SOCIOLINGUISTIC - (POLITENESS & SOLIDARITY)

POLITENESS AND SOLIDARITY 

(These questions raised in question and answer session during presentation) 

What are solidarity and politeness? and are there any relationship between them? 

Brown & Gilman (1960) defined social relationships in terms of power and solidarity.

• Forms which indicate POWER establish who has authority and how great that authority is.
• Forms which indicate SOLIDARITY establish the degree of intimacy in the relationship. 

POLITENESS is social deixis that expresses a low degree of solidarity between the speaker and the addressee.

There is relation between Solidarity and politeness when the degree of intimacy in the relationship (ex. Friend to friend) is high (close), the level of politeness in addressing each other will be low (familiar, more open).

What is the different between Symmetrical and assymmetrical T/V usage? 

• Symmetrical usage to show intimacy, and its use for that purpose also spread to situations in which two people agreed they had strong common interests, i.e., a feeling of solidarity. 
• Asymmetrical usage as a symbol of power relationship, where the upper classes addressed the lower classes with T but received V.