What is it about?
Pragmatics is a rich area of sociolinguistics. How people use language in social interaction provides opportunities for linguists and people interested in exploring human behaviour to gain a better understanding of how human language functions. The need and desire not to offend or be polite in the company of others imposes certain 'rules' on users of language, whether we are conscious of these constraints or not. This review guides the reader through a very important book which explores the fundamental areas of Pragmatics.
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Why is it important?
A text such as Leech's 'The Pragmatics of Politeness' merits a thorough and comprehensive review because it brings together a wide array of topics and concepts in this area of social study. This review looks carefully at each chapter of the book to assess its contributions to our understanding of Pragmatics, without, at the same time, failing to comment on where the author could have made more or made less of some issues.
Perspectives
Reviewing the book has been a stimulating and rewarding task for me, as a long-time student of human behaviour, as a user of a few languages and as a lecturer in Linguistics for many years in universities in Sydney. My close reading of Leech's text provided me with opportunities to review some of my own engagements with the 'rules' of politeness in using different languages with different peoples.
TEO (Dr) Saw-Choo
University of Sydney
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Leech, Geoffrey. The Pragmatics of Politeness, Australian Review of Applied Linguistics, December 2017, John Benjamins,
DOI: 10.1075/aral.40.1.06teo.
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