earticle

영어

This paper aims to explore the linguistic function and mechanism of politeness between women and men in everyday English. Throughout the paper we tried to show that there is not only an infinite variety of ways of expressing linguistic politeness, it is also the case that the same linguistic devices can express different meanings in different context. We should note that there is nothing intrinsically polite about any linguistic form. The relative social distance between the speaker and the addressee is one of the most basic factors determining appropriate levels of politeness behaviour in most societies. Women and men use different linguistic strategies for the same linguistic purpose. Women and men have different preferred ways of expressing solidarity. The dimension of social distance or solidarity is a crucial one in accounting for differences in women's and men's linguistic politeness behaviour.