Brown and Levinston's Face Theory.
The 'Politeness theory' accounts for the set of social rules. Formulated in 1978 by Penelope Brown and Stephen Levinson who developed their 'face theory' based on the principles of our desire to be liked and not to be imposed up on.
Face is defined as the public self image every adult has, which is 'attended' to in interaction.
There are to aspects to face. Positive and negative.
The positive face is the desire to be appreciated and liked, and the negative face is the desire to have freedom and not to be imposed upon.
A Face Threatening Act (FTA) is an act which deliberately threatens the face needs of others.
In order to save face, we have the option to use 'politeness super strategies' : Positive politeness is showing you value someone so minimising the threat to the positive face, Off record is avoiding responsibility for the FTA often by being indirect.
Impoliteness is defined as engaging in aggressive face work in particular contexts to cause social disruption, can be done in various ways : Positive impoliteness is attacking the positive face need by not showing you value someone, Off Record is using indirect offence such as sarcasm or banter and Withhold is failing to be polite when it is expected.
Grice's Maxims.
1. The maxim of quantity - where one tries to be as informative as one possibly can, and gives as much information as is needed, and no more.
2. The maxim of quality - where one tries to be truthful, and does not give information this is false or that is not supported by evidence.
3. The maxim of relation - where one tries to be relevant, and says things that are pertinent to the discussion.
4. The maxim of manner - where one tries to be as clear, as brief, and as orderly as one cam in what one says, and where one avoids obscurity and ambiguity.
Grice's maxims say that when we communicate we assume, without realising it, that we and the people we are talking to will be conversationally co-operative, and will co-operate to achieve mutual conversational ends because we feel the need to abide by the maxims. The word maxim means rules.
We can break the conversational maxims in two main ways :
We can violate them, this means that we break the maxims, so that other people do not know. For example if the maxim of quality is violated, a lie has been told in the conversation.
Or we can flout them, we break the maxim so that it is, obvious to all concerned that it has been broke.
Video link - Shawshank Redemption.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtwXlIwozog
The video clip shows a small part from the Shawshank Redemption, the two participants of the conversation is between Morgan Freeman's character and the parole officer. In the beginning of the conversation, the Parole officer has the power as he directs him to sit down. He also shows he has power by leading the discourse and calling him by his full name and is leading the conversation on his terms. The parole officer has the maxim of quantity, as he says all that is necessary to the conversation and no more. The power shifts to Morgan Freeman's character, as he interrupts the parole officer and says 'I know what you think it means, sonny'. Morgan Freeman's character takes over the power as the parole officer backs down. Morgan Freeman's character shows the negative face as he wants freedom and no longer wants to be imposed upon.
