Modals, speech acts and (im)politeness: Interactions in Shakespeare’s plays
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Date
2013
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Adam Mickiewicz University
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Abstract
This paper accounts for how modals are interrelated with speech acts and (im)politeness, to offer
a new perspective to the interactions in Shakespeare’s plays.
A variety of strategies to save or attack the hearer’s positive or negative face are taken into
account within the frameworks of Brown & Levinson (1987) and Culpeper (1996), and the interplay
between these strategies is observed in relation to the modals. Furthermore, this study analyses
how speech acts performed with the aid of modals are associated with (im)politeness strategies,
based on the inventory of speech acts proposed by Nakayasu (2009).
It has been shown that there are more strategies to save or attack the hearer’s positive face in
Shakespeare which are employed with the use of modals. The analysis reinforces the proposal by
Kopytko (1993, 1995) that social interactions in Shakespeare’s time were positive politenessoriented,
going further to extend the analysis to impoliteness, and suggests the interrelated nature
of modality, speech acts and (im)politeness.
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Sponsor
This research is partially supported by the Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C) from the
Japan Society of the Promotion of Science, and a faculty grant from the Research Institute
for Humanities, Gakushuin University.
Keywords
speech acts, impoliteness, modals, Shakespeare’s plays
Citation
Studia Anglica Posnaniensia, vol. 48.4 (2013), pp. 5-33