A New Approach to Politeness

Face angle

The authors representing this approach are Brown and Levinson (1978/1987). The names of Brown and Levinson are almost synonymous with the word “politeness” as one researcher said “it is impossible to talk about politeness without mentioning Brown and Levinson” [111; p. 11]. Like Lakoff, Brown and Levinson see politeness as the avoidance of conflict in communication, but their explanatory tools are different from Lakoff’s. The central issues in Brown and Levinson’s theory are “rationality” and “face”, both of which are considered to have universal characteristics. According to the two authors, face is a very sensitive factor, can be damaged, can be maintained and enhanced. Politeness is a system of strategies to mitigate face-threatening acts. Brown and Levinson proposed five strategies of linguistic interaction and asserted that this strategy model has universal application. In communication, the speaker must calculate and consider the level of face threat of the speech act he intends to perform in order to find ways to reduce the level of face threat.

Collaborative conversation perspective

B. Fraser (1975), B. Fraser and Nolen (1981) are the authors representing this trend. According to them, “politeness is not as Lakoff and Leech said, making the listener feel happy and comfortable, nor as Brown and Levinson understood, making the listener not feel uncomfortable, but simply, with an assigned task, we must complete it in the light of the principle of conversational cooperation”. [17; p. 57]. Thus, politeness is controlled by conversational rules and conversational cooperation. When participants comply with those rules, they have achieved the requirement of politeness. On the contrary, when they act incorrectly, they will be considered impolite.

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Among the four research perspectives mentioned above, Brown and Levinson's theory is considered the most influential. After Brown and Levinson's book was republished, many researchers from all over the world voiced their support. They conducted research in an applied direction based on Brown and Levinson's theoretical model. However, many researchers disagreed with Brown and Levinson's point of view. These representatives came from Eastern cultures such as China, Japan, and Korea. Typical authors are: Ide (1989), Hill Etal (1986), Matsumoto (1988), Gu (1990)... According to them, in cultures that emphasize community like the East, politeness is first and foremost a standard behavior, in accordance with the rules and order of hierarchy in society.

1.1.1.2. New approaches to politeness

A number of scholars have proposed new approaches to politeness. This trend has been most evident in the last ten years or so. The new research directions can be summarized as follows:

The post- modern approach with typical authors: Eelen (2001), Mills. S. (2003), Watts (2003), Locher and Watts (2005), Locher and Bousfield (2008), Bousfield and Culpepper (2008). The difference between this approach and the traditional approach is shown in the following aspects.

First, it is a rejection of Grice's traditional framework, which emphasizes the mediation of harmonious relationships and the speaker's intentions, and what is perceived by the hearer. They argue that Grice's framework is inappropriate to account for conflictual/antagonistic exchanges, such as are common in real life ('it is inappropriate to account for conflictual/antagonistic exchanges, such as are common in real life' [Dt 120; 241]. The postmodern tendency is also directed towards the hearer, placing politeness in the listener's judgment rather than the speaker's intentions. The tendency

This approach also rejects speech act theory (Mills 2003). The authors argue that politeness cannot focus on individual utterances but must be oriented towards longer discourses. In this respect, the postmodern tendency emphasizes the need to study conversation in a process-oriented view. [122; p. 38].

The relational approach with typical authors: Watts (2003) Locher (2004, 2006), Locher and Watts (2005), Spencer-Oatey (2005, 2007). Locher and Watts wrote: “Relational regulation activity is understood as people's investment in regulating their relationships in communication” [118; p. 78]. Although they may have different names such as: “relational work” (Locher and Watts 2005), “relational practice” (Holmes and Schnurr 2005) or “rapport management” (Spencer-Oatey 2000), they all have one thing in common: emphasizing interpersonal relationships rather than emphasizing the individual expression of politeness like traditional politeness models. [Dt 97; p. 22]. Similarly, impoliteness is also viewed by these linguists within the context of relationship regulation, avoiding presenting it as simply a dichotomy of politeness.

The frame -based view is a typical author, Marina Terkourafi (2001, 2002, 2003, 2005a, 2005b). This approach is a complement to the traditional and postmodern approaches. If the two approaches above take theory as the basis for research (theory-driven), the frame-based approach takes data as the basis for research (data-driven). Taking data from a large set of spontaneous conversations of people from Cyprus (Greece), Terkourafi strongly opposed Brown and Levinson's definition of politeness: "Politeness is a matter not of rational calculation, but a habit" (130; p. 250)

There is also the interactive approach with typical authors: Arundale (1999, 2006), Haugh (2007) and the genre approach with typical authors Garcés – Conejos Blitvich (2010a). [Dt 97; p. 26]

In general, the above approaches are quite new and have not had time to be thoroughly studied theoretically in all aspects and have not been tested practically like traditional research methods, however the initial results are very remarkable. It suggests many different approaches in this complex and also very attractive field.

The above is a brief overview of two research trends on politeness in the world. The traditional research direction is based on Grice's collaborative perspective, characterized by emphasizing the speaker and focusing on the analysis of individual utterances. The postmodern research direction focuses on the listener's evaluation and considers politeness in a more complete discourse. Each research direction has its own strengths, creating a colorful picture in the approach to the phenomenon of politeness.

The thesis chooses the politeness theory of Brown and Levinson as the theoretical basis for research. Although there are some conflicting opinions surrounding the politeness theory of these two authors, this is still considered the most influential theory ever.

1.1.2. The situation of research on politeness in Vietnam

The concept of politeness has been mentioned for a long time in the world, but it was not until the 60s and 70s of the 20th century that it was truly raised to a theory and became the main research object of pragmatics. In Vietnam, at first, people only saw its "shadow" through some related concepts such as: social role , face ... The first person to mention politeness was the author

Nguyen Dinh Hoa (1956) in Linguistic and non-linguistic models of polite behavior . Although he did not systematically analyze the theory of politeness, he introduced its premise concept - face. He analyzed the correlation between face and social behavior, in which face is understood as "pride in the values that one has" [Dt 14; p. 46]. In Social role and language behavior in communication [85], author Nhu Y studied the concept of social role as a factor governing the principle of politeness in communication: In reality, people are always in a position of diverse communication relationships with many different classes and types of people in terms of social status, age, gender, occupation, education, and social prestige. That social role governs the way individuals use language in communication, the standards of politeness, natural informality or gentleness, modesty... The theory of politeness is officially mentioned in On the study of politeness in communication [17] by author Nguyen Van Do. He summarized four trends of politeness research in the world: social standards perspective, conversational rules perspective, face perspective and conversational collaboration perspective and pointed out an open direction in politeness research: "Politeness has opened a new direction in language in general and in teaching and learning foreign languages in particular. If we can study and exploit it, we will certainly achieve new achievements in language research and teaching Vietnamese" [17; p. 57].

Along with the development of pragmatics, in Vietnam in recent years, many research works on politeness have appeared, both from a theoretical and practical perspective. Textbooks on pragmatics such as: General linguistics [6] by Do Huu Chau, Pragmatics [7] by Nguyen Duc Dan, Vietnamese language pragmatics

[21] by Nguyen Thien Giap; the sociolinguistics research work of author Nguyen Van Khang [39],… all mention the principle of politeness as a rule governing interpersonal relationships in conversation. The common point of these books is that they introduce the most basic concepts of

politeness: face, politeness, major schools of study, negative politeness, positive politeness, face-threatening and honoring behaviors,....

Politeness is also studied in connection with daily communication activities. The first research work on a general scale on the issue of politeness in Vietnamese is by author Vu Thi Thanh Huong. In her doctoral thesis Politeness in modern Vietnamese: A sociolinguistic study of a Hanoi speech community [132], using the method of investigation and testing with a number of subjects living in Hanoi, the author has proposed four main characteristics in the concept of Vietnamese people: politeness, propriety, tact, and tact. According to the author, these four characteristics have a relationship that includes each other but is not identical, both including and different.

Politeness is studied in relation to the OT. Almost every research work on the OT "touches" the issue of politeness. That is the thesis on politeness through giving and receiving behavior by author Chu Thi Bich [5]; the research work on complimenting behavior by Nguyen Quang [56], the research on criticizing behavior by Hoang Thi Hai Yen [87]; the research on greeting, thanking, apologizing utterances by Pham Thi Thanh [71],... Politeness is studied in a number of common communication rituals such as: inviting, thanking, congratulating, praising, apologizing, criticizing, rejecting, refusing,... as in the book Politeness in Vietnamese communication [68] by Ta Thi Thanh Tam. In the OT, the act of asking in relation to politeness is studied the most. (The research works of authors Nguyen Duc Hoat [28], Vu Thi Thanh Huong [32] can be mentioned. According to the authors, the reason why requests are of most interest is because "it is a type of behavior with a high level of face-threatening, so when performing it, politeness becomes the main concern" [32; p. 35]. In the above works, the authors not only raise the relationship between the OT and the

politeness but also analyzes the linguistic elements expressing politeness such as: address words, modal particles, barrier expressions, predicates... From there, each author contributes to clarifying the concept of politeness of Vietnamese people in communication practice.

Regarding the means of words expressing politeness, almost every research work on politeness has mentioned it, although it is still sporadic and scattered. If we only count the research works specifically on the means of words expressing politeness, we must mention the works of authors Vu Tien Dung [10], [12], Nguyen Thi Luong [43], Vu Thi Nga [46], ... Here, the words have been meticulously analyzed to find out their roles, functions as well as their different levels in expressing politeness.

In addition, politeness is also viewed in relation to a number of other factors such as gender, age, occupation, etc. Most notably, the relationship between politeness and gender. This issue is mentioned in the studies of authors Vu Tien Dung [12], Vu Thi Thanh Huong [33], etc. Politeness is compared to its close concept - politeness in the thesis of Phan Thi Phuong Dung [8].

Politeness is also studied from the perspective of cross-cultural pragmatics. The concept of politeness is not only viewed within a cultural community but is compared and contrasted in different cultural and linguistic communities. For example, comparing communication protocols between the English and Vietnamese speaking communities, Japanese and Vietnamese in the light of politeness theory. Research works and articles that must be mentioned are: Politeness in critical speech acts of Vietnamese and British people [23] by Le Thi Thuy Ha, Politeness and means of expressing politeness in Vietnamese and Japanese requests [55] by Tran Lan Phuong, Communication and cross-cultural communication [57], Some issues of intracultural and cross-cultural communication [58] by

Author Nguyen Quang; Comparing and contrasting politeness in communication in Thai and Vietnamese [62] by author Siriwong Hongsawan...; Linguistic means of expressing politeness in Vietnamese and Japanese [75] by Hoang Anh Thi (1998),... This research direction promises many interesting things, with practical significance in foreign language teaching and learning activities.

The issue of politeness in journalistic interviews has been addressed in several recent theses such as: Questioning in television interview language

[80] by Tran Phuc Trung, Conversational language in the interview genre (on current Vietnamese printed newspaper materials) [31] by author Pham Thi Mai Huong. When analyzing the act of asking in a television interview, author Tran Phuc Trung mentioned politeness as a characteristic in the behavioral culture of interview communication. In which, the author raised a number of strategies to increase politeness for the act of asking in a television interview, including: Politeness in the use of modal words like "ạ", "ạ", "vữu "; Politeness in the way of addressing; Politeness in apologies related to asking. The thesis only mentioned a few manifestations of politeness in a television interview. Politeness has not been systematically studied as a main research object on interview communication conversation materials.

In general, politeness has been studied from many angles, in relation to many factors, with many elaborate research works, with high generality. That is the basis, the advantage for the thesis in inheriting, and at the same time, it is also a big challenge, how to have discovery, innovation compared to previous works. Looking at the general research works on politeness, it can be seen that politeness has been exploited more in the positive aspect - compliance (politeness) but less attention is paid to the negative aspect - violation (impoliteness). Besides, politeness is mainly studied on the text of daily conversation. Selecting research text

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