Pragmatic particles - polite but powerless? Tone-group terminal hein and quoi in contemporary spoken French

Abstract

With their P and D categories, Brown and Levinson (1987) suggest that the 'weight' of the linguistic formulation of politeness is associated with social hierarchies, at least where FTAs are concerned. Kasper (1990) distinguishes between two trends in the conceptualisation of politeness: politeness as strategic conflict-avoidance and politeness as social indexing. Eelen (2001) builds on Sell's (1992) notion that politeness theorising should not confine itself to face-threatening acts but should address the broader issues to do with the creation of sociability in its wider sense, while Kerbrat-Orecchioni (1997, 2003) is at pains to demonstrate that there are a greater range of options than the somewhat pessimistic view presented by Brown and Levinson and posits an FEA (face-enhancing act) which complements their formulation. Pragmatic particles (PPs) are generally considered to be desemanticised and colloquial forms, and are often dismissed as conversational 'tics' or fillers'. This study attempts to demonstrate the kinship between PPs and other socially stratified phonological features, at the same time as drawing out their (paradoxically polite) contribution to sociability in face-to-face interaction. On the one hand, such particles are stigmatised as impolite and used in largest measure by the least educated members of the language community. On the other, they are polite in the sense that they smooth the wheels of social interaction by downtoning what might be considered over-assertive points of view. The shift in the usage of such particles in contemporary French may suggest a loosening of hierarchical power structures.

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