Politeness as a basis of communicative behaviour (based on German-Russian and Russian-German phrasebooks of the 18th and 19th centuries)

Abstract

Phrasebook as a type of text, aimed at providing the basis of communication in the situation of lack of foreign language knowledge, offers a large number of politeness formulas for definite communicative situations. The article deals with the problem of language expression of politeness in bilingual phrasebooks. The aim of the study is to distinguish communicative behavior peculiarities of representatives of German and Russian cultures and to analyze stable language units, typical for Russian and German in the 18th–19th centuries. The peculiarities of the linguistic expression of politeness are illustrated by examples from the texts of German-Russian and Russian-German phrasebooks of the 18th–19th centuries, covering the time period from 1783 to 1886, which were created both for teaching German or Russian, and for practical use during travels. With the help of pragmalinguistic analysis, the main speech acts of language expression of politeness are described — “request” (including “order”, “instruction”), “gratitude”, “compliment”, in which, along with those used in modern languages, there is also a widely represented range of the obsolete politeness formulas. The analysis of the speech acts “request”, “order”, “instruction” illustrates the social opposition of communicants, which is expressed with language markers of politeness. Dialogues with people of equal status are characterized by exaggerated politeness (Erzeigen Sie mir die Gnade / den Gefallen — ‘Окажите мне милость/любовь’), while in communication with people of a lower social status there are no politeness formulas. Comparison of translations showed isolated inconsistencies between the German and Russian versions, which can be explained by the desire to “smooth out” the rudeness of the original (Принесите нам еще кипятку! — Bringen Sie uns noch siedendes Wasser, bitte). Phrasebook, therefore, reflects the era of creation not only in content, but also in communicative practices relevant to the time of its creation.