Abstract:
This study aims to investigate cultural schemas and sociocultural norms underlying politeness conceptualization in Persian through a 14-item Likert-scale questionnaire which was completed by 150 Persian Native Speaker participants. The questionnaire also included three open-ended questions, which surveyed participants' conceptualization of politeness and required them to impart their views of politeness and ostensible politeness. The results indicate that Persian participants observe rules of politeness in order to appreciate social and cultural norms. They also tend to enhance their own as well as their interlocutor's face. Politeness for Persian speakers is mainly to be approved of and appreciated by their community and to avoid imposition on the hearer in order to maintain and enhance rapport. The results of the study can provide in-depth insights into intercultural and cross-cultural issues by raising awareness in cross-cultural studies.
Machine summary:
An Exploratory Emic Investigation into Politeness in Persian Nouroddin Yousofi Assistant Professor, Razi University, Kermanshah, Iran Saman Ebadi Assistant Professor, Razi University, Kermanshah, Iran 1 Farkhondeh Pursiah PhD Candidate in TEFL, Razi University, Kermanshah, Iran This study aims to investigate cultural schemas and sociocultural norms underlying politeness conceptualization in Persian through a 14-item Likert-scale questionnaire which was completed by 150 Persian Native Speaker participants.
The results indicate that Persian participants observe rules of politeness in order to appreciate social and cultural norms.
Researchers in this study aim at studying cultural schemas and sociocultural norms underlying politeness conceptualization in Persian by examining emic or 'insider' understanding of politeness which supposedly contributes to Watts' first-order politeness.
2. Review of Literature Investigating the field of politeness has been carried out in two broad theoretical paradigms, namely traditional (classic) paradigm which sprang from Grice's premises of Cooperative principle, and speech act theory (Brown & Levinson, 1987; Lakoff, 1973; Leech, 1983).
The classic theories of politeness draw on classic pragmatic theories of conversational implicature (Grice 1975), speech act theory (Austin, 1962; Searle, 1969) and politeness theory (Brown & Levinson, 1987).
The results of the study indicate that individuals' polite behavior is affected by the value that they put on any of the social, interpersonal, and personal factors.
The results of the analysis of the participants' answers to the questionnaire revealed that for Persian Native Speakers, politeness implies respecting social and cultural norms along with consideration and care for the interactants' shaxsiate/personality.