Politeness Theory Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Politeness possible action - Essay ExamplePrimarily, the theory focuses on the sequential context of utterances, which is deemed critical for the worldwide message interpretation this is nevertheless ensured alongside opposite conversational factors such as t matchless and volume. This theory target be applied to a respective(a) range of social and professional or academic situations including but not limited to classroom pedagogy and language teaching. This paper will critically examine the politeness theory by carrying out a critical analysis several journal articles dedicated to various aspects of the concept with particular attention to its employment in a pedagogical context as well as an analysis of the various disputations that have been directed towards challenging it. Summary of the politeness Theory The fundamental notion behind Brown and Levinson politeness theory is the portray, which they defined as the public self-image that each individual in a society desires to strike for him/herself. They created a binary framework in which the formula was categorized as two divergent albeit related aspects namely the negative and positive face. The positive face is characterized with the self-image, which holds, and it encapsulates their inherent desire to gain approval and appreciation from other people. The negative face is characterized by ones not wanting to have their actions contain or constrained by or for the sake of others in the context of this theory politeness refers to the steps that individuals take in the interests of preservation of both their face and that of their audience. The term has been explicitly defined as the redressive action through which individuals counterbalance the effects of face threatening facts (FTAs) redressive is contextually applied in reference to actions that give or reinforce face to the audience of the message (Johnson, Roloff & Riffee, 2004). It is suggested that in communication, whether written, face-to -face of through other media, human beings perpetually attempt to proceed each others face. This is manifested in the fact that they often try their outmost to avoid creating through discourse, embarrassing or humiliating situations for each other in order to preserve self-esteem. FTAs are defined as action that infringes on the need of the patient of the information to maintain their self-esteem therefore, one can say that there are acts that intricacy poses a threat to face (Foley, 1997). According to the theory, orders, suggestions advises reminders, threats or warning and similar acts pose a threat to ones negative face, on the other hand, positive face is threatened when they incorporate elements of disapproval, ridicule contempt or accusations and insults. Under the positive strategy, politeness is abandoned toward the positive self-perception of the speaker has for himself and the listener as well. This confirms that the speaker takes cognizance of the listeners need to be respected and this often happen among close friends or otherwise intimate people (Wilson et al., 1998). The negative politeness on the other hand is based on respect but in a different format as the speaker seeks to respect the negative face wants of the addressee by not interfering with their inherent autonomy of freedom. For example, one may start a request by saying