31.2935, Confs: Pragmatics/Switzerland

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-31-2935. Mon Sep 28 2020. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 31.2935, Confs: Pragmatics/Switzerland

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Date: Mon, 28 Sep 2020 23:17:25
From: Masaki Yamaoka [myamaoka at soka.ac.jp]
Subject: Contrastive Study for Considerate Expressions

 
Contrastive Study for Considerate Expressions 

Date: 27-Jun-2021 - 02-Jul-2021 
Location: Winterthur, Switzerland 
Contact: Masaki YAMAOKA 
Contact Email: myamaoka at soka.ac.jp 

Linguistic Field(s): Pragmatics 

Meeting Description: 

We have engaged in the research project adopted for the Japanese Kakenhi
(Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research) since 2018. We aim to collect
vocabulary and phrases of “considerate expressions” and sentence examples from
Japanese corpus and to construct the database to prepare for future
considerate expressions dictionary compilation. We have collected about 150
words and phrases in Japanese now. 

We assume that “considerate expressions” is a universal linguistic category,
so we can observe it not only in Japanese but also in other languages.
Therefore, we are trying to describe their counterparts in English, Chinese,
Korean, and Arabic. In this panel, we would discuss the aspects of considerate
expressions in these languages and would establish the basis of a contrastive
study on them.

In current research of Japanese linguistics, our interests in a category
called “considerate expressions” are increasing. This topic is closely related
to politeness. As is well known, politeness is a context-dependent
interpersonal regulative act that is not inherently fixed to a specific
linguistic form. In Japanese linguistics, however, it has been pointed out
that specific words and phrases seem to perform politeness function as a
second or third sense of the word. For example, a degree adverb chotto means a
low degree in an ordinary sentence like (1):
    (1)Kyo wa chotto samui.   It is a little cold today.
       today  a little cold

But this adverb is often used not as a degree adverb but as just a hedge for
negative politeness in interpersonal communication. For example, (2) is a
refusal against the application of debt:
    (2)Sono kingaku wa chotto muri desu.   I cannot lend you such a high
mount.
       such (high) price ???? cannot (lend)

In (2), chotto do not have any logical sense, since refusal does not show
degree, unlike (1). The speaker is more likely to use chotto just to relieve
the awkwardness of refusal. In other words, chotto plays a role of negative
politeness to a typical FTA in this sentence. The usage of chotto like this
appears repeatedly in similar FTA contexts. And the frequent occurrence of
similar contexts causes the conventionalization of politeness function. As a
result, the politeness function is recognized a new sense of chotto, then, we
can find it in the item of chotto of the latest version of the Japanese
dictionary.

 Similarly, a well-known phrase when giving a gift “tsumaranai mono desu ga”
(This item is a low value.) is also one of the considerate expressions which
are conventionalized of a kind of negative politeness to avoid condescending.

 We can observe such a conventionalization of politeness in other languages.
For example, in English the phrase “Can you～?” means originally a question
about the hearer’s ability, but it is generally recognized as a request
expression. It seems that a conventionalized politeness expression to avoid
direct request as an FTA. Similarly, the Chinese request expression “Néng
bùnéng～?” is also a considerate expression derived from a question about the
hearer’s ability. Therefore, it is necessary to describe “considerate
expressions” as a universal phenomenon that transcends individual languages.
 

Program Information: 

We have engaged in the research project adopted for the Japanese Kakenhi with
the co-researchers since 2018. Before this submission, we have already invited
them to the panel. Of course, every member has agreed to participate. We have
a plan to panel contents as below: 
Presentation 1: Panel Introduction: How Universal is Considerate Expressions?
Presentation 2: On the Considerate Expressions in Japanese.
Presentation 3: On the Considerate Expressions in English.
Presentation 4: On the Considerate Expressions in Chinese.
Presentation 5: On the Considerate Expressions in Arabic.





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LINGUIST List: Vol-31-2935	
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