Politeness Phenomena in England and Greece: A Cross-Cultural Perspective Paperback

Maria Sifianou

Politeness is crucial to successful communication and is consequently of great interest to those who study language in its social context. This book presents the first application of Brown and Levinson's ground-breaking theoretical work in a full-length comparative case study. Maria Sifianou draws her data from a variety of sources, including literature (particularly drama), questionnaires, and personal observation. She attempts to discover the principles underlying social interaction in both intracultural and intercultural contexts, and discusses the extent to which the concept of politeness is common to different cultures. She argues that politeness is conceptualized differently and thus manifested differently in the two societies under study: Greeks tend to use more 'positive' politeness devices than the English, who prefer more 'negative' devices. Positive politeness is more closely related to friendliness, negative politeness to formality. Dr Sifianou's analysis illustrates and supports the general claim that, despite popular stereotypes, there can be no objective verification for the view that one nation is more polite than another.

9780198241324

English

Oxford University Press, USA

02-12-1999

272

Maria Sifianou is Assistant Professor in the Department of English Studies at the University of Athens.

With acuity and verve, [Sifianou] adds an important new chapter to the already substantial linguistic literature on Modern Greece....Offers real insight into the relationship between social values and linguistic practice....Sifianou's interpretations are persuasive and consistent.....All social anthropologists planning field research in Greece should read and assimilate this book....[A] fine-grained, confident analysis...--Anthropological Linguistics "As a whole, this work should be considered an interesting contribution to politeness theory and its applications to specific languages."--Language in Society "With acuity and verve, [Sifianou] adds an important new chapter to the already substantial linguistic literature on Modern Greece....Offers real insight into the relationship between social values and linguistic practice....Sifianou's interpretations are persuasive and consistent.....All social anthropologists planning field research in Greece should read and assimilate this book....[A] fine-grained, confident analysis..."--Anthropological Linguistics "As a whole, this work should be considered an interesting contribution to politeness theory and its applications to specific languages."--Language in Society "With acuity and verve, [Sifianou] adds an important new chapter to the already substantial linguistic literature on Modern Greece....Offers real insight into the relationship between social values and linguistic practice....Sifianou's interpretations are persuasive and consistent.....All social anthropologists planning field research in Greece should read and assimilate this book....[A] fine-grained, confident analysis..."--Anthropological Linguistics "As a whole, this work should be considered an interesting contribution to politeness theory and its applications to specific languages."--Language in Society "With acuity and verve, [Sifianou] adds an important new chapter to the already substantial linguistic literature on Modern Greece....Offers real insight into the relationship between social values and linguistic practice....Sifianou's interpretations are persuasive and consistent.....All social anthropologists planning field research in Greece should read and assimilate this book....[A] fine-grained, confident analysis..."--Anthropological Linguistics "As a whole, this work should be considered an interesting contribution to politeness theory and its applications to specific languages."--Language in Society "With acuity and verve, Sifianou adds an important new chapter to the already substantial linguistic literature on Modern Greece....Offers real insight into the relationship between social values and linguistic practice....Sifianou's interpretations are persuasive and consistent.....All social anthropologists planning field research in Greece should read and assimilate this book.... A fine-grained, confident analysis..."--Anthropological Linguistics "As a whole, this work should be considered an interesting contribution to politeness theory and its applications to specific languages."--Language in Society