Brown and Levinson: positive and negative face

The linguists Brown and Gevinson put forward some ideas about politeness. They identify what the term positive and negative face needs.

Positive face needs refers to the assumption that we want to be liked and approved in our dealings with others. As a result of positive face needs, we use positive politeness strategies. Brown and Levinson suggested these might include:

• Paying attention
• seeking agreement (safe topics)
• pretend agreement (white lies, hedges)
• use humour
• use appropriate address terms
• compliments

Negative face needs refers to the assumption that we deal with difficult conversational strategies in a tactful way. As a result of negative face needs, we use negative politeness strategies. Brown and Levinson suggest these might include:

• Being indirect
• questioning and hedging
• being apologetic 
• giving deference (reducing your own status)

Specimen papers and mark schemes

http://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/english/as-and-a-level/english-language-7701-7702/assessment-resources

:Femvertising - The Guardian

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/oct/12/femvertising-branded-feminism

Erin McKean: Go ahead, make up new words!

https://www.ted.com/talks/erin_mckean_go_ahead_make_up_new_words

"I'm a lexicographer. I make dictionaries. And my job as a lexicographer is to try to put all the words possible into the dictionary. My job is not to decide what a word is; that is your job...Words are great. We should have more of them. I want you to make as many new words as possible. And I'm going to tell you six ways that you can use to make new words in English."

1. "Steal them from other languages" Borrowing
2. "squishing two English words together" Compounding (e.g heartbroken)
3. "kind of like compounding, but instead you use so much force when you squish the words together that some parts fall off." Blend words (e.g brunch)
4. "You can also make words by changing how they operate. You take a word that acts as one part of speech, and you change it into another part of speech. Functional shift
5. "You can take a word and you can kind of squish it down a little bit." Back formation (e.g editor to edit)
6. "Another way to make words in English is to take the first letters of something and squish them together." abbreviation (e.g National Aeronautics and Space Administration becomes NASA.)

Transcript

David Crystal Sunday Brunch: You Say Potato

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2ybrai

Talking about the website they have created http://www.panmacmillan.com/book/bencrystal/yousaypotato where people from all over the word record themselves saying 'potato' to show the diverse range of accents and their book, 'an authoritative, entertaining book, about our accents and what they say about us'. 

Steve Pinker: Language as a window into human nature

https://www.thersa.org/discover/videos/rsa-animate/2011/02/rsa-animate---language-as-a-window-into-human-nature/