Cultural Systems: Face, Politeness & Power

This week class is a continuation on cultural systems from last week. The class started with introducing to us the 6 maxims surrounding politeness. Its something new to me, in the sense that there are so many different principles of politeness in communication. It gives me a greater view of how we can display politeness in the way which we relate to others and the things which we say.

Something that struck me particularly in the discussion is how certain pairs maxims are actually 2 sides of the coin. For example, the tact maxim maximize benefit to others while the generosity maxim minimize benefit to self. When you make things easier for others, you are being considerate; while if you take that extra effort or spend that extra cost to benefit others, you are being generous in the sense. The other example is the approbation maxim and modesty maxim, whereby it is the difference in how generous you give praises to others and how little praises you give to yourself. So in summary, I feel its an issue of your emphasis on self and others. If we can place more importance on others than self, we are one step closer to being courteous and well-mannered in our exchanges with people of various cultures.

The next novel idea to me is that of negative & positive politeness. I never knew that there is such a thing called negative politeness. It is defined as respecting the hearer's need to be independent and freedom of action. Sometimes this is achieved when we do not say anything at all. This is interesting - not saying anything can actually be a form of politeness. I have never seen it in this way before. I guess it really depends on context and the relationship between the speaker n hearer. There may be times when we should learn to say more of "Thank You" and "Sorry" so that we do not start to take one another for granted although the relationship may be close. :)

A video from our dear PCK: