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Am I politic?: (Im)politeness in Shakespeare’s soliloquies

Research output: Contribution to conference - Without ISBN/ISSN Conference paper

Published
Publication date2015
Number of pages19
Pages1-19
<mark>Original language</mark>English
EventPALA 2015: Creative Style - University of Kent, Canterbury, United Kingdom
Duration: 15/07/201518/07/2015
https://blogs.kent.ac.uk/creative-style-conference/

Conference

ConferencePALA 2015
Country/TerritoryUnited Kingdom
CityCanterbury
Period15/07/1518/07/15
Internet address

Abstract

This paper reports on a study of (im)politeness in soliloquies in Shakespeare’s plays. I
argue that classic theories of politeness such as Brown and Levinson (1987) cannot fully
account for politeness phenomena in soliloquies. There is therefore a need for a model
of self-politeness such as that proposed by Chen (2001) which can compensate for some
of the deficiencies in the Brown and Levinson model. I apply Chen’s model to
soliloquies and provide examples of self-politeness output strategies. Shakespeare’s
characters use a variety of impolite and self-impolite forms in their self-talk, which I
discuss using Culpeper’s (2011) typology of conventionalised impolite formulae. I
conclude that aspects of soliloquies can be described in terms of self-politeness; that the
motive for soliloquy may be a threat to self-face as soliloquies often involve internal
conflict; and that for Shakespeare impoliteness proved to be a particularly useful device
in soliloquy.