Book contents
- Politeness in the History of English
- Politeness in the History of English
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Preface
- 1 Exploring Politeness in the History of English
- 2 Research Methods and Data Problems
- 3 Medieval Britain
- 4 Terms of Address in Middle English
- 5 Renaissance and Early Modern England
- 6 Terms of Address in Early Modern English
- 7 The Eighteenth Century: The Age of Politeness
- 8 The Eighteenth Century: Educational Literature
- 9 The Rise (and Fall) of Non-imposition Politeness
- 10 Conclusion: Politeness, Manners and Dissimulation
- References
- Index
1 - Exploring Politeness in the History of English
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 March 2020
- Politeness in the History of English
- Politeness in the History of English
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Preface
- 1 Exploring Politeness in the History of English
- 2 Research Methods and Data Problems
- 3 Medieval Britain
- 4 Terms of Address in Middle English
- 5 Renaissance and Early Modern England
- 6 Terms of Address in Early Modern English
- 7 The Eighteenth Century: The Age of Politeness
- 8 The Eighteenth Century: Educational Literature
- 9 The Rise (and Fall) of Non-imposition Politeness
- 10 Conclusion: Politeness, Manners and Dissimulation
- References
- Index
Summary
Politeness is an elusive concept, especially if it is traced diachronically across time. A distinction is made between first-order politeness (everyday conceptualisations) and second-order politeness (scholarly definitions), and this distinction is set in relation to emic (i.e. language specific) and etic (i.e. language independent, universal) approaches to politeness. The three waves of politeness research are briefly introduced. First, the traditional approach based mainly on the work by Brown and Levinson; second, the discursive approach, which largely rejected the traditional approach; and third, the frame-based and interactional approach, which led to a rapprochement of the earlier waves. Finally, an outline of the entire book is given.
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- Politeness in the History of EnglishFrom the Middle Ages to the Present Day, pp. 1 - 17Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2020