9 - Expressive speech acts and politeness in eighteenth-century English

Summary

I consider a human soul without education like marble in the quarry, which shews none of its inherent beauties, until the skill of the polisher fetches out the colours, makes the surface shine, and discovers every ornamental cloud, spot, and vein that runs thro the body of it. Education, after the same manner, when it works upon a noble mind, draws out to view every latent virtue and perfection, which, without such helps, are never able to make their appearance.

(Addison, Spectator, 6 November 1711, pages 306–7)

Background to eighteenth-century speech acts and politeness

Searle (1979: 12–18) divided speech acts into five different types: Assertives, Directives, Commissives, Expressives and Declarations. Of these, expressive speech acts reveal psychological states of mind and express personal attitudes and feelings. They deal with social and interpersonal relations. The list of expressives includes speech acts such as greetings, thanks, congratulations, condolences and apologies, and politeness considerations are among the main factors that determine the realisations of these speech acts. In the eighteenth century expressive speech acts received a great deal of attention and their linguistic manifestations received normative educational attention to the extent that they, with accompanying non-verbal signs of polished behaviour, became distinguishing features of status in society.