在数据收集以及数据分析方面还有一定的不足，但对今后文学领域里的礼貌现象研究还是大有裨益的。

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……………………………………………………………ⅱ

ABSTRACT…………………………………………………………………………ⅲ

摘要……………………………………………………………………………….ⅴ

TABLE OF CONTENTS………………………………………………………………ⅶ

LISTS OF TABLES AND FIGURES………………………………………………….ⅸ

Chapter One INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………….1

1.1 Aims of the Present Study …………………………………………………….. 1

1.2 Motivation for the Present Study ………………………………………………2

1.3 Structure of the Thesis ………………………………………………………….3

Chapter Two LITERATURE REVIEW…………………………………………….4

2.1 Relevant Studies on Politeness Phenomenon…………………………………...4

2.1.1 Politeness in face-to-face conversations …………………………………4

2.1.2 Politeness in literary texts ………………………………………………..5

2.1.3 Diachronic studies on politeness: A new development ………………….6

2.2 Studies on Directives in the Field of Pragmatics ………………………….…...7

2.3 Studies Directly Related to the Present Research ……………………………...8

2.3.1 Brown and Gilman’s study ………………………………………8

2.3.2 Kopytko’s study ……………………………………………………….....9

2.3.3 Nevalainen and Raumolin-Brunberg’s study …………………………..10

2.4 The Significance of the Present Study …………………………………….….10

Chapter Three THE THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK…………………………12

3.1 Linguistic Realizations of Politeness Strategies ……………………………....12

3.1.1 Bold on record ………………………………………………………….13

3.1.2 Positive politeness ……………………………………………………...13

3.1.3 Negative politeness …………………………………………………….15

3.2 Factors Influencing the Choice of Strategies …………………………………16

3.3 The Use of Brown and Levinson’s Framework in the Present Study ………18

Chapter Four METHODOLOGY…………………………………………………19

4.1 Research Questions …………………………………………………………...19

4.2 Tentative Hypotheses …………………………………………………………20

4.3 Data Collection ………………………………………………………………..22

4.3.1 Data source ……………………………………………………………..22

4.3.2 Procedure ……………………………………………………………….23

4.4 Problems Encountered in Data Collection and Data Analysis …………….….28

Chapter Five RESULTS AND DISCUSSION……………………………………..32

5.1 The Use of Politeness Strategies in Each Drama……………………………...32

5.1.1 The use of four super-strategies in each drama ………………………...32

5.1.2 The use of sub-strategies in each drama ………………………………..34

5.2 The Use of Address Forms in Each Drama……………………………………37

5.2.1 The use of two super-address forms in each drama……………………..37

5.2.2 The us of different sub-address forms in each drama…………………...38

5.3 The Use of Indirect Requests in Each Drama…………………………………41

5.4 The Effect of Social Distance on the Choice of Politeness Levels……………44

Chapter Six CONCLUSION………………………………………………………48

6.1 Major Findings …………………………………………………………….….48

6.2 Some Implications …………………………………………………………….50

6.2.1 Theoretical implications ………………………………………………..50

6.2.2 Pedagogical implications ……………………………………………….51

6.3 Limitations of the Study and Suggestions for Future Research ………………51

REFERENCES ……………………………………………………………………….53

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Figure 3.1: Possible strategies for doing FTAs ………………………………13

Figure 4.1: Steps for calculating frequency of each strategy used in both dramas ……25

Table 4.1: Score allocation for politeness strategies…………………………………...27

Figure 4.2: Steps for checking the effect of social distance on the use of politeness…28

Table 5.1: The frequency of each sub-strategy used in each drama……………………33

Table 5.2: The frequency of two super-address forms in each drama………………….35

Table 5.3: The frequency of different sub-address forms in each drama………………38

Table 5.4: The frequency of different sub-address forms in each drama………………39

Table 5.5: The politeness scores in both dramas with regard to social distance……….45

Chapter One

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Aims of the Present Study

Politeness has always been regarded as the basis of social phenomena and social interaction. It is not surprising that many scholars have been keen on the study of this phenomenon (e.g. Goffman, 1967; Leech, 1983). In the 1980s, Brown and Levinson made great contribution in the field of pragmatics by providing a systematic theory of politeness (1987). This present study sets out to enrich and verify Brown and Levinson’s politeness theory by analyzing the diachronic changes of politeness in literary discourse. Directives from two English dramas, The Tragedy of Hamlet (2004) by William Shakespeare in the 16th century and Major Barbara (1999) by George Bernard Shaw in the 19th century, have been randomly selected as the sources of data. Based on Brown and Levinson’s categorization of politeness strategies and the researcher’s modification of the strategies, the study attempts to figure out:

1) the strategies used to perform the directives politely, including the four politeness strategies and their sub-strategies proposed by Brown and Levinson, and the address forms used in the FTAs, as well as the indirect request forms used in each drama;

2) the effect of the social distance (D) between speakers and hearers on the choice of politeness levels in each drama.

This study has both descriptive and theoretical aims. The descriptive objective lies in revealing the different uses of politeness strategies in the two dramas written in different times, the different uses of address forms and indirect requests to indicate politeness in particular. The theoretical aim of the present study is to enrich and verify Brown and Levinson’s politeness theory by showing whether politeness has undergone diachronic changes in literary discourse, whether their analysis about the effect of social distance (D) between speakers and hearers on the use of politeness strategies is adequate or not, and whether some other factors such as attitudinal liking or disliking should be taken into consideration.

1.2 Motivation for the Present Study

Since the appearance of Brown and Levinson’s politeness theory, some scholars have argued that Brown and Levinson’s theory is not quite adequate in many ways, for example, in the analysis of a literary discourse or of ancient English (e.g. Brown & Gilman, 1989; Kopytko, 1995), because Brown and Levinson’s analysis was based on oral data and contemporary languages. It is on this account that the present researcher wants to figure out whether Brown and Levinson’s politeness analysis can be applied to literary texts such as dramatic texts, and what different politeness strategies are preferred in different historical periods.

In addition to Brown and Levinson’s politeness strategies, address forms and indirect request forms are analyzed as the complementary strategies for politeness in this study. These two forms have long been treated as the conventional ways for politeness and studied by a lot of scholars (Austin, 1962; Searle, 1979; Brown & Levinson, 1987). For example, Brown and Gilman (1989), in the analysis of politeness theory in Shakespeare’s four tragedies, analyzed indirect requests in Elizabethan English and Shakespeare’s tragedies in detail. Nevalainen and Raumolin- Brunber (1995) studied the pragmatics of address formunlae in Early English correspondence, and Nevala (2004) also explored the phenomenon of address forms in early English correspondence. Although all the studies on address forms and indirect requests have contributed a lot to the understanding of politeness, still a problem has remained unresolved, namely, the difference between the use of address forms and indirect requests in different historical periods. Thus, the present researcher is motivated to further identify the different uses of address forms and indirect requests as certain politeness strategies by comparing two dramas in different periods.

Finally, in Brown and Levinson’s analysis, three social parameters are identified as factors influencing the use of politeness strategies, namely, the relative power (P) of H over S, the social distance (D) between S and H, and the ranking of imposition (R) of a particular FTA. Brown and Gilman (1989) prove that the effect of P and R on the use of politeness strategies is the same as that predicted by Brown and Levinson (1987), but that of D is not. The inconsistency between Brown and Levinson (1987) and Brown and Gilman (1989) may have resulted from the data they use in their respective analysis. The former draws their politeness theory from oral and contemporary languages, whereas the latter tests politeness theory by using written and ancient English as their source of data. To better understand the effect of D on the use of politeness strategies, the researcher of the current study decides to use data of different historical periods to provide the complete information about the effect of this social parameter on the use of politeness strategies.

1.3 Structure of the Thesis

The thesis consists of six chapters. Chapter One serves as an introduction to the purpose and motivation of the study. Chapter Two reviews some studies related to politeness phenomenon, focusing on three studies that directly inspire the current study. Chapter Three introduces the theoretical framework of this study, Brown and Levinson’s politeness theory, covering the linguistic realizations of politeness strategies and the factors influencing the choice of politeness strategies. Chapter Four describes the methodology of the study, including the sources of data, the procedures of data collection and the method of data analysis, as well as the problems encountered and solutions adopted in the process. Chapter Five reports the results of the study, discusses the possible factors that might have accounted for the results of the data collection, and attempts necessary discussions. The last chapter, Chapter Six, summarizes the whole study and the major findings, discusses the implications and limitations of the study, and suggests some directions for future study.

Chapter Two

LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter reviews the theories and empirical studies leading to the present study. It consists of three sections. The first section reviews the relevant studies on politeness phenomenon and in the field of pragmatics and sociology. The second section reviews the studies on directives and the relations between directives and politeness in the pragmatic field. The third section discusses the study that directly inspires the present study. The last section serves as a brief introduction to the present study.

2.1 Relevant Studies on Politeness Phenomenon