POLITENESS, RELEVANCE, AND GOAL-CONCILIATION: AN ANALYSIS OF “CAN YOU PASS THE SALT?”

Abstract Based on Rauen’s goal-conciliation theory, Sperber and Wilson’s relevance theory, and Brown and Levinson’s politeness theory, we model in this essay the utterance “Can you pass the salt?”-taken as a classic example of a polite request between politeness theorists-assuming the mobilization of a polite or attenuated speech act contributes to the accomplishment of practical goals. Next, we discuss the modeling considering some criticisms produced by second-wave politeness studies and politeness relevance-theoretic studies. We conclude that politeness aspects are part of intentional action plans, affecting the design of the lowest level practical goal superordinating the respective informative and communicative subgoals. We claim the speaker defines-in the scope of that lower-level practical goal-the speech-act, the politeness super-strategy, and the formulation of the polite utterance considering a palette of linguistic possibilities.

摘要 本研究基于劳恩目标协调理论（Rauen’s goal-conciliation theory）、斯珀伯与威尔逊关联理论（Sperber and Wilson’s relevance theory）以及布朗与莱文森礼貌理论（Brown and Levinson’s politeness theory），以礼貌理论学界公认的经典礼貌请求范例"您能否递一下盐？"为建模对象，假设礼貌或缓和性言语行为（speech act）的运用有助于实践目标的达成。随后，本研究结合第二波礼貌研究与礼貌关联理论研究提出的若干批评意见，对上述建模展开探讨。研究结论表明，礼貌维度属于意向性行动计划的组成部分，会对统辖对应信息性与交际性子目标的最低层级实践目标的设计产生影响。本研究主张，说话者在该低层级实践目标的范畴内，结合多样的语言选择空间，确定言语行为类型、礼貌超级策略以及礼貌话语的具体措辞。