1.2 Politeness and indirectness in requests
2.1.2 Strategy 2: Exaggerate (interest, approval, sympathy with H)
In general, when employing this strategy, S tends to use exaggerated intonation, stress, and other aspects of prosodic, as well as to use intensifying modifiers.
The exaggerations are generally done with emphatic words and expressions such as for sure, really, exactly, extremely, absolutely, etc.
Nevertheless, no clues of that politeness strategy occur in requests in this novel. 2.1.3 Strategy 3: Intensifying interest to H
By intensifying the interest of S‟s own contribution to the conversation and by trying to make a good story, S communicates to H that he shares some of H‟s wants. This can be realized, for example, in the use of „vivid present‟, i.e. while telling a story, S tries to pull H into his description, into the event being reported, in order to make H more interested in the story.
Another way to increase H‟s interest in the story is to switch back and forth between present and past tenses. Following is an example taken from Brown &
Levinson‟s (1987:106) data:
“Black I like. I used to wear it more than I do now. I very rarely wear it now. I wore a black jumper, and when I wear it my Mum says “Ah”, she said. But Len likes it, he thinks it looks ever so nice and quite a few people do. But when my Mum sees it she said, “Oh it‟s not your color, you‟re more pink and blue”
Another feature of this strategy is the use of directly quoted speech rather than indirectly reported speech. Moreover, S can draw H‟s attention to what he says
by tags such as: you know, see what I mean? isn‟t it?, etc. To exaggerate the fact is also a useful technique.
Eg: “Keeps her off my back, you know” (p. 534)
“Give in, girl! You‟ve got to lose it sometime, you know!...” (p.535)
In short, those techniques emphasize the sincerity of S‟s good intentions in order to redress the FTA.
Of all the times the characters in “The Thorn Birds” use politeness strategies in their requests, 3.75% use strategy 3.
2.1.4 Strategy 4: Use in-group identity markers
This is one of the strategies that S can use to claim common ground with H.
S‟s conveyance of H‟s in-group membership can be communicated by the usage of address forms, of language or dialect, of jargon or slang, and of ellipsis.
* Address forms: Mate, buddy, pal, honey, dear, duckie, babe, Mom, blondie, brother, sister, cutie, sweetheart, guys, fellows, etc.
E.g. Daddy, I want you to contest. (p.210)
Lie down for a while before dinner, love (p.323) Mum, stay home (p.258)
Don‟t say that, my dear (p.180)
These address forms indicate that S believes there is no big power difference between himself and the addressee, so his requests or commands are not power- backed. Therefore, they are softened and H‟s face is saved.
* Use in-group language or dialect: In bilingual or multilingual communities, switching of languages can encode positive politeness. When the in-group language is used (e.g. Chinese among Chinese Americans), it marks personal involvement and thereby shows positive politeness; whereas when the second language is used, it shows negative politeness through the marking of generalization and detachment.
* Use of jargon or slang
E.g. Hullo, Missus, got a bit tucker for a man. (p. 139)
The jargon or slang terms can redress the FTA since they evoke all the associations and attitudes that both S and H share towards the object mentioned.
* Contraction and ellipsis: The comprehension of contracted and elliptical utterances requires that S and H share a common background, that is the reason why
“the use of ellipsis and contraction is associated with positive politeness” (Brown &
Levinson 1987:111).
E.g. “He will, anyway, if he ever see it”. (p. 497) “U can‟t, my Meggie” (p. 1340)
Of all the above cases, address forms are used more frequently in requests in
“The Thorn Birds”, especially among members in family. This strategy takes up 11.96% of the occurrences of positive politeness strategies- the highest frequency of occurrence
2.1.5 Strategy 5: Seek agreement
* Safe-topic: To seek ways to increase the possibility of agreement between H and S is another technique S can use to claim common ground with H. To reach this goal, raising safe-topics such as weather and sports is a good suggestion, because when talking about these topics, it is easy for S to sincerely agree with H. For example, to draw the attention of Justine, Albert give a comment on the book she is reading.
E.g. Don‟t you find him a little dull? (p. 537)
Or before give a request toward Ralph, Ms Mary gives some safe reasons “No, don‟t stop the festivities! If I‟m tired- which I am- I can go to bed, which is what I‟m going to do. But there‟s plenty of food and drink, the band has engaged to play as long as someone wants to dance and a little noise will only speed me into my dreams. Father, would you help me up the stairs, please?” (p.180)
* Repetition: In a conversation, participants can also stress agreement by repeating part or all of what the preceding speaker has said. Repetition has two advantages. On the one hand, it affirms that S has paid attention to H‟s utterance and has heard it correctly, on the other hand, it stress emotional agreement with the utterance.
This strategy employs 3.1% among requests of characters in the novel.
2.1.6 Strategy 6: Avoid disagreement
* Pseudo-agreement: This strategy is found in English in the use of „then‟ and
„so‟. With the appearance of „then‟ and „so‟ in the utterance, it looks as if there were
a prior agreement between H and S, while there is in fact no such agreement. By pointing to a fake prior agreement, they call upon the cooperative agreement associations.
* White lies: Social „white lies‟ can serve as an output of the positive politeness desire to avoid disagreement. When S faces the necessity to state an opinion that may threat H‟s positive face, he will try to save it by telling a „white lie‟.
Even when both S and H know that this is not true, H‟s face is still saved and politeness is achieved.
* Hedging opinions: Using devices to hedge the extreme attitudes and opinions are particularly useful in expressing suggestions or criticisms or complaints, as they make S‟s intention blurred. Furthermore, when the words of opinions are modified by these hedges, they become a kind of metaphor. Since the interpretation of metaphors requires common knowledge between S and H, the use of opinion hedges can serve positive politeness purposes.
E.g: I don‟t want to say this but I think I have to. It‟s time you found yourself a girl.
(p.118)
The occurrences - mainly focusing on the hedge one- of this strategy is 3.9%
2.1.7 Strategy 7: Presuppose/Raise/Assert common ground
This strategy accounts for with rather high rate 5.8% of the times that characters make requests in “The Thorn Birds”.
* Gossip, small talk: By spending time talking about unrelated topics rather than solely doing the FTA (e.g. request), S communicates that doing that FTA is not his only purpose of coming to see H and thus, redresses the FTA.
E.g. “No, don‟t stop the festivities! If I‟m tired- which I am- I can go to bed, which is what I‟m going to do. But there‟s plenty of food and drink, the band has engaged to play as long as someone wants to dance and a little noise will only speed me into my dreams. Father, would you help me up the stairs, please?” (p.180)
* Point-of-view operations: This output suggests that S „moves‟ the central deixis away from him, his location and his time and thereby reduces the distance of viewpoint between him and H, merging their points of view.
- Personal center switch
E.g. We spent hard days in London, you know.
- Time switch
E.g. John says, “Laura‟s house is so beautiful”.
- Place switch:
E.g. This was a very delicious dinner. (In saying good bye)
* Avoidance of adjustment of reports of H‟s point of view.
When S reports H‟s point of view, he makes only the minimal adjustment so as to show the assumption that H‟s point of view is his, or in other words, S and H share common viewpoints.
* Presupposition manipulations
- Presuppose knowledge of H‟s wants and attitudes E.g. “Come in and I‟ll make you a cuppa sometime”? (p. 537)
- Presuppose familiarity in S-H relationship
Eg: “Go to the kitchen, girl, have your tea with Mrs Smith” (p. 143) 2.1.8 Strategy 8: Joke
Joking is a basic positive politeness strategy because jokes can only be told on the ground that S and H share common knowledge and values.
Eg: “On my mouth, Ralph! Kiss my mouth as if we were lovers” (p. 184)
A joke may be used to minimize an FTA of requesting. However, we find only one example in this novel for this case.
2.1.9 Strategy 9: Assert or presuppose S’s knowledge of and concern for H’s wants
This strategy derives from the want to convey that S and H are cooperating in the conversational activity. This want can serve to redress H‟s positive-face want because to cooperate means to share goals in some domain. One way of indicating this want is to assert or to presuppose S‟s knowledge of H‟s wants and S‟s willingness to make his own wants the same as H‟s. However, no example of this strategy is found in the novel.
2.1.10 Strategy 10: Offer, promise
Another way in which S can redress the potential threat of some FTAs is to claim that whatever H wants, S wants for him and is willing to help H obtain it. This results in the use of promises and offers, even token promises. 3.35% of the total times that they give redress actions of requests are devoted to this strategy.
E.g. “We‟ll find them all, you wait and see” (p.472) 2.1.11 Strategy 11: Be optimistic
In order to indicate that S and H are cooperators, S can assume that H wants what S wants for himself and that H will help to obtain it. This results in the use of presumptuous or optimistic expressions of FTAs and perhaps it constitutes the most remarkable difference between positive and negative politeness.
Such optimism markers when used together with understaters (e.g. a bit, a little) imply that S and H are in so good cooperation that small things such as H‟s helping S can be taken for granted.
We find no occurrences for this strategy.
2.1.12 Strategy 12: Include both S and H in the activity
The cooperative assumption can also be called upon by the use of an inclusive „we‟ form when S really means „you‟ or „me‟. One typical form of the inclusive „we‟ is Let‟s.
E.g. “Let’s go and see your Auntie Mary, shall we?” (p. 369) “Now let us kneel and pray” (p. 358)
The frequency of occurrences of this strategy in requests in this novel is 6.27%.
2.1.13 Strategy 13: Give (or ask for) reasons
Actually, this is another aspect of including both S and H in the activity. By giving or asking for the reasons why S wants what he wants, S leads H to the recognition of the reasonableness of the FTA. Therefore, the threat to H‟s face is softened. A conventional outcome of this strategy is the use of indirect suggestions.
E.g. -“Don‟t you think it‟s time you went home. No doubt everyone will sleep in, but if someone awake at the usual time you‟ll be in the soup. And you can‟t say you‟ve been with me, Meggie, even to your own family” (p.187)
- I don‟t want to leave church because I don‟t love you the way a husband will, do you understand. Forget me, Meggie” (p.276)
The negative form is used here not only to demand reasons but also assume that if there is no good reason for H to refuse S‟s request or offer, H will accept it.
This strategy takes up 4.54% of the occurrences of politeness strategies that are used in this novel.
1.1.14 Strategy 14: Assume or assert reciprocity