Lecture 1 Fundamentals of grammar

cost-benefit scale: the more costly an action, the less polite it is, and, conversely,
the more beneficial it is to the addressee, the more polite it is. This helps explain
why, for example, imperative mood is not necessarily associated with impoliteness: Bring me some water vs. Have another drink. Next, optionality scale is used to rank options according to the degree of choice offered to the addressee - the degree of politeness matches the degree of indirectness (tentativeness), and, vice versa, increased directness results in greater impoliteness (e.g., Lend me your car vs. Do you think you could possibly lend me your car?). It appears that while imperatives offer little option of whether or not to comply with the action requested (Give me some change), questions (Have you got a quarter, by any chance?), hypothetical formulations (Could I borrow some money?), and ones using negatives (You couldn´t lend me a dollar, could you?) provide greater freedom to deny that request. Of course, politeness formulae (please) can always be added to give extra politeness.
We should also differentiate between absolute and relative politeness; in
the absolute sense, Lend me your car is less polite than I hope you don´t mind my asking, but I wonder if it might be at all possible for you to lend me your car.
However, in some situations, the former request could be overpolite (among family
members) and the latter one impolite (as an ironic remark).
In all societies, maxims of politeness govern linguistic and non-linguistic
behavior. The details of these maxims vary [sometimes greatly] from culture to
culture [and subculture to subculture], leading to situations where
misunderstandings may occur. In middle-class American society, M. Noonan
identifies the following five maxims:
tact: Minimize cost to other; maximize benefit to other.
modesty: Minimize praise of self; maximize dispraise of self.
phatic: Keep talking; avoid silence.
irony: If you must cause offence, at least do so in a way which doesn’t
overtly conflict with maxims of politeness, but allows the hearer to arrive at the
offensive point of your remark indirectly, by way of implicature [inference].
banter: In order to show solidarity with the hearer, say something that is (1)
obviously untrue and (2) obviously impolite to the hearer.
Many cultures lack an equivalent of the Phatic Maxim. The Banter Maxim is
much more closely associated with males than with females in middle-class
American society. Violations of the politeness maxims may invite inferences too,
ones which are also context sensitive. For example, a violation of the Phatic
Maxim may be interpreted as evidence of anger, sadness, etc. depending on
contextual clues.
The Politeness Principle was not the only one singled out by G. Leech. In his
book entitled “Principles of Pragmatics” (1983) the scholar describes three
principles of interpersonal rhetoric (the Cooperative Principle, the Politeness
Principle, the Irony Principle) and four principles of textual rhetoric (the
Processibility Principle, the Clarity Principle, the Economy Principle and the
Expressivity Principle).