Pragmaticalization Of English Politeness Markers:Changes,Trajectories,and Motivations

Since the 1970s,politeness research has shifted from "the first wave" to "the second wave." The former identifies politeness forms,principles,and strategies,trying to systematize politeness into theoretical frameworks on the macro level,whereas the latter dives into specific context and examines individuals' perception of politeness on the micro level.Against this background,the present study tries to find a balance between these two paradigms,by exploring how a complete novel expression perceived only polite to individuals on the micro level is gradually conventionalized to a default polite form on the macro level.Meanwhile,recent research on pragmaticalization has provided a framework to analyze the diachronic process of pragmatic markers,thus,applicable to politeness markers.Unfortunately,no study on English politeness markers so far has fully depicted their trajectories in the perspective of pragmaticalization.Moreover,since pragmaticalization centers on the process,the motivations behind the process are under-studied.Given these reasons,the present study incorporates Adaptation Theory in the analysis of pragmaticalization,in an attempt to describe the changes,trajectories,and motivations of pragmaticalization within a unified framework.A number of well-attested corpora are exploited,namely,Penn-Helsinki Parsed Corpus of Middle English second edition(PPCME2),Penn-Helsinki Parsed Corpus of Early Modern English(PPCEME),Corpus of the Eighteenth Century English(CECE)and Corpus of Historical American English(COHA).With their help,three pairs of English politeness markers are examined:please and pray,excuse/pardon me and I am sorry,and can you and will you.They are picked out for three reasons.Above all,they are acknowledged in literature as the most representative politeness markers for English speakers.Secondly,each pair represents one type in terms of syntactic form,namely,lexicon,phrase,and clause.Thirdly,each pair represents one type in terms of politeness strategy:the existence of a negative politeness device please and the demise of a positive politeness device pray;the co-existence of a positive politeness device excuse/pardon me,and a negative politeness device(I am)sorry;the co-existence of two negative politeness devices can you and will youBy resorting to quantitative and qualitative analysis,the syntactic,semantic-pragmatic,contextual as well as frequency changes of these markers are identified across time.The changes are weighted against their usages in the Present-day English so that the trajectories are concluded.Based on the results,motivations are speculated according to the social-historical background and language principles.The research has three major findings.First,it is discovered that irrespective of being clause,phrase,or lexicon,changes of English politeness markers all conform to pragmaticalization,i.e.syntactic freedom,semantic bleaching,pragmatic strengthening,context widening,and frequency increasing.Indeed,after the pragmaticalization is completed,the structure may lose its polite function like pray or continue to be one like other markers in this study.Meanwhile,these English politeness markers have pragmaticalized into different degrees.Considering the restrictions in terms of their syntax,semantic-pragmatics,contextual applications and frequency,please is pragmaticalized to the highest degree while pray is the lowest;(I am)sorry is more pragmaticalized than excuse/pardon me;and will you is more pragmaticalized than can you.Second,this research discovers three types of distinctive formal trajectories of English politeness markers,by tracing their pathways to the source structures.The pathways of pray and please point to a eline from sentence parenthesis politeness marker to lexical politeness marker;the pathways of excuse/pardon me and(I am)sorry show a cline from matrix clause to phrasal politeness marker;the pathways of can you and will you belong to a cline from modal interrogative to politeness marker.The research distinguishes three types of functional trajectones of English politeness markers as well,by combing through the stages they have undergone.The functional trajectories of pray and please show a pattern of exclusiveness,during which please gradually supplanted pray to be the mitigating device for request.The functional trajectories of me and(I am)point to a pattern of competitiveness,during which both structures are competing with each other to be the marker for apology.The functional trajectories of can you and will you exhibits a pattern of complementariness,during which both structures are complementing each other to be markers for request making.Third,the research discovers that the pragmaticalization of English politeness markers are motivated by the adaptation to language-external and-internal factors.Language-external motivations include those in the mental,social,and physical world.Factors such as Secularization,Protenstantism,Enlightenment,individualism,social equality,geograhic mobility,etc.all interwove together and created a norm from positive to negative politeness.Such a tendency has fiundametally induced the replacement of pray for please,and the competition between excuse/paraon me and I am sorry and the complement between can you and will you.In terms of language-internal motivations,syntactic,semantic,and other grammtical factors all contribute to the pragmaticalization of the cases.All or some of the politeness markers have adapted to formal reanalysis,invited inference,subjectivity,ambiguous meaning,mood,tense and paradigmatic similarity or variability.These factors motivate the adjustment in local structures so that the politeness markers could be innovated.In brief,language-internal motivations help achieve the purpose of politeness within the local structure,while language-external motivations help popularize the structures in the society.The dissertation is of theoretical,methodological,and empirical significance.Above all,depicting the diachronic development of English politeness markers has expanded the research scope on linguistic politeness from synchronic to diachronic.Meanwhile,by exploring how a complete novel expression perceived only polite to individuals on the micro level is gradually conventionalized to a default polite form on the macro level,the study innovates the previous paradigms of politeness research.Secondly,the study enriches the understanding of pragmaticalization,by adding the development of politeness marker under the label.Moreover,the study incorporates the notion of degree in defining pragmticalization,concludes different types of formal and functional trajectories of pragmaticalization,and accounts for the motivations behind pragmaticalization.All of these have contributed to a better reading of pragmticalization.Thirdly,probing into the motivations for pragmaticalization has proved the feasibility of Adaptation Theory,which was used to explain immediate interactions,in explaining diachronic changes.Fourthly,in terms of methodology,comparisons of several pairs of English politeness markers make the conclusion generalizable to the whole inventory.Finally,the findings of this research on the pragmaticalization of several English politeness markers are beneficial to the compilation of English dictionaries.