SPEECH FUNCTION,

POLITENESS AND CROSS-

CULTURAL
COMMUNICATION

Created by
Septy Riani Pangindoman
Sri Wahyuni
Yulita Adriana
The Function of Speech
 There are a number of ways of categorising the
function of speech:
• Expressive
utterances express the speaker’s feeling
e.g., I’m fe e ling g re a t to d a y
• Directive
utterances attempt to get someone to do something
e.g., Cle a r the ta ble !
• Referential
utterances provide information
e.g., At the third s tro ke it will be thre e o ’c lo c k p re c is e ly
The Function of Speech
• Metalinguistic
utterances comment on language itself
e.g., ‘He g e m o ny ’ is no t a c o m m o n wo rd
• Poetic
utterances focus on aesthetic features of
language
e.g., a poem, an ear-catching motto, a ryhme
Pe te r Pip e r p ic ke d a p e c k o f p ic kle d p e p p e rs
• Phatic
• Utterances express solidarity and emphty with
others e.g., Hi, ho w a re y o u, lo ve ly d a y is n’t it!
The Function of Speech
• Other researches have added categories to
deal with promises and threats (c o m m is ive ),
and with marriage vows, bets, and declaration
of war (p e rfo rm a tive s or declarations).
Directives
 Directives are concerned with getting people to
do things, for example:
Sit d o wn Imperative
Co uld y o u s it d o wn Interrogative
Iwa nt y o u to s it d o wn Declarative

 In general the interrogatives and declaratives are

more polite than the imperatives, but a great
deal depends on intonation, tone of voice and
context. For example:
A gentle s it d o wn may be far more polite than a
thundered Iwa nt y o u a ll s it d o wn no w.
Directives
 There are some factors which affect a
speaker’s choice of the appropriate form of
directives
• Social distance between participants
• Relative status
• Formality and status
• Routineness or reasonableness
• Gender
Politeness and address forms
 Being polite is a complicated business in any
language. It difficult to learn because it
involves understanding not just the language,
but also the social and cultural values of the
community.
 Speaking politeness involves taking account
of the feelings of others. We also need to
understand the social values of society in
order to speak politely.
 Politeness and address forms
Politeness
Positive politeness
Po s itiv e p o lite ne s s is
solidarity oriented. It
emphasises shared attitudes
and values. For example,
when the boss suggest that
subordinate should use FN to
her. It is a positive politeness
move, expressing solidarity
and minimising status
differences
Negative politeness
Ne g a tiv e p o lite ne s s pays
people respect and avoids
intruding on them. Negative
politeness involves expressing
oneself appropriately in terms of
social distance and regulating
status differences. Using TLN
(title+last name) to your
superiors and older people that
you don’t know well, are the
example of the negative
politeness
Politeness and address forms
 Being polite may also involve the dimension
of formality. For example, in a formal
sittuation the appropriate way of talking to
your brother will depend on your roles in the
context. If he is acting as the judge in a law
court then calling him To m will be considered
disrepectful, while at the dinner table calling
him Yo ur ho no ur will be perceived as equally
rude.
Politeness and address forms
 The type of relationship involved in social
distance is another factor of being polite. For
example, Shopkeepers and cutomers may
exchange mutual TLN even they have know
each other for a long time.
Linguistic politeness in different
culture
 Learning another language usually involves a
great deal more than learning the literal
meaning of the words, how to put them
together, and how to pronounce them. We
need to know what they mean in the cultural
context in which they are normally used. And
that involves some understanding of the
cultural and social norms of their uses.
Linguistic politeness in different
culture
 Example:
When Rebecca arrived in New Zeland from Nottingham she and
her family were invited to a christmas party at a neighbour’s
houses. Bring a p la te she was told, and thinking her hosts must be
having a very big party if they expected to run out of plates, she
obligingly brought four. Empty ones! When she arrived she was
embrrassed to discover that bring a p la te meant bring contribution
to the food.

 These examples illustrate the ways of

expressing the same speech act may differ
quite markedly from on culture to another.
Linguistic politeness in different
culture
 There are sociolinguistic rules for polite
acceptence and refusal which differ cross-
culturally. For example, in some cultures there
are very general vague for mulas such as I’m
bus y tha t nig ht I’m a fra id , which are perfectly
acceptable. But in many Western communities
people expect to be provided with a more
specific reason for refusal
Conclusion
 Social contexts, Social status, Formality and
the relationship between the participants are
the reason why people express the same
speech funtion differently on different
occasions. It is also a matter of politeness. A
sociolinguistic aims to identify the different
weight put on these factors in different cultures
THANK YOU