Relevance and relational work: linguistic politeness as politic behavior

Using the social activity of a family gathering, from both British and German Swissperspectives, the author arguesfor the notion of politic verbal behavior. In order to account for a marked decrease in overt politeness strategies in closed groups, the notion of polite verbal behavior must be embedded within a more fundamental one of politic verbal behavior. Within this broaderframework, cross-cultural differences may be observed in social activities whose speech events do not necessitate a high level of conventionally polite verbal behavior. The article explores the hypothesis that in such speech events where the fabric of interpersonal relationships is at apremium, and the relationships in the social group need to be maintained äs far äs possible in a state of equilibrium, the participants are continually involved in relational work, which can only be successfully carried out in accordance with the perceived relevance of the individual contribution to the overall interaction.

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