POLITENESS AS COMMUNICATIVE STRATEGY: (1) GREETINGS
POLITENESS AS COMMUNICATIVE STRATEGY: (1) GREETINGS

Summary/Abstract: Nowadays linguists agree that people do not use language just to exchange information efficiently. Besides the informational content, language users employ those communicative strategies that are suitable for the contexts in which the exchange is made. It is difficult to generalize about impolite and polite differences in non-verbal behavior since the details differ greatly across cultures. However, one area of difference concerns handshaking, and greeting in general – as well as leave-taking. Greeting and leave-taking are social rituals, which make communication between members of the society possible. Though they are often treated as if they were spontaneous emotional reactions to coming together and separation of people, carrying overtly their own social message, they are highly conventionalized for the most part. In what follows we will try to prove this.

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