Evaluation of the Speaker's Politeness based on Unequal Social Status and the Gender of the Audience with Equal Social Status in the University Environment

Abstract

IntroductionAccording to Lakoff (2004), in order to evaluate the degree of politeness, some principles must be observed based on which some kinds of behavior can be called polite and some impolite. These behaviors differ from culture to culture. In each society polite and impolite behaviors are due to the culture and the thinking of the people of that society. By comparing these behaviors with one another it could be understood that it might be possible that some behaviors which are considered polite in one culture could be regarded as impolite in another. The social stance of the interlocutor and the scope of conversation affect the truth of speech and observation of customs and linguistic coding. The current research studies the degree of politeness used by both male and female students with respects to their social stance based on Lakoff’s (1975, 2004) approach. Do students respond to the demands of different people in the university setting equally? or the social stance of people affect the diversity of words and the degree of politeness among students.

Keywords

• demands
• evaluation
• gender
• politeness
• social stance
• university settings