Hierarchy politeness: What Brown and Levinson refused to see
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Akio Yabuuchi
Akio Yabuuchi is Professor of English at Wakayama Medical University, Japan. His research interests include cross-cultural communication, discourse analysis, and second language acquisition. He has published in several journals, including theJournal of Asian Pacific Communication andSemiotica .
Abstract
Brown and Levinson's dichotomous (i.e., negative vs. positive) politeness system may be valid as a linguistic politeness system, but it is inadequate from a social psychological perspective, because it does not reflect sufficiently fundamental human desires. That is, it does not adequately treat the desire for admiration, which many believe to be a major force that has advanced human history. In fact, behaviors to gratify this desire have been endemic and have had the important function of maintaining societies. Brown and Levinson's underrating of this desire may be a reflection of the Western tradition of the pursuit of equality and sincerity. This paper, in an attempt to confer on the desire for admiration its proper place in polite behavior, presents a trichotomous politeness system that consists of autonomy, fellowship, and hierarchy politeness, and visualizes their positions and amounts within the framework of social distance and power. Toward the end of the paper, the implications of this model in collectivistic and individualistic societies are discussed.
About the author
Akio Yabuuchi is Professor of English at Wakayama Medical University, Japan. His research interests include cross-cultural communication, discourse analysis, and second language acquisition. He has published in several journals, including the Journal of Asian Pacific Communication and Semiotica.
© Walter de Gruyter
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- The dual language model to explain code-switching: A cognitive-pragmatic approach
- Intercultural communication in English: Arguments for a cognitive approach to intercultural pragmatics
- Hierarchy politeness: What Brown and Levinson refused to see
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Articles in the same Issue
- “Experience” in John Searle's account of the mind: Brain, mind, and Anglo culture
- The dual language model to explain code-switching: A cognitive-pragmatic approach
- Intercultural communication in English: Arguments for a cognitive approach to intercultural pragmatics
- Hierarchy politeness: What Brown and Levinson refused to see
- On conceptual semantics
- Interlanguage pragmatics: A reply to Pilar Garces-Conejos Blitvich
- Book reviews
- Contributors to this issue:
