Sunteți pe pagina 1din 13

Sociolinguistics

Try Probo Ardiyansyah


Moh Mario Alvin S
SOLIDARITY & POLITENESS
• When we speak we have to make choices of many different kinds: what to
say, when to say it, how to say it.
• How we say something is as important as what we say. Content and form are
inseparable
Some linguistics choices indicate the social relationship between speaker and
listener.
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
emperors: one in Constantinople and another in Rome, but the Empire was
administratively unified. By addressing one, you were in fact addressing both
emperors.
As a consequence, the medieval upper classes began to use V forms among
them to show mutual respect and politeness
• Tu should be used between brothers & sisters regardless age, parents,
children, between close relativies, between young people living or wotking
closely togetther or between daults who have a relatisonship. T forms
desribed as “ familiar “
• Vous shold be used between strangers, between those who have no ties any
kind and between inferior & superior. V forms described as “ polite “
Usage
• 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.
Trends
• T replacing V : Upper Class Italian youth imitating ‘ the people’
• V replacing T : Lower-Class Italian youth speaking more formally
• Reversal of T/V distinction
• Upper Class youth using V with lower class youth to gain solidarity
• Upper Class youth using T with Professors/ Employers
Terms of Address
Address Forms are the words speakers use to designate the person they are talking to while they are
talking to them. Brown and Ford reported that:
• Asymmetrical use of title, last name and first name indicated inequality in power.
• Mutual title ,last name ( TLN) indicated inequality and unfamiliarity.
• Mutual first name ( FN ) indicated equality and familiarity.
• Switch from mutual TLN to FN is usually initiated by the most powerful member in the
relationship.
• Address somebody by title is the least intimate form of address in that titles usually designates
ranks or occupations.
• The use of FN in North America not always indicates friendship or respect.
Politeness

Definition ( Merriam-Webster)
Having or showing good manners or respect for other
Socially correct or proper
Purpose
Demonstrate awareness of acceptable social practices
Obtain what we think we are owed in an equal world ( Wardhaugh 2010,p.291)
There are two kinds of politeness:
• POSITIVE: we try to achieve solidarity and treat others as friends. We do
not impose and never threaten their face
• NEGATIVE: it leads to deference, indirectness and formality in language
use.
Face
• Goffman (1955) states that when communicating “we present a FACE to
others and to others’ faces.” .In every social interaction we are obliged to
protect both our own face and the face of others. .We play out a kind of
ritual in which each party is required to recognize the identity the other
presents or claims. There is no faceless communication.
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 looks to SOLIDARITY
• NEGATIVE FACE: it is the desire to be unimpeded by others’ actions; a
claim for freedom of action and from imposition.
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”
Each interaction is a FACE WORK and the goal is the maintenance of as
much of each individual’s positive face as possible.
THANK YOU

S-ar putea să vă placă și