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(9) a.
#The new hires were made at home by the photocopier.
b.
The new hires were buzzed off by the photocopier.
(10)a.
I own a bicycle. It is green.
b.
I do not own a bicycle. #It is green.
12.2.9
Impoliteness May Be Reflexive, But Not Politeness
While accepting that the primary use of language is within thought, rather than for
communication, one must concede that linguistic politeness is one dimension of
language use that is quintessentially communicative. Because other agents are not
involved in thinking for oneself, as opposed to thinking for speaking,
13
pragmatics
principles such as in (
12.11
)
14
do not have force.
(11)a.
Putting oneself before others is impolite.
b.
Putting others before oneself is polite.
Thus, manifestations of (im)politeness expressions within thought for oneself
are surprising. However, the greater curiosity is that private thought appears to
asymmetrically favor impoliteness over politeness. I personally can easily enough
imagine having thoughts that express negative politeness (
12.12
), but I am extremely
unlikely to entertain a reflexive thought with positive politeness (
12.13
).
(12)Idiot
i
,whydidI
i
let the toast burn?
(13)#Carl
i
, please
t
i
enjoy this toast I
i
've made.
12.2.10
Summary
A number of puzzles of (im)politeness have been indicated. Among these, an
asymmetry is evident in which some possibilities are available within the language
of impoliteness that lack counterparts among expressions of politeness. In analyzing
these puzzles further, it is necessary to have a clear view of the semantics of
linguistic forms that may be deployed to achieve (im)politeness effects. Accord-
ingly, a formal semantics has recently been proposed for the analysis of linguistic
(im)politeness (Vogel
2014a
). The next section (Sect.
12.3
) presents the core of
this theory, and the section that follows the next (Sect.
12.4
) demonstrates how the
semantics makes sense of some of the puzzles of (im)politeness behaviors.
13
See MacNeill (
1997
).
14
See Vogel (
2014a
).
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