This paper has two aims: At first, to find out whether the German responses respectively results differ from Chen’s American English ones or whether there are similarities. Secondly to interpret the results according to the two cultures and to show that there are more similarities than differences between the two cultures. In the next section the theoretical background of this term paper will be explained with a definition of politeness as well as a definition of a compliment. As already mentioned, there will be a description of Leech’s Politeness Principle and Brown and Levinson’s theory of politeness which will be linked to the comparison of the two cultures. To make a comparison possible between American English speakers and German speakers, the same methodology as Chen’s will be presented, which will be the next section. The step after the methodology will be the illustration of the findings. The comparison of the data with an interpretation according to both cultures will be included in the discussion section. At the end will be a short conclusion of the whole study.
If you are in a foreign country, you try to be polite. But what exactly is politeness? Maybe you have already noticed that not in every country respectively culture you find the same understanding of politeness, which can lead to misunderstandings between people from different cultures. Hence many linguists try to compare the understanding of politeness of different cultures and countries with the aid of some researches and some politeness theories. The most important and popular politeness theories are those of Brown and Levinson, Leech and Grice, which will help to understand and group the findings into categories. Later on, some of them will be defined.
The comparison between American English and German is quite vague, because the questionnaires were given to only 50 students from the same region in each research. This imprecision leads to more questions according to the study: Do we have regional politeness varieties in a country or even social politeness varieties? So that a new question arises, whether a small study of 50 students for each country can show politeness understanding in general for each country? These questions will not be answered in this term paper, because of the large amount of data and the lacking possibilities to collect it.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Theoretical background
2.1.What is politeness?
2.2.What is a compliment?
2.3.Brown and Levinson’s theory of politeness
2.4.Leech’s politeness principle
3. Methodology
4. Findings
4.1.The American English results
4.2.The German results
5. Discussion
6. Conclusion
Objectives and Topics
This research paper aims to examine and compare the strategies used by German speakers when responding to compliments against those used by American English speakers, as documented in Rong Chen’s prior study. By applying Brown and Levinson’s politeness theory and Leech’s politeness principles, the paper evaluates cultural similarities and differences in communication behavior within social interactions.
- Analysis of politeness theories (Brown, Levinson, and Leech)
- Methodological application of Discourse Completion Tasks (DCT)
- Comparative quantitative distribution of responding strategies
- Examination of cultural variations in compliment acceptance and deflection
- Evaluation of the "Modesty Maxim" versus "Agreement Maxim" in different cultures
Excerpt from the Book
2.1.What is politeness?
Politeness can be attached to socio-psychology and is an everyday part of human behaviour (House 2005: 13). In every culture you can see norms for being polite, which means that you are responsible for keeping the expectations of the people around you and also keeping the politeness norms. To do so, some aspects have to be kept in mind. One of them is being polite in the right degree, i.e. being “overpolite[...] or “impolite[...] tend to be noticed” (House 2005: 14) and therefore seen outside of the politeness norms. Another aspect is ‘context’, which influences the interaction between two or more people as well as “the relationship between them” (House 2005: 15). In a relationship of friends, there are less face-threatening acts than in a relationship of acquaintances, because friends have a closer understanding to each other than acquaintances. Therefore people have to be aware of what they can say and what they should not say in a particular relationship. That means to be aware of the addressee’s face.
Summary of Chapters
1. Introduction: The introduction outlines the linguistic motivation for the study, focusing on how different cultural understandings of politeness can lead to misunderstandings, and establishes the research goal of comparing German and American response patterns.
2. Theoretical background: This chapter defines core concepts such as politeness and compliments while detailing the foundational theories of Brown and Levinson and the maxims proposed by Leech.
3. Methodology: The author describes the use of the discourse completion task (DCT) to gather data from 50 German students, mirroring the situational constraints of the original Chen study to ensure comparability.
4. Findings: This section presents the quantitative data for both American and German response strategies, categorizing them into four super-strategies and their respective sub-strategies.
5. Discussion: The author interprets the findings, highlighting the striking similarities in how both cultures utilize acceptance and self-deprecating strategies to manage social relationships.
6. Conclusion: The paper summarizes the research, affirming that German and American responses are highly similar, and suggests that future studies should account for regional and age-related variations.
Keywords
Politeness, Compliment, Response Strategies, Brown and Levinson, Leech, Agreement Maxim, Modesty Maxim, American English, German, Discourse Completion Task, Sociolinguistics, Face-threatening acts, Cross-cultural communication, Linguistics, Pragmatics
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the core subject of this research paper?
The paper investigates the linguistic strategies used by German speakers when responding to compliments, comparing these reactions to those of American English speakers based on previously established research.
Which theoretical frameworks are used to analyze the data?
The study utilizes Brown and Levinson’s theory of positive and negative politeness as well as Leech’s politeness principles, specifically focusing on the Agreement and Modesty maxims.
What is the primary goal of the study?
The goal is to determine if German response patterns differ from American ones or if there are cross-cultural similarities in how people accept or deflect compliments.
What research methodology was employed?
The author used a discourse completion task (DCT), presenting four specific social situations to 50 students to elicit naturalistic responses to compliments.
What key aspects are discussed in the main body?
The main body focuses on the categorization of responses into four super-strategies—accepting, returning, deflecting, and rejecting—and provides a statistical breakdown and comparison for both cultures.
What are the characterizing keywords of this work?
Key terms include politeness, compliments, sociolinguistics, cross-cultural comparison, and specific linguistic strategies like thanking, joking, or explaining.
How do German and American speakers compare in their use of the "Modesty Maxim"?
The study indicates that both cultures employ self-deprecating strategies, such as rejecting or denigrating the compliment, to maintain social harmony and avoid appearing arrogant.
What limitation does the author mention regarding the study's scope?
The author notes that the research is limited to a single region and a small sample size of students, which may not be fully representative of the general population in each country.
- Citation du texte
- Bachelor of Arts Kristina Grasmik (Auteur), 2013, Responding to compliments in German and American English, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/369267
