Children's Politeness Strategies
By Summer Nicholls
Don't talk to your father like that?
Don't talk with your mouth full!
What's the magic word?
Have you ever been offended by a young child and thought badly of their parents?
Well maybe it's not always to blame on how they're being brought up and purely because they aren't old enough yet to understand politeness strategies in a more complex way.
At a young age children are constantly reminded by their parents on how to behave in a polite manner using 'Please, thank you and excuse me'. Not until they are a few years older do they become less direct and develop more feelings for strangers or people they know but are not as familiar with. For example imagine a mother whose out with her four year old toddler who spots something about a person they don't like. This child could immediately be direct towards this and shout out something an older person would not as they'd know its offensive and they'd understand the rudeness of this. It's also interesting how an adult would interact with a young child and naturally include a simple question 'What's the magic word?' to help them develop a polite attitude towards others. However these are only the main words they'd include (please, thank you and excuse) and this is why they perhaps don't understand politeness in more of a developed way.
David Crystal reminds us of the importance of using politeness in everyday life and how people speaking to someone they're not as familiar with would be a lot more polite compared to their mates who I think people can tend to be the least polite with, especially males. I think this because males use more taboo language in a joking situation towards friend's who'd then find it amusing. Females wouldn't tend to do this as much as their more emotional and could take some jokes to heart as they wouldn't find this humour amusing. Maybe this is the same with young children as their parents are the ones always reminding to use these 'magic' words towards them but as they don't know strangers they are not yet aware that these magic words should apply to everyone. This comes back to one of Crystal's points 'It's very important to make sure your language is appropriate to the situation you find yourself in, otherwise you might find yourself being criticised'. If you have ever been offended by a young child or seen this happen to someone else, the person it's being aimed at could be offended but as it's a child they'd use this as an exception rather than it being a situation of two adults who might have an argument over it as they would be aware of their rudeness.
By Summer Nicholls
Don't talk to your father like that?
Don't talk with your mouth full!
What's the magic word?
Have you ever been offended by a young child and thought badly of their parents?
Well maybe it's not always to blame on how they're being brought up and purely because they aren't old enough yet to understand politeness strategies in a more complex way.
At a young age children are constantly reminded by their parents on how to behave in a polite manner using 'Please, thank you and excuse me'. Not until they are a few years older do they become less direct and develop more feelings for strangers or people they know but are not as familiar with. For example imagine a mother whose out with her four year old toddler who spots something about a person they don't like. This child could immediately be direct towards this and shout out something an older person would not as they'd know its offensive and they'd understand the rudeness of this. It's also interesting how an adult would interact with a young child and naturally include a simple question 'What's the magic word?' to help them develop a polite attitude towards others. However these are only the main words they'd include (please, thank you and excuse) and this is why they perhaps don't understand politeness in more of a developed way.
David Crystal reminds us of the importance of using politeness in everyday life and how people speaking to someone they're not as familiar with would be a lot more polite compared to their mates who I think people can tend to be the least polite with, especially males. I think this because males use more taboo language in a joking situation towards friend's who'd then find it amusing. Females wouldn't tend to do this as much as their more emotional and could take some jokes to heart as they wouldn't find this humour amusing. Maybe this is the same with young children as their parents are the ones always reminding to use these 'magic' words towards them but as they don't know strangers they are not yet aware that these magic words should apply to everyone. This comes back to one of Crystal's points 'It's very important to make sure your language is appropriate to the situation you find yourself in, otherwise you might find yourself being criticised'. If you have ever been offended by a young child or seen this happen to someone else, the person it's being aimed at could be offended but as it's a child they'd use this as an exception rather than it being a situation of two adults who might have an argument over it as they would be aware of their rudeness.
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