E.Beer.Presentation

POLITENESS STRATEGIES AND

REAL ESTATE AGENTS

Politeness

Brief overview

Discuss politeness theory and some of the

ways in which strategies are used within a

Real Estate context

Give examples of real-life situations to

illustrate ideas

What is Politeness Theory?

Politeness theory was put forward by Brown and Levinson (1987).

“Politeness theory asserts that the strategies individuals use depend on the context of the social relationship between the speakers” (Ambady et all, 1996)

What is Face?

The term face may be defined as the “positive

social value a person effectively claims for

himself” (Goffman, 1967)

• “Face is not what one thinks of oneself, but rather, what one thinks others should think of ones worth” (Lim, 1994)

Positive Face: one’s desire to be sociable and

liked.

Negative face: one’s want to privacy, one’s right

not to participate in discourse

Types of Politeness

Negative PolitenessWhen the speaker tries to minimise

imposition and interaction required from the other party

Positive PolitenessAppeals to solidarty and invites participation

Politeness strategies are used to save a persons ‘face’.

Interviewee

Steph is a Real Estate Agent in Wellington

Everyday she has to deal with situations which could be potentially threatening to her or her listeners face.

A Face Threatening Act (FTA) is one which could be damaging to ones face. Politeness strategies are used to avoid/ minimize a FTA.

Silence is Golden

Steph said often the best way to deal with difficult

clients was to just stay quiet. “Being silent is very

powerful”

“As power over the listener increases, more

politeness is needed to communicate face-

threatening acts” (Ambady et all, 1996) – The more powerful

the other, the more politeness one must use

“I just stop talking” “Let them rant until they get it

all out, then begin to address the issues”

Threats to positive face –

Accusations & Complaints

Real Estate agents are often faced with people complaining about things.

Expressions of disapproval and criticism are Positive FTA’s – they impede on the listeners want for approval

“First I would acknowledge it was a real issue for them”, “De-escalation – buy into their perception even if I don’t agree, find out specifically what it is that they are unhappy with”

Threats to negative face –Orders & Requests

Being told what to do, can be threatening to the listeners negative face - it impedes on their need for individuality.

Clients can be very pushyIt took Steph a long time to be able to set-up

boundaries with clients and not answer the phone every time it rang.

Politeness and Humor

Humor is something that is only appropriate in some contexts.

Ngaio Gorge

The statement could taint the view of potential buyers

Here, humor served to relax the situation and de-escalate it.

But, as the women didn’t understand the joke it is possible Steph also, inadvertently, threatened the woman’s positive face by embarrassing her

Conclusion

Politeness is more than just saying Please and Thank-you

Many ways in which your face could be threatened

Just as many ways of dealing with it Silence De-escalation Humor

Politeness is something we all must work on everyday if we wish to create and maintain

relationships.

References

Ambandy, N., Koo, J., Lee, F., & Rosenthal, R. (1996). More than words: Linguistic and non-linguistic politeness in two cultures. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70, 996-101.

Brown, P., & Levinson, S. (1987). Politeness: Some universals in language usage. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press.

Interview with Steph*, Septemeber, 14 2009 Lim. (1994). Language, Discourse & Power lecture notes,

Semester 1, Palmerston North, NZ. ttp://logos.uoregon.edu/explore/socioling/politeness.html