Linguistica Ingl e

Words And Meaning:

Most of the time the analysis of text starts at the level of words, which are generally defined as visible units in wri en
text, and distinguishable units in spoken text.

What Is A Word?
Like a lot of questions about language, What is a word? seems at first glance a very simple one to answer,
considering that any user of language knows what a word is and how to use one in a context or communicative
situation. However, we can answer this question more specifically by looking at ways in which words in the English
language are structured. The study of the structure of words is called morphology. Morphology literally means the
study of forms and refers to a type of study that analyses all the basic elements used in a language, which are usually
known as morphemes. Generally speaking, the word word can have several meanings:
- Orthographic Words: words used in a wri en form of language, separated by a space (''they wrote us a le er'').
- Grammatical Words: words that fall into either one category or another of a language, such as nouns, verbs,
adjectives, adverbs (''leaves can be either a noun or a verb'').

However, sometimes this definition of word is not adequate enough and for this reason it is be er to talk about
sentences as composed of lexemes. Lexemes are sets of grammatical words which share a meaning, and a class. For
example, ''leave, leaves, leaving'' all come from the lexeme ''leave'' (example of lexeme: dictionary entry).

Opened And Closed Classes:

When talking about words of a language and their many categories, it is important to understand the difference
between an open and closed class of words.
- Closed classes: they contain a limited number of members and new ones cannot be added.
- Open classes: they can be extended, not only by adding new words or adjectives, but also by adding suffixes.

Plus, in a language there are three major families of words:

1. Lexical words;
2. Function words;
3. Inserts;

Lexical Words:
They are the main carriers of information in a text. They can be divided into 4 parts of speech (nouns, verbs,
adjectives, adverbs). They are an open class, so they change frequently by adding new elements.

Function Words:
They don t generally carry information, but they mainly show how other elements are related. E.g. Prepositions,
coordinators, pronouns. They are closed classes because they contain a limited number of members. They are
determiners, pronouns, prepositions.
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 Inserts:
They are freely inserted in a text with the purpose of creating emotional value / interaction They are marked by
intonation (spoken language) or punctuation (wri en language). They convey emotional meaning. Hm Yes No Nope
very good

What s A Morpheme?
A morpheme can be defined as a minimal unit of meaning or grammatical function. A word can contain one or more
morphemes, created through a morphological process.

Inflection:
The process of adding affixes to give it a different syntactic function without changing its form class but changing
other aspects such as gender and number of the word. There are only eight inflectional affixes in English, and these
are all suffixes. Inflectional suffixes:
- s noun plural
- 's noun possessive (and s )
- s verb present tense third person singular
- ing verb present participle/gerund
- ed verb simple past tense
- en verb past perfect participle
- er adjective comparative
- est adjective superlative
Derivation:
A common way in which new words are created is by adding affixes (prefixes or suffixes) to existing words. The
process of adding affixes may lead to a change in word classes and meaning. This characteristic also represents the
most important difference between inflectional morphemes and derivational morphemes:
- An Inflectional Morpheme never changes the grammatical category of a word. For example, the words old and
older are both adjectives so if we add the adjective comparative -er we are not changing the category but simply
creating a different form of the word.
- A Derivation Morpheme can change the grammatical category of a word. For example, the verb teach can
become the noun teacher if we add the derivational morpheme -er.

When talking about morphemes, another important difference is between:

- Free Morphemes: they can stand on their own because they already have a single meaning. They can be basic
nouns, adverbs, adjectives.
- Bound Morphemes: they cannot stand on their own, so they are usually a ached to other forms. They have two
functions – when they give grammatical information, they are inflectional morphemes; when they form new
words, they are derivational morphemes.

Compounding is when a word has more than 1 stem; for example:

- Noun + noun: chairman / troublemaker / workplace / notebook;
- Verb + noun: cookbook / pickpocket / swearword;
- Verb + preposition: breakup / check-out;
- Adjective + noun: bluebird / blueberry / blackboard;
- Adjective + verb: highlight;
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- Adjective + adjective: bi ersweet / icy-cold;
- Preposition + verb: outrun / uproot;
- Preposition + noun: overdose.

Words And Meanings:

The words in a language can have different relationships with each other, depending on how their meanings are
related. Some of the ways in which the relationship between words and meanings can be identified are with some
categories of words:
- Homophones: words with the same sound (so same pronunciation) but different meanings and spellings (''bare'' the
verb and ''bear'' the noun).
- Homographs: words with the same spelling but a different meaning and/or pronunciation (bear / bear; wind /
wɪnd / wind / waɪnd).
- Synonyms: words with the same or similar meanings (buy / purchase).
- Polysemes: words with more than one meaning [pupil (young student) pupil (part of the eye)];
Sometimes, since the relationship between words and their meaning can be very complex, this situation can lead to
ambiguity. A clear example of ambiguity is the case of Homophones which are not easy to identify because they have
the same pronunciation but meaning and spelling are different.

Metaphors:
Metaphors are figures of speech that can be defined as examples of figurative language, so words that are used to
create a connection between different areas of meaning that are not related to each other, in order to help explain or
clarify ideas and concepts. In fact, most of the times the literal translation of a metaphor does not produce the same
effect as the metaphor. Metaphors are more likely to exist in the domain of literature, and not as something that has a
lot to do with everyday life. However, this is not completely true because metaphors represent a big part of everyday
language and some examples can be found in advertising and newspapers, in which metaphors are used as creative
instruments of the language.

Denotation And Connotation:

In a language each word will have its straightforward dictionary definition, but a large number of words will also
carry extra associations, which can be divided in:
- Denotation: is the dictionary definition of a word, so it refers to the literal meaning.
- Connotation: is the personal, cultural or emotional meaning that a word may carry in addition to the denotative
meaning.
- Loaded words: words with strong negative or positive connotations and a powerful emotional impact.
Naturally, grammatical words such as articles and auxiliary verbs are less likely to carry connotations, as their
meaning is grammatical rather than lexical. In particular, the many associations that a word may carry has an
important influence on the word from a semantic viewpoint. Sometimes words can develop negative connotations and
they may be replaced by other words that are seen as a be er way of expressing a concept. This process is known as
pejoration (or deterioration) while the reverse process, in which a word acquires a be er meaning, is known as
amelioration.
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 Euphemisms:
A euphemism is an indirect word or phrase that people often use to refer to something embarrassing or unpleasant,
sometimes to make it seem more acceptable than it really is. For example when during a conversation we choose to
use the expression pass away instead of saying directly die .

Idioms:
Idioms are figurative expressions with a fixed grammatical and lexical content that cannot be taken for what their
literal meaning is. So, they usually operate at a metaphorical level. For example, if we say It s raining cats and dogs
we are not saying that it is literally raining animals but that it is raining a lot. Idioms are usually very common in
everyday life so many expressions have been incorporated in regular language.
However, sometimes idioms can represent a danger for people who are learning a language for the first time. Idioms
do not have a direct translation, so it is not always possible to recognize them in a text. A lot of these structures have a
fixed and expected form. Some are so fixed that it is not possible to change a word or the structure without losing, or
changing, the meaning. Such structures are called idioms.

Computer Analysis Of Words:

A corpus of language (plural corpora) is a collection of texts from various sources, more specifically texts which have
been typed or scanned into a computer so that a lot of information about the English language can be collected and
then analysed.

Extremely important in both the wri en and the spoken corpora are grammatical words. Grammatical words are
words which play a mainly grammatical role (such as pronouns and conjunctions) and don t seem to have any
lexical meaning. So, they provide a glue that hold the language together.

On the other hand, when talking about the lexical words in corpora, the elements that mostly occur are called hedges,
which are elements that allow us to avoid using offensive or problematic words in a conversation. They occur more
frequently in spoken than wri en discourse and this is shown in the Computer analysis of everyday spoken English,
which incredibly helps to understand the main differences between spoken and wri en language.

Advertising:
«Advertising is a paid communication used to persuade someone to buy a product or service of an identified
sponsor»

However, advertising is not only linked to the world of business and marketing, but it is also one of the fields in which
language plays a major role. Normally an ad is structured with a main message, which represents the core of
communication, and then on one side we have the addresser who wants to send the message while on the other we
have the audience that receives the message. Moreover, ads usually need to fulfills what we call AIDA requirements,
where the first A stand for awareness , the I stand for interest , the D stand for desire (for the product) and the last A
stands for action , which is when the customer buys the product. There are many types of advertising:
- Print advertising (e.g. newspaper ads, magazine ads, billboard as outdoor advertising);
- TV commercials (commercial is a specific word that is used to indicate advertisements on television);
- Radio commercials;
- Digital ads (either static or video-based);
- Internet advertising.
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 Generally speaking the components of an advertisement are:
- Headline
- (Body) copy
- Tagline / slogan
- Logo/signature
Headline:
The headline is the saying that gets the readers a ention, arouses their interest by providing a benefit, and leads them
to read the rest of the ad. More than 80% of the people who look at a print ad just read the headlines. They must be
a ractive. They must be brief because most people cannot take in more than 7 words at a time.

Tagline:
Taglines tend to stay the same beyond the campaign. A tagline is indeed a catchy and memorable phrase, usually
rather short, which sums up the tone and the essence of a brand and/or the product that is being sold. The goal of a
tagline is to be remembered so that it reaches out to and sticks to people s minds.

Slogan:
It is a catch phrase or small group of words that are combined in a special way to identify a product or company.

Copy:
The copy is the selling message in a wri en advertisement. It expands on the information in the headline or the product
shown in the illustration. It should be simple and direct.

Illustration:
Primary function is to a ract a ention.

Signature:
No advertisement is complete without naming its sponsor. The signature, or logotype (logo), is the distinctive
identification symbol for a business. Well-designed signatures get instant recognition for a business

Comparing:
Very often in advertisements is also used a comparison between two products of different companies (example is the
advertising of Samsung galaxy that compares the new Samsung phone to iPhone). This kind of advertising is very
eye-catching. Other than the basic and essential elements that create an ad, other important characteristics are the
font, colour, layout, the position of the text.

Pa erns At A Micro-Level; Noun, Verbs, Pronouns:

Sentences are made up of individual groups of words which form pa erns with other groups of words. The pa erns
can be fixed, and they must follow a certain order, or non-fixed and in this case they. can follow different orders. To
sort the components of a sentence we can look for groups of words which belong together in a pa ern and then to put
all the groups of words together. For example the words GOING, AM, I, can be put together in a pa ern and form the
sentence I am going.
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 Nouns And Pa erns:
Nouns are one of the most prominent of forms in a language. In fact, quite a few texts can be made up just of nouns;
for example, London is a noun and can stand quite meaningfully on its own on a signpost, or in answer to a question
or on a train or air ticket or as the title to a book.
But nouns are not just single words; they form pa erns with other words to form noun phrases.

Pronouns And Pa erns:

Words such as you , my , your , his , her are pronouns. The main personal pronouns are: I, you, he, she, it, we, they.
They are the main means of identifying speakers, addressees and others. The main possessive pronouns are: my,
your, her, his, their, our. They indicate ownership. One possible effect of the absence of pronouns from Off Course is to
make the poem a li le impersonal and cold, almost as if we are hearing a list of facts.

Milk Message: The strategy is to address the customer directly and to show their sensitivity to their customers as
individuals. The use of the plural pronouns we , our , us underlines the sense of group.

Verbs And Pa erns:

Finite verb / Non-finite verb: a finite verb is a 'working' verb with a subject; it can be any tense. It tells you when
something happened (past or present), how many were/are involved (singular or plural) and who the participants
are. A non-finite verb which is also called in infinitive verb has no subject and can't be in all the tenses, but only an
infinitive; a present; a past participle.

Modality:
The term modality refers to the many different ways in which a particular situation might be described, so it analyses
the speaker s a itude towards the information received during a conversation or interaction. It is extremely important to
make a distinction between three different types of modality:
1. Epistemic modality is about the truth in a proposition and it takes place when we make guesses and deductions
(''they may have left at this hour )
2. Deontic modality is about granting permission, therefore the responsibility by agents (''they may leave at this
hour ').
3. Dynamic modality expresses ability or inability [''I can t leave' (because my car won t start)].

Let s have a look at some of the most effective modal verbs being used to convey modality.

Modality can be conveyed through a variety of linguistic forms, such as nouns and adjective, and in particular modal
verbs, which express different meanings. For example, must expresses an obligation, could a permission, should a
prediction, may / might a possibility, will an intention.

Ellipsis:
Ellipsis is a grammatical structure in which key grammatical words are left out or are left for the reader or listener to
fill in. This mainly happens in informal interactions. For example, when during a conversation we say Good deal and
not It was a good deal : in this case, the word left out is the verb.
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 Passive Form:
In the English language the passive form is frequently used in different contexts. Most of the times, a passive form
allows actions to be described without mentioning the main agent of those actions and this omission can mean that we
may not know the agent or we simply choose not to mention by whom something is done. For example, the sentence ''it
was taken some time ago'' is very general because it describes an action, but it does not specify who did it. Moreover,
a passive form is usually used to suggest things considered problematic, while positive circumstances are represented
by a positive voice.

The most used form of the passive voice is the get form. This form does not refer to an agent and it is mostly used
with personal pronouns, so to describe things that have happened to us personally. An example is the sentence ''I got
a acked by a god'', instead of saying ''I was a acked by a dog''.
In some cases, depending on the context, the get form can also be used to describe positive events, for example ''I got
promoted for a job''.

Discourse Analysis:
The term discourse means slightly different things inside and outside the academic world. In the field of linguistics,
discourse analysis refers to the investigation of both spoken and wri en texts. Several approaches to discourse
analysis, which may be different from one another and achieving different goals. Discourse analysis aims at
analysing how texts work across the boundaries of single sentences. In ordinary language we use the word discourse
as a synonym for 'talk . In the academic world, it refers to all forms of wri en and spoken texts, including casual
conversations.

In the field of linguistics there are several research branches interested in Discourse Analysis, each one of them with a
different goal and using multiple approached and methodologies. In this regard, we can use an umbrella term
generated in the late 80s by linguist Fairclough: Critical Discourse Analysis, which included different approaches of
discourse, such as the historical and conversational ones. It can therefore only be understood with reference to
extralinguistic factors such as culture, society, ideology.

Text linguistics:
In recent years, the study of texts has an important branch of linguistics defined as text linguistics, in which the term
text plays a major role. Texts are seen as language units which have a communicative function, characterized by
such principles as cohesion, coherence and informativeness. In particular, cohesion has to do with the organization of
a text while coherence takes another extralinguistic factors into consideration.
Some linguists make a distinction between the notions of 'text,' viewed as a physical product, and 'discourse,' viewed as
a dynamic process of expression and interpretation. Cohesive resources include:
- reference
- ellipsis
- substitution
- conjunction
- lexical cohesion
Substitution:
Substitution is a cohesive device used to avoid repetition in a text. The most common substitutive terms are do, so and
one/ones in order to replace longer items such as entire clauses, verbs, nouns, etc...
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 Ellipsis:
While substitution involves swapping elements, ellipsis involves omi ing elements altogether. It isn t necessary to state
information explicitly: it may be omi ed. Ellipsis creates ties or bonds between the writer and reader because the
reader has to fill in for the writer.

Lexical Cohesion:
The relationships between words in a given text is called lexical cohesion. It contributes to the texture and it makes you
aware of what the text is about.

Collocation:
A collocation is a combination of words that frequently occur together. Collocations include noun phrases like stiff
wind (not heavy wind ), heavy workload (not big workload ), and weapons of mass destruction (not weapons of
widespread destruction) phrasal verbs such as to get together and other idiomatic phrases such as the rich and
famous , the bold and the beautiful .

Grammatical Cohesion:
Our knowledge of grammatical structures helps us investigate how grammatical features are woven together across
(rather than within) sentence boundaries. This is called grammatical cohesion. Logical relationships among sentences
are expressed through connectors (linking words)

A Semantic Field:
A semantic field, sometime called just field or field of meaning, is a linguistic concept in which topics and concepts are
associated in the mind of the speaker with particular groups of words, so covering a certain conceptual domain which
is more general. For example, the words chop, fry, stir, all belong to the semantic field of cooking. However, sometimes
words can belong to different conceptual domains. For example, the word knife belongs to the domain of eating when
used for cu ing food but also the domain of fighting when used as a weapon. In the case of a metaphor, the meaning
of a word tends to distance itself from the original semantic field.

Register. . . or stylistic variation:

Register can be defined as a combination of different values and characteristics that are always different depending
on the context and communicative situation. Some of these characteristics are the participants, the relationship between
them, time and place, the se ing, channel of communication, and vocabulary. So, register can go from being very
formal to casual and informal.

We can also establish (/analyse) power-based relationships through language and register manipulation. Think of
some textual features such as addressing terms, pronouns, etc. How can they be exploited in order to convey specific
linguistic - and therefore social - meanings?
As some other linguistic features, stylistic variation can be manipulated in order to achieve some specific effects.

Deixis:
Deixis is considered a cohesive device. The term deixis originally comes from Greek and it means pointing via
language. It occurs when an expression points to the referent in the context, which is necessary considering that it
would be impossible to understand what the speaker or writer means without the context.
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 Reference:
The term reference comes from the verb refer which means to send for information while reference literally means
the act of mentioning/pointing at something or someone. There are two major types of reference:
- Endophoric Reference, which is the reference within a text;
- Exophoric Reference, which is the reference to something outside the text.
Most of the times the reference is about something that both speakers know about, so there is shared knowledge. There
are a lot of different texts characterized by the use of exophoric reference, especially in the field of advertising. In fact,
a type of communication that strongly relies on this type of reference is marketing, in which referencing somebody
outside the text using the pronouns you or we may help create a stronger bond with the audience.

Another particular type of reference in the advertising field is known as Comparative Reference, which consists of
comparing products between competitors. An example is the ad of Galaxy Samsung phones in which they usually
show the difference to iPhones.

Conjunction:
The term conjunction clearly means joining together .
They do not just join items together, they show how items should be linked, i.e. the logical relationship between them (e.g.
nouns, clauses).
- Coordinating conjunctions (e.g. and, or, but) (addition, alternative, contrastive);
- Subordinating conjunctions link a subordinate clause to a main clause;
- Temporal conjunctions (e.g. when, while, before, after, until, once, as soon as);
- Cause (e.g. as, because, since);
- Conditional (e.g. if, unless, provided);
- Purpose (e.g. so, so that, in order to);
- Contrastive (e.g. though);
- Correlative conjunctions (e.g. both…and; not only…but also; (n)either…(n)or).

Conjunctions or connectors? When talking about conjuctions, it is necessary to make a difference between conjuctions
and other elements called connectors. From a grammatical viewpoint, conjunctions join two phrases/clauses
(independent or dependent) in one sentence, while connectors work at sentence level, i.e. they join two sentences.
Common devices in terms of grammar cohesion and emphasis are cleft sentences.

Text Types:
A text is a linguistic unit with a specific communication function. A text can come in many forms: le ers, adverts, user-
guides, postcards, emails, each one with a specific function. For example, an ad has a persuasive function because it is
wri en to persuade you to buy something or a le er has an informative function because it might describe a situation.
In fact, to understand how a text works it is important to consider some points: first of all, it is necessary to identify the
addressor, understand if the text is formal or informal, if the aim is telling a story, giving instructions or trying to
persuade. Another characteristic is the presence of visuals, which are elements that draw the a ention of the reader
while simultaneously helping reinforce the message of the text. The main text types are (but there are many sub-text
types and hybrid forms, plus sometimes they mix ):
- Persuasive
- Informative
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 - Instructive
- Descriptive

Persuasive Texts:
The general purpose of a persuasive text is to make the audience do something. In particular, in the case of advertising
the purpose is to make the audience want to buy something (a product). This usually happens by providing
information designed to convince the audience of a particular viewpoint and exploiting their emotions using some
persuasive strategies, such as pathos. A few linguistic features used in a persuasive text are:
- repeated words, used for extra emphasis;
- many adjectives;
- punctuation, especially exclamation and question marks that are used to trigger emotions;
- humour;
- story-telling.

Informative Texts:
Non-fiction texts = they rely on facts;
The general purpose of an informative text is to tell the audience about something, in order to increase the reader s
knowledge and help them be er understand a specific concept. This happens by providing information, which may
also come as figures, numbers and statistics, and explaining it in the clearest way so that the audience can understand
what the text is trying to say and can have an opinion on it. A few characteristics of an informative text are:
- the absence of repetitions;
- the presence of the truth;
- no adjectives, questions or other elements related to the emotional sphere: in an informative text neutrality should
always be the key.

Sometimes it is difficult to draw the line between informative and persuasive texts. What is the difference? The main
difference is that an informative text, compared to a persuasive one, is more objective and does not provide facts and
information just to persuade the audience s opinions. For example, an article about a terrorist a ack in a newspaper is
considered an informative text because it just narrates the story without adding opinions.

Instructive Texts:
An instructive text is a text that instructs or tells the audience how to do something. This is the case, for example, of a
recipe that gives instructions on how to cook something or a book that explains how to put a piece of furniture together.
The main linguistic features that we can find in an instructive text are:
- the use of imperative verb forms;
- no adjectives, adverbs, or other unnecessary elements;
- the use of must/must not to give instructions;
- the use of images (to make the instructions more clear).

Descriptive / Narrative Texts:

A descriptive text is a text that wants you to imagine / visualize what is being described. For example, a novel might
want you to imagine the characters and see them in your mind or a travel book will want you to see the country it is
describing. The main charactertistics are:
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 - use of adjectives, metaphors, idioms.
- use of figurative language (to imagine the descriptions)
- the expression of feelings, moods, and emotions (a song or poem will want you to feel certain emotions).

Spoken Discourse:
A speech act is something expressed by an individual that presents an information but also performs an action.
According to the system created by linguist Searle in 1976, speech acts can be divided in different categories:
- Declarations -> they change the world by their very u erance:
''I hereby pronounce you husband and wife'';
''The speaker changes the state of things as soon as this is u ered'';
''I declare this bridge open'';
''I resign'';
''I name this ship «The Great Explorer»''.

- Commissives -> the words commit the speaker to a certain course of action:
''I promise I ll come to your party'';
''I swear I didn t do it'';
''His parents pledged to support him through this difficult time''.

- Directives -> they aim at making the hearer do something. They want to impose something. Think about
commanding, requesting, forbidding. What we want to convey beyond:
''You mustn t walk in this area'';
''You are forbidden to speak'';
''Why don t you study more?'';

- Expressive -> the state how the speaker feels / an a itude about a state of affairs, e.g. deploring, apologising:
''I m so sorry. . .'';
''I sincerely apologise for. . .'';
''I would like to thank your for your brilliant job'';
''Thank, deplore, welcome, apologise''.

- Representatives -> they show that the speaker is commi ed to the truth of a proposition to various degrees:
''I strongly believe that. . .'';
''The secretary stated that. . . ;
''Report, conclude. . . .

- Indirect speech acts -> indirect speech acts are used in communication to talk about things, events and situations in
an indirect way. They do not directly address the listener and they usually use performative verbs, in various ways.
Think of the possible ways we may apologise:
''Okay, you were right. . . ;
''Sorry, I was wrong. . .''.
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 Storytelling - Narrating Something:
In 1972 Labov developed a model for oral narratives an a empt at describing a personal experience. This system is
made up of 6 different categories:
- Abstract: signals that a story is about to begin, gets the listener s a ention, might ask for permission to tell a story,
gives some indication of what the story is about;
- Orientation: puts the story into a context, gives the time, place, person(s) involved and situation/activity; the when,
where, who and what? of the story;
- Complicating action: the main narrative body providing the what happened element of the story;
- Resolution: the final events, the what finally happened element;
- Evaluation: makes the point of the story clear, suggests why it s worth being told, why it s of interest;
- Coda: signals that the story has finished, can also link back to the beginning or return to the present time frame.

Pragmatics:
Pragmatics refers to the use of the language, so what speakers mean when they communicate considering not only the
meanings of the words but also the context in which they happen to be. Pragmatics in the past was studies by linguist
Grice, according to whom a conversation has to respect some principles called maxims. We have:
- Maxim of quantity: be as informative as required for the purpose of the exchange, not too much, not too li le;
- Maxim of quality: be sincere, don t say what you believe to be false or something for which you lack evidence;
- Maxim of relation: be relevant;
- Maxim of manner: don t be ambiguous and obscure, be brief (i.e. avoid wordiness if unnecessary);

During a conversation sometimes the maxims are violated by the speaker in order to deceive the listener. This happens
in two ways: by flouting or infringing the maxims. We can talk about flouting maxims when the speaker and the
listener share the same background knowledge, so even if the speaker wants to mislead the listener (by using irony or
metaphors), the listener is always able to interpret the conversation. On the other hand, we can talk about infringing
maxims when the speaker lacks awareness, so they fail to observe the maxims unintentionally.

Robin Lakoff (1975 )- Politeness Principle:

Politeness is linked to the society where the act of politeness or polite behavior is expressed by the individuals (different
societies, different concepts of politeness).
Socialisation -> politeness isn t something you were born with, but something you agree on, share, develop. Individuals
are aware of such standards - everyone involved in the conversation is. ''The level of politeness is different from
individual to individual within the same mutual groups, but it is within the mutually shared standard and criterion of
that certain communicating group''.

Face:
Face is defined as the public self-image of each and every person, as a member of a society, which they want to
claim for themselves (wants) (see Brown and Levinson, 1987, 1988).
Negative face = need to be independent, that individual s actions are impeded or imposed by others.
Positive face = the need to be accepted and liked, that individual s wants are desirable to at least some others.
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 Doing FTA on or off record:
The concept of face is linked to the concept of politeness and in the language field this is shown using ''off record'' and
''on record''.
- Off record is when we use indirect speech acts, so we do not ask for things directly (we have a positive face). For
example: I wish I could remember the address (saying it out loud).
- On record is when we use a negative face without politeness, so in a direct way. For example: ''I can t do it, it s too
difficult (complaining out loud).

The Representation Of Talk:

The spoken language of certain social groups is often represented by a particular use of language, which is based on
factors such as gender, social class, geographic location. Focusing on gender, language is characterized by many
stereotypes that may seem normal when in reality they convey hidden messages.

According to the study of linguist Deborah Tannen, the first difference between men and women is that while men are
trained to become familiar with talking in public situations, women are more comfortable with private speaking.

The second difference is that men and women approach problems differently: men usually want to solve problems
and not talk about them while women tend to raise topics to discuss and negotiate. In this case, we find the stereotype of
women being too talkative and giving too much information, contrary to men who don t give enough.

Lastly, another big example during a conversation has to do with interrupting: women tend to listen more and make
more effort while men interrupt more the other speaker in search of power.
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