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HOW DOES POLITENESS AFFECT THE EXPRESSION OF PROPOSALS? Proposal: a plan suggested for or something offered for consideration, acceptance, adoption, or to be done, a matter to be dealt with. Affect: to do something that produces an effect or change in something or in someones situation, effect is the way in which an event, action, or person changes someone or something. Have an effect on; make a difference to, effect is a change which is a result or consequence of an action or other cause Concise Oxford English Dictionary (10th ed.). According to Cruse (2000), politeness is a class of implicature which receives no account in Grimes co-operative principle. For this, Leech has proposed an independent pragmatic principle, to function alongside the co-operative principle, which is the politeness principle. Leechs first and foremost argument is that; politeness is a matter of what is said, and not a matter of what is thought or believed. This principle is expressed thus; choose expressions which minimally belittle the hearers status. The sort of things which may cause the minimum loss of face to the hearer are; i. Treating the hearer as subservient to ones will, by desiring the hearer to do something which will cost effort, or restrict freedom, etc. ii. Saying bad things about the hearer or people or things related to the hearer. iii. iv. Expressing pleasure at the hearers misfortune. Disagreeing with the hearer, thus denigrating the hearers thoughts.

v.

Praising oneself, or dueling on ones good fortune, or superiority.

The purpose of politeness is the maintenance of harmonious and smooth social relations in the face of the necessity to convey belittling message. Of course, the nature of reality, social, psychological, and physical, constrains the scope for politeness: if our world is to work, we must respect this reality. It is worth while distinguishing between positive and negative politeness. Negative politeness mitigates the effect of belittling expressions: a. Boa me na me mpia/ ntu hyn yi. b. Wantumi ammoa me anma me enpia hyn yi, anka wobetumi? Positive politeness emphasizes the hearers positive status: c. Medaase, de woye no aboa me paa yie. Another dichotomy in politeness is between speaker-related and hearer-related effects. Speaker-oriented politeness involves self-belittlement, as any aggrandizement of self implies a relative belittling of the hearer. As a general rule, hearer-oriented politeness is more salient and more crucial. Some languages are specialized for polite expression use such as; mepaakyw please and medaase thank you. Hofmann (1993: 78, 82) notes that the adverb please in English does not only semantically add a polite flavor to request, rather, is a way to note that the action is to benefit the speaker, and that he/she will be obliged if the request is properly carried out, (used in requests, pleas and wishes but odd in giving suggestions, advice or permission)

pleaseh has an orientation towards the speaker. But the greater part of politeness comes across in the form of implicatures. The tact maxim: this is oriented towards the hearer and has positive and negative sub-maxims: minimize cost to the hearer and maximize benefit to the hearer. These are utterances which have the function of getting the hearer to do something (including commands, requests, beseechments, etc.). order impositives in terms of the cost to the hearer, the greatest cost first. In order to get a hearer to do something which involves a cost, a polite speaker will cast his utterance in a form which softens the effect of the impositive. Example Twetwe nkukuo no mu Wo ntwetwe nkukuo no mu mma me mepaakyw wo btumi atwetwe nkukuo no mu ama me? For impositives beneficial to the hearer, the situation is reversed, and the stronger impositives are the more polite. Example Na meehw s anka wobtumi anante yie a Nante yie The generosity maxim: oriented towards cost and benefits to the speaker; minimize benefit to self and maximize cost to self. Effects are reverse. Doing something to the hearers benefit. Example Ma me nsa nsuo no

Na meehw s anka mtumi asa nsuo no a On the other hand, politeness demands that requests for benefit to the speaker be weakened. Me p s mefm wo akongua no wobtumi de wo akongua no afm me? The praise maxim: expression of positive or negative opinions about speaker or hearer. Oriented towards the hearer; minimize dispraise of the hearer and maximize praise of the hearer. The effect is to tone down any criticism or unfavourable comment. Example Wo p mataade no? Daabi Aane, nanso eny de mani gye ho paa The effect of the second sub-maxim is to exaggerate praise; ydaase s wotoo wo nsa fer yn. yn ani agye aboro so paa The modesty maxim: oriented towards the speaker, with the relevance values reversed: minimize praise to self and maximize dispraise to self. Praising oneself is inherently impolite, so negative politeness here is a matter of toning down selfcongratulation: example wo yade paa

aane, many ade? Ehh, me kaas many ade oo The agreement maxim: a relation between the opinion of the speaker and those of the hearer. Minimize disagreement with the hearer and maximize agreement with the hearer. Example w s ypam no ntm ara, ynntumi ngyegye obi a mma adwuma so me ne wo ny adwene me ne wo y adwene, nanso wei de biribi na maa no baa saa The sympathy maxim: a matter of relation between speaker and hearer, and cannot, therefore, be differentially speaker- or hearer-oriented: maximize sympathy (expression of positive feelings) towards the hearer and minimize antipathy (expression of negative feelings) towards the hearer. This renders congratulations and commiserations or condolences inherently polite acts. Example Mema wo tiri nkwa congratulations Me nua due/ hy den/ yaak accept my condolence twea it serves u right The consideration maxim: minimize the hearers discomfort/ displeasure and maximize the hearers comfort/ pleasure. Negative politeness involves the

softening, by various devices, of references to painful, distressing, embarrassing or shocking events, facts, or things, etc. example Me nua hy den ne wo kunu/ yere (wuo) Another typical manifestation of this sub-maxim is euphemism, where indirectness of various kinds is employed to avoid mention of words likely to cause offence. Eg. Na ne ho gu h vrs. Na ne to ho gu h. The converse sub-maxim, concerned with positive politeness requires one to be more specific when referring to things the thought of which is likely to give the hearer pleasure. Example Mema wo tiri nkwan ne ba no nshy nkunim Mema wo tiri nkwan ne wo ba no In making requests, suggestions or commands in any language, the relationship between the speaker and the addressee is especially important. Languages thus have ways of expressing the speakers perception of this relationship, which may be more or less obligatory, and tend to become formulaic Hofmann ( 1993:89) respect for the other person, his relative status, and the strength with which he is pushed into acceding to the request.

Reference Hofmann, Th. R. (1993). Realms of Meaning: An Introduction to Semantics. New York, Longman Publishing. Cruse, D. Alan (2000). Meaning in Language: An Introduction to Semantics and Pragmatics. New York, Oxford University Press.