The category of politeness in the process of modelling of a literary text’s cultural space

Abstract

The aim of the research is to determine the linguocultural potential of the category of politeness and the means of its verbalization in a literary text, which represents the traditions of etiquette in the German language. The norms of linguistic behaviour are considered as an important part of cultural space, which is conveyed by the author of the text through the use of specific linguistic means. The novelty of the study lies in the involvement of the linguistic theory of politeness in the process of modeling cultural space in a literary text. The special combination of the denotative and connotative meanings of the lexemes expressing different ways of social interaction in the aspect of politeness enables not only identification of the strategies of politeness, but also determination of their linguocultural potential. Etiquette norms, which constitute an important part of the real cultural space, are reflected in the text due to the specific interaction of the elements of cultural space. The interaction between the category of politeness and such linguistic categories as modality and presupposition plays a peculiar role in the system of the text’s cultural space. The material for this study is Daniel Kellmann’s novel Tyll. The results of the analysis of empirical material served as the basis for the consideration of politeness as one of the linguistic categories that help to model the cultural space. The presented conclusions have been obtained using the comparative method as well as the method of semantic, contextual and linguocultural analysis.