Universals in perceived politeness: Comparison of native and non-native speakers of English

Abstract

Notwithstanding its significance as a communicative apparatus for social interaction, the general mechanism of politeness has been less clear partly because a wide variety of realization patterns of politeness strategies exist across cultures and languages. Researchers who are sensitive to the cultural and linguistic diversities of communication styles have claimed that politeness varies in its conceptualization and practices across cultures and languages, whereas linguists in pragmatics have assumed that politeness is a part of a universally rational communication system that operates in the same way for any language user. This study attempts to investigate the universal mechanism of politeness presumably built into any language system. At the same time, potential cross-cultural differences in values assigned to politeness are explored to determine what interferes with people's universal competence in perceiving politeness. In comparing native and nonnative speakers of English, people's judgments of politeness and other notions closely related to politeness were assessed for several speech act types in English. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)