Vol. 18:2 (2008) ► pp.157–165
Mitigation on the minibus
Politeness as variable
One well documented aspect of politeness is that speakers, when making requests, often try to avoid the appearance of imposing on the other person. There is some evidence that the degree of politeness is affected by socio-demographic variables such as age, sex and SES. This paper is a small scale study of variation in politeness usage in Hong Kong Cantonese. It uses a context, in which the interactive negotiation of a social relationship is very constrained, so that the effects of the socio-demographic variables can be clearly manifested. The findings indicate that it is possible that SES plays a small role in variation, and that women and young people are in general more polite. The study has implications for variation studies and politeness studies.
https://doi.org/10.1075/japc.18.2.03gib
Cited by
Cited by 1 other publications
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 1 april 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.