Russian vs. American politeness (was RE: [SEELANGS] О потере чув =?utf-8?Q?=D1=81=D1=82=D0=B2=D0=B0_=D1=81=D1=82=D0=B8=D0=BB=D1=8F_?=(Raia Rozina RAN))

Fri Oct 4 15:24:02 UTC 2013

To be fair, I don't think Alina cited it as specifically Russian - she seemed to be comparing it to Japanese. Brown and Levinson (1978) cite 'minimising imposition' as a means of avoiding threat to negative face - i.e. to your interlocutor.  It seems in that regard English (and not just the American variety) and Russian are similar.  However, when it comes to Japanese, it has been argued that there is no concept of negative face (Ide) and hence 'minimising imposition' may not be part of the politeness repertoire of Japanese speakers.  

Wierzbicka has a very interesting article on cross-cultural miscommunication using Nabokov's Pnin as an example. (Intercultural Pragmatics, 2010, 7 (1))

As an aside, it was only after 4 years of living in Russia that I could call a shop assistant/waitress etc. девушка. It sounded such an insult to my English speaking ear.

AM

Date: Fri, 4 Oct 2013 14:43:05 +0000
From: ewb2 at CORNELL.EDU
Subject: [SEELANGS] Russian vs. American politeness (was RE: [SEELANGS] О потере чувства стиля (Raia Rozina RAN))
To: SEELANGS at LISTSERV.UA.EDU

Alina cites 'nebol'šoj vopros' as an example of specifically Russian politeness--if it's a small question, it will seem less onerous to the addressee. But doesn't American English
 use the same ploy? My students say or write "Can I ask you a quick question?" to make it seem that they will not keep me busy for very long.

-- 

Wayles Browne, Prof. of Linguistics

Department of Linguistics

Morrill Hall 220, Cornell University

Ithaca, New York 14853, U.S.A.

tel. 607-255-0712 (o), 607-273-3009 (h)

fax 607-255-2044 (write FOR W. BROWNE)

e-mail ewb2 at cornell.edu

From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list [SEELANGS at LISTSERV.UA.EDU] on behalf of Alina Israeli [aisrael at AMERICAN.EDU]

Sent: Friday, October 04, 2013 10:27 AM

To: SEELANGS at LISTSERV.UA.EDU

Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] О потере чувства стиля (Raia Rozina RAN)

It's an interesting interview, but unfortunately Rozina mixes different things there. For example,

И
 вот я сталкиваюсь с тем, что студентка посылает мне часть своей курсовой работы и одновременно хочет задать какой-то вопрос. Она пишет: «Я хочу задать вам небольшой вопрос». И задает вполне большой содержательный вопрос. Но чтобы сделать свой поступок, как
 она считает, более приемлемым для меня и менее опасным, она пишет так.

Ah, that's a great example of Russian politeness (as a term of communication). Japanese politeness elevates the addressee in many ways, to start with the suffix -san. Russian politeness lowers the speaker. By calling it 'небольшой вопрос' she minimizes
 her own and the question's importance. She knows Russian communication etiquette which is so hard to teach to foreigners.

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