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The Generosity maxim


Date: 2015-10-07; view: 489.


The Tact maxim

Geoffrey Leech's maxims

The need not to cause any damage to and to uphold each others´ face (e.g., not criticizing the quality of service or food in the restaurant directly) is the central problem of the theories of politeness. According to Geoffrey Leech, there is a politeness principle with conversational maxims similar to those formulated by Paul Grice. He lists six maxims: tact, generosity, approbation, modesty, agreement, and sympathy.

The tact maxim states: 'Minimize the expression of beliefs which imply cost to other; maximize the expression of beliefs which imply benefit to other.'The first part of this maxim fits in with Brown and Levinson's negative politeness strategy of minimising the imposition, and the second part reflects the positive politeness strategy of attending to the hearer's interests, wants, and needs:

e.g. "Could I interrupt you for a second?" "If I could just clarify this then."

 

Leech's Generosity maxim states: 'Minimize the expression of benefit to self; maximize the expression of cost to self.' Unlike the tact maxim, the maxim of generosity focuses on the speaker, and says that others should be put first instead of the self.

e.g. "You relax and let me do the dishes." "You must come and have dinner with us."


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