Means of verbalization of the category of politeness in the German-language media discourse

Abstract

The focus of this article is the category of politeness as an important factor for the study of communicative interaction. Politeness prescribes certain forms of speech behavior which are necessary for successful interpersonal interaction. The main purpose of the article is to consider the most typical linguistic means of implementing politeness in the German media discourse. The analysis is based on such dialogic genres of public communication as analytical interview and interview-conversation. Their purpose is to influence the addressee, which implies the use of politeness. The corpus of examples is collected from the leading German-language magazines Spiegel Wissen, Spiegel and Cicero for 2015–2020 by a continuous sampling method. The situational- interpretative method was used to comprehend and systematize the selected fragments expressing politeness. The methodological basis of the study was also formed by the communicative-pragmatic method since the analysis is based on the understanding of politeness as a communicative and pragmatic category aimed at achieving certain communicative and pragmatic goals in the process of communication. As a result of the research, it was revealed that in addition to the lexemes of polite semantics, the participants of the dialogue show politeness towards each other, showing interest in the topic under discussion, mutually encouraging each other to explain the previously expressed opinion in the form of a question, which acts as a polite version of the imperative. The results of the study also demonstrate the frequency of using subjunctive mood as additional means of verbalization of politeness towards the interlocutor.