Speech culture: Strategies for speech regulation and maneuvering in the history of the German language

Abstract

The article deals with the normative, communicative and aesthetic aspects of the concept of culture of speech and politeness in the history of the German language. Ideas about the effectiveness, relevance, politeness and correctness of speech, implemented in the communicative practice of speakers of distant epochs, can be obtained from various sources. This makes it possible to reconstruct certain norms of speech behavior in action and trace the principles and rules of social communication, their changes over the centuries and determine strategies for speech regulation and maneuvering, because politeness initially performed the function of coding social belonging and hierarchy. The article focuses on the period of the court knightly culture of the Middle Ages, as well as the culture of speech in the aristocratic society of the Baroque era and the “gallant period” of the 18th century, carried out through language regulation and maneuvering. The system of markers of polite speech behavior (various pronouns, performative verbs, modal verbs, constructions of indirect polite distancing, etc.) is already formed in the Middle German language, but in the future it is subject to revision depending on the socio-cultural guidelines of society (the influence of French culture and language) and expands by increasing primarily artificial politeness in the form of mannered and ceremonial expressions, devoid of sincerity and truthfulness. The article shows that the communicative norms of polite speech behavior are determined by sociolinguistic and cognitive factors and reflect the state of speech culture and the development of the German language at a particular stage of society development.