Politeness Theory
Email A can be considered too polite while email B is too impolite. Email A written by a student from China to a European professor obliges the use of polite language as the student is seeking consideration. This cultural and societal status of the recipient warrants the student’s use of a more polite language with more involvement and independence aspects. On the other hand, email B is impolite because the addressee (student) does not consider the intellectual disparity and is more casual in their request. The student uses terms such as “must” and “at least” making their request more demanding rather than involving. The student does not consider the stature of the recipient being a professor as there is a failure to recognize the distance and power.
In email A the student adequately applies tact in her address message to the European professor, hence, a polite mode of communication. Janney and Arndt (2005) note that “As partners in social interaction, people are more or less dependent on each other to cooperate in maintaining the fragile balance of respect and consideration necessary for the preservation of face”. The Chinese student in email A maintains respect in her message to the professor, for example, she begins her mail by “Dear Respected Professor Smith”. The acknowledgment of the professor’s stature is a tactful way of gaining their attention hence the email is considered as too polite. The student maintains face in her message by appreciating the work of the professor and attributing the same to her reason for choosing him for her research. Involvement and independence are achieved in her email as she confirms to have a good knowledge of the professor’s qualifications about his previous work. This makes the message too polite as the student uses many etiquette terms such as forever grateful and thank you. She portrays the existence of power, distance, and weight in her message. Plus Power (+P) has been recognized through the consideration of hierarchy as she appreciates the fact that the recipient is a learned professor. A plus distance is portrayed in her message as she says “Your research is truly enlightening and nothing would delight me more……” Therefore, these techniques of address by the Chinese female student can universally be considered too polite in comparison to the address of the Danish student.
Compared to email A email B is too impolite as the student disregards the essential aspects of social politeness. The student does not consider the face aspect as they are insensitive to the hierarchical differentiation with the senior surgeon being addressed. In ‘Interpersonal Politeness and Power’, “Face is the negotiated public image, mutually granted each other by participants in a communicative event.” The student’s opening formula of the message is too impolite by their disregard of the position of the recipient by addressing him as “Hi Peter”. Email B exhibits negative distance (- D) considering the participants had met before. However, the letter was with the intention of professional assistance hence, the student should have considered the distance aspect. The face strategies are often dependent on the topic of discussion and in this case, the student should have exhibited positive weight to the subject matter. The conditional demands rather than plea exhibit impoliteness. The student casually addresses the Chief Surgeon in his email, for example, he claims that his reason to experience in Copenhagen is that it is his home rather than explaining the relation between his course of study concerning activities at the facility. The student exhibits a lot of independence in their entitlement to the experience program that he disregards the involvement of the surgeon. Contrast to email A where the student appreciates the competency of the recipient and the contribution to their career, Martin in his email B does not consider the professionalism of the surgeon. The student is too impolite as the message is more inclined towards their relationship and fails to consider professionalism as is the aspect of weight in social politeness. This aspect provide that the participants in communication must always be considerate on the topic of discussion and appreciate the distance that exists between them intellectually, and also in power.
In conclusion, email A is too polite while email B is too impolite. The Chinese student is too polite as she appreciates the gap that exists between them in their level of professionalism. She is also considerate of the intercultural disparity and insists on consideration despite her “academic immaturity”. The Danish medical student is too impolite in his address and is inconsiderate of the power aspect of social politeness. He addresses the surgeon casually despite his topic of discussion being professional.