KVVS9008 Politeness (3 cr)

The course objectives are to understand the connection between communication, language and politeness, gain an overview about pragmatic approaches to politeness, use politeness theory to describe and explain differences between languages and their connection with cultures, and to find insights into interaction analysis, in particular relational aspects. Politeness is one of the most important links between language, communication and culture. Politeness is also an important element of intercultural competence: many of the problems we have to deal with in intercultural encounters are questions such as “Which is the correct or appropriate way to address a person in a specific context?”, “What do partners expect me to say or do in a certain situation?” These and similar issues can be analysed in terms of politeness. The first part of the course aims at the discussion of linguistic, in particular pragmatic, definitions of politeness and of the use of language for the construction, maintenance or modification of interpersonal relationships. On this ground it will be possible to discuss universal aspects of polite behaviour as well as culture-specific features and to introduce contrastive analysis in the field of pragmatics. The results of the discussions will then be applied to intercultural communication, focusing especially on relationship management.