Click here to listen to ‘A politeness episode, if you please’
If it wouldn't be too much trouble, if you have a spare half hour, could we possibly suggest that you might enjoy listening to this episode on politeness? Or, if you've prefer a less polite version, "Listen! Now!"
In this episode, your hosts Gretchen McCulloch and Lauren Gawne get enthusiastic about what politeness and rudeness are made up of at a linguistic level. We talk about existing cultural notions of "saving face" and "losing face", aka the push and pull between our desire for help vs our desire for independence, and how they've been formalized in a classic linguistics paper. We also talk about being less polite to show intimacy, addressing God in English and French, which forms of politeness are and aren't overtly taught, different uses of "please" in UK vs US English, levels of indirectness, email etiquette across generations and subcultures, rudeness and pointing, nodding norms in Japanese and English, smiling at strangers in the US vs Europe, and how a small number of politeness ingredients can combine in so many different ways that are culturally different.
Click here for a link to this episode in your podcast player of choice or read the transcript here.
Announcements:
In this month’s bonus episode we get enthusiastic about science metaphors and learning everything with Tom Lum and Caroline Roper, cohosts of Let's Learn Everything! We talk about whether programming languages should count as a language credit, numbers and ritual stock phrases like seventeen and "once upon a time", as well as etymology and metaphor in ecology, chemistry, and linguistics. We also talk about turning the "constantly trying to figure things out" part of your brain off, attending the word of the year vote, and how linguists have a tendency to be curious about language all the time, which... sometimes gets us into trouble.
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Here are the links mentioned in the episode:
'Politeness: Some universals in language use' by Penelope Brown and Stephen Levinson
Lingthusiasm bonus episode 'The Most Esteemed Honorifics Episode'
'Routine politeness in American and British English requests: use and non-use of please' by M. Lynne Murphy and Rachele De Felice
@killersundy video about the Irish offering cake to the Irish on TikTok
Lingthusiasm episode 'If I were an irrealis'
Lingthusiasm episode 'Look, it’s deixis, an episode about pointing!'
'Nodding, aizuchi, and final particles in Japanese conversation: How conversation reflects the ideology of communication and social relationships' by Sotaro Kita and Sachiko Ide
'Why Americans Smile So Much' by Olga Khazan for The Atlantic
'Three-year-olds infer polite stance from intonation and facial cues' by Iris Hübscher, Laura Wagner, and Pilar Prieto
You can listen to this episode via Lingthusiasm.com, Soundcloud, RSS, Apple Podcasts/iTunes, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also download an mp3 via the Soundcloud page for offline listening.
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Email us at contact [at] lingthusiasm [dot] com
Gretchen is on Bluesky as @GretchenMcC and blogs at All Things Linguistic.
Lauren is on Bluesky as @superlinguo and blogs at Superlinguo.
Lingthusiasm is created by Gretchen McCulloch and Lauren Gawne. Our senior producer is Claire Gawne, our production editor is Sarah Dopierala, our production assistant is Martha Tsutsui Billins, our editorial assistant is Jon Kruk, and our technical editor is Leah Velleman. Our music is ‘Ancient City’ by The Triangles.
Here’s the link again to ‘A politeness episode, if you please’
Thanks for listening, and stay Lingthusiastic!
Lauren & Gretchen