Abstract

LOPERA MEDINA, Sergio Alonso  and  CASTANEDA, Luz Stella. Analysis of self-politeness in compliments in the city of Medellín. Íkala [online]. 2017, vol.22, n.3, pp.426-438. ISSN 0123-3432.  https://doi.org/10.17533/udea.ikala.v22n03a04.

The speaker sometimes uses self-politeness as a face activity in the interaction. This article reports the linguistic analysis of self-politeness in compliments. 13 natural conversations between friends and family members in Medellín, Colombia, were analyzed, using Briz and Val.Es.Co (2002) as a transcription system. Three language levels were taken into account for the analysis (Briz, 1996): phonic, morphosyntactic, and lexical-semantic. The sequential account of conversations is also considered (Golato, 2005). Results show that for the production of self-politeness speakers use phonic lengthening, comparison, exclamation forms, connectors, and parlache vocabulary (a jargon used by youth). The speakers also use first person pronouns (I, we) and the possessive pronoun mine explicitly. For the sequential account of conversations, a face threating act is not perceived as the interlocutor pays attention and cooperates with the confirmation of the self-politeness. Moreover, it was found that self-politeness can be divided into two categories: direct or motivated (caused). The former has to do when the speaker produces his/her self-politeness in an open or spontaneous manner. The latter has to do when the speaker feels the compromise or the obligation to produce his/her self-politeness. Finally, we found that deeper studies are needed in self-politeness.

Keywords : pragmalinguistics; self-politeness; compliments; face; natural conversations..

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