PHIL 370 H01 23440

HistoryCiv, Humanities, NotCore

Topics selected by the instructor for specialized study. Course content varies and will be announced in the schedule of classes by title. CL: 2020.

Notes:

This course looks at the main theories of linguistic politeness that have been proposed over the last forty years, including the influential Brown and Levinson (1987) theoretical framework that theorizes politeness in terms of a sociological notion of "face" and the more pragmatically oriented theory of Leech (1983) that appeals to maxims of politeness. We will look at the challenges to these frameworks, especially from scholars who challenge the universality of these theories or who study politeness in intercultural settings. We will also look at more recent developments of these frameworks to investigate impoliteness, which has become especially pressing in the age of computer-mediated discourse and the rise of cyber-bullying, and the promulgation of hate speech online.