Topic 12 - Meaning between the lines (Session B) > Top Girls revisited - with politeness in mind > Task B > Answers

Top Girls revisited - with politeness in mind

Task B – Our answer

Win’s opening move in the interview is to go for a positive politeness strategy. She clearly enhances Louise’s positive face when she says ‘you’ve been very loyal to the one job’. The fact that she calls Louise by her first name (and not title + last name) also enhances Louise’s positive face, suggesting to Louise that Win is well-disposed towards her, even though they have only just met. From our perspective, looking in on the conversation from the Author-Audience discourse level, she appears to be ‘buttering Louise up a bit’ at the beginning of the conversation in order to improve her chances of conducting a friendly and productive interview.

Note that from her polite behaviour we will also begin to think of Louise as being a good-natured person. As the English writer and clergyman Sidney Smith (1771-1845) said, ‘politeness is good nature regulated by common sense.’ So politeness also has effects in terms of inferring characterisation.

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