1(2)2016+.pdf


Deixis in Polite 
Interaction

Linguistic interaction is necessarily  social interaction.It has been repeatedly proved empirically that
language as the major means of human communication fulfills
many different goals. We communicate factual information,
ideas, as well as beliefs, emotions and attitudes or any other
socially meaningful content in our everyday interaction.  We
construct, establish and maintain social relationship within
various social contexts by performing speech activities and
employing appropriate language means to ensure harmonious
interpersonal relations and cooperation.

One important socio-cultural aspect which speakers may
convey is that of politeness, which can be expressed using

various linguistic as well as nonlinguistic strategies. 
Every culture has developed various linguistic means to mark the politeness

intentions of the speaker. Moreover, every culture has its own understanding of what
constitutes “polite” and socially “appropriate” linguistic behaviour. The latter is
determined by culture-specific values and is supposed to be shared by all members of the
community.

It is universally recognized that the language of politeness cannot be dissociated
from the social relationship between the speaker and the hearer. And from this point of
view deixis understood as a linkage between the utterance and its spacio-temporal and
personal context plays a crucial role in politeness as a language category. 

In this paper the concept of politeness will be dealt with with reference to the deictic
means of expressing various degrees of politeness. Although there is a comprehensive
literature on politeness, little work has been done to reveal the interrelation between
these two linguistic categories.

For an adequate observation of the relationship between deixis and politeness, one
should first clarify the fundamental notion of politeness and that of deixis.

Linguistic politeness as a field of study has always attracted attention among
researchers of different schools, perhaps because of its almost universal relevance to the
activities of everyday life.

The politeness principle plays an essential role in a social interaction where basically
the speaker and the hearer (addressee) are involved. In the utterance conveying
politeness, the speaker’s attitude towards the social context of the interaction is reflected.
It covers “the speaker’s relationship with and sensitivity toward the hearer, the
importance of the information to be conveyed, the formality of the situation, and the
effect the speaker wishes to achieve via utterance” (Koike, 1989: 189).

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Armenian Folia Anglistika Linguistics

Yelena Yerznkyan