pragmatic view (Review)
---Politeness is indispensable to human interaction
1.The definition and introduction of the pragmatic view of (im)politness
(Im)Politeness is an universal phenomenon and it has become the focus of pragmatic study since almost twenty years ago. Politeness can be observed in all languages and cultures, and it has long been made an important area of language study. The study on languages use has brought up some important politeness theories.
2.The study and theory of the pragmatic view
The study of politeness in the Western linguistic circles did not begin until the late 1970s. Many early works in this area took politeness out of context to establish a "hierarchy of politeness" in terms of the linguistic form alone. For example, the various forms of requests (Would you X? Could you X? Can you X? Do X!) can be rated for politeness regardless of context (Thomas 1996:155-159). Recently, in line with the development of pragmatics, more and more works have focused on politeness as a pragmatic phenomenon, which interprets politeness as a strategy or series of strategies employed to achieve the speaker's goal. The following will deal with the two most influential politeness theories concerned-Leech's PP and Brown & Levinson's FT. These two theories share the same theoretical basis, Grice's Cooperative Principle, but they are posited in totally different spirits.
3.Conclusion
Like Thomas said, all that is really being claimed is that people employ certain strategies has experience that particular strategies are likely to succeed. The pragmatic view and the strategies are important for us to learn and use. Follow the politeness principles can help us to get advantages of obtain respect and favorable impression from others.
Social norms view (Review)
The social norm view of politeness can be defined as behaviors and words which are acceptable for the most people in the society. In our WRA class, we mostly focused on the two kinds of social norms mentioned by Jonathan Culpepper—Prescriptive and Experiential social norms. For example, if a girl speaks very loudly in a library while others are studying, her behavior can be considered as prescriptive social norm view of impoliteness. The reason is that she violated the rules for libraries and her behavior cannot be accepted by other people. Similar prescriptive social norm view of impoliteness can always lead a positive influence to the society because the rules they based on have already be tested a lot of times by our ancestors.
However, situations changed for the experiential social norm. It cannot
always bring positive influence because it is based on personal experiences. There is an in-class reading article written
by Grace Evans, Those Loud Black Girls, which described a representative black
woman Grace Evans’s teaching life in secondary comprehensive schools in 20th
century after the emancipation of West Indies. The problem was caused by some
groups of African American students in the school. They spoke patois in school
while other white students spoke English and this behavior was considered as an
experiential social norm view of impoliteness by most teachers. The main point of this story is that these African American
students didn't make any mistakes or break the school-rules. They were just
speaking their hometown language, but their behavior was not acceptable for
others based on the background of racism and discrimination of both genders and
races. Similar events also happened a lot in other schools at that time and
this experiential social norm view of impoliteness intensified the conflict
between different cultures.
Except some readings, we also had an interview with four African Americans. One question we asked them is “How does impoliteness work across countries?” They answered that it depends on different cultures because a behavior may be accepted for one culture but rejected by other cultures. One example they described is that people will be annoyed if you use right hand for handshake in Nigeria. Compare to other countries like China and America, even three years old child should know that using right hand for handshake is very important to show respect to others. Therefore the social norm view of (im)politeness cannot be unified and people need to step by step learn different cultures to find the difference.
Except some readings, we also had an interview with four African Americans. One question we asked them is “How does impoliteness work across countries?” They answered that it depends on different cultures because a behavior may be accepted for one culture but rejected by other cultures. One example they described is that people will be annoyed if you use right hand for handshake in Nigeria. Compare to other countries like China and America, even three years old child should know that using right hand for handshake is very important to show respect to others. Therefore the social norm view of (im)politeness cannot be unified and people need to step by step learn different cultures to find the difference.
Rachel Jeantel analysis based on interviews
Base on the interviews with those girls, all of them show their points almost the same: they thought that, in the testimony of Rachel Jeantel, every word has no sign to be impoliteness. However, the language she used is the reason Chief prosecutor and other people in the court keep asking what she said. The language she used is Ebonics, a variety, of English spoken by many African Americans, is what she used in her common life. One of the rules to be polite is ‘by producing the appropriate amount of talks for the situation they are in.’ Although Rachel Jeantel did not use the mainstream English she needs to use, she is speak her own language and the only way to tell the real story is to use what she said at that time. So this rules are not applied in African American culture. And there is other stereotype said that Ebonics is a language used by the people who are uneducated. In the interviews, those girls told that they were be treated harshly when they were in high school because of the stereotype. But in the class, professor show us a clip that a woman who speak Ebonics in her life because of she just want to be herself. Base all those information, Rachel Jeantel, should not consider to be impolite by just using Ebonics, she just tries to explain the evidence and help his friends.
"Rachel Jeantel isn't a Hollywood actress. She's not a trained processional. She doesn't testify in court regularly. She's a young black woman missing her friend. She showed up to court to give all the information she had as to what happened the night he died...No matter what, though, Rachel stood and defended herself and Trayvon(and frankly, many other black youth) against the condescension, against silencing, and against the character attacks. For that, she should be commended and thanked."
-Mychal Denzel Smith
The video above shows that the most of people understand Ebonics. however, they just don't want to understand. And The video above shows that the most of people understand Ebonics. However, they just don't want to understand. And in the clip, the linguistic professor point out that, the Ebonics is still in the part of English, and the words that said by Rachel Jeantel is pretty comprehensible and understandable, but they just don’t try to understand what Rachel said. Chief prosecutor, Don west and George Zimmerman is just trying to draw grievance out and want to hear more truly facts. From the point of politeness, Rachel is not to be impolite, she just tries to tell the truth, and some evidences for them to solve Trayvon Martin’s case. In this case, Rachel Jeantel is a victim, she just misses her friends and want to give help for this. Some words said, and behavior she acts is might not be politeness in that occasion because she just a 19 years old girl and doesn’t know how to act appropriate in the court. So overall she acted pretty politely and did what she thought is right to solve the case.
Conclusions
Because there is no uniform definition to (im)politeness, sometimes people may give others bad impression and they don't realize it. So it is very important to learn different cultures and have better communicating skills.
After the analysis we found that Rachel Jealtel should not be considered as impoliteness. The main reason is that she was just a little girl and Don't know How to act right in court. For the Ebonics, is just a language in the part of English, and it should be understandable to American and other people who speak English. It should not be a way to judge people who are impolite or not.
After the analysis we found that Rachel Jealtel should not be considered as impoliteness. The main reason is that she was just a little girl and Don't know How to act right in court. For the Ebonics, is just a language in the part of English, and it should be understandable to American and other people who speak English. It should not be a way to judge people who are impolite or not.
Heng Wang
Zhengyi Yu
Shen Li
Reference
Felicia.htm - Purdue University. (n.d.). Retrieved April 24 2014, from
http://web.ics.purdue.edu/%7Efroberts/courses.htm
youtube.com. Retrieved April 24 2014, from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVER04UWNQE
urbannewsroom.com. Retrieved April 24, 2014, from
http://urbannewsroom.com/2013/07/16/good-news-tom-joyner-offers-rachel-jeantel-full-ride-to-any-hbcu-of-her-choice/
Thank You, Rachel Jeantel. (n.d.). The Nation. Retrieved April 26, 2014, from
http://www.thenation.com/blog/175009/thank-you-rachel-jeantel
Troutman, D. (n.d.). Intro to Politeness. Angel Learning. Retrieved April 26, 2014, from
https://angel.msu.edu/section/default.asp?id=SS14-WRA-150-027-97CVHH-EL-04-054
http://web.ics.purdue.edu/%7Efroberts/courses.htm
youtube.com. Retrieved April 24 2014, from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVER04UWNQE
urbannewsroom.com. Retrieved April 24, 2014, from
http://urbannewsroom.com/2013/07/16/good-news-tom-joyner-offers-rachel-jeantel-full-ride-to-any-hbcu-of-her-choice/
Thank You, Rachel Jeantel. (n.d.). The Nation. Retrieved April 26, 2014, from
http://www.thenation.com/blog/175009/thank-you-rachel-jeantel
Troutman, D. (n.d.). Intro to Politeness. Angel Learning. Retrieved April 26, 2014, from
https://angel.msu.edu/section/default.asp?id=SS14-WRA-150-027-97CVHH-EL-04-054