Politeness as a communicative value: corpus research

Abstract

Language is the most important means of forming and sustaining human knowledge about the world. In the process of interacting with the objective world, individuals capture the results of its understanding with the help of words. Since language conveys a specific way of conceptualizing the world unique to it, its units reflect a particular system of views shared by its speakers.Moreover, language reflects the world and culture of the people who speak it, preserving this in linguistic units while simultaneously shaping its speakers. As individuals acquire a language, they begin to perceive the world through the perspective suggested by their native tongue and adopt the conceptualization of the world inherent in their culture. Language records, preserves, and transmits from generation to generation the system of values upon which a specific culture is based, serving as one of its most essential characteristics.The present article examines the lexeme “politeness” as a communicative value in modern English, employing a mixed-methods approach that integrates quantitative and qualitative research techniques. Quantitative methods include frequency analysis and n-gram modeling to identify common collocations of “politeness” within the enTenTen21 corpus. Word clouds visually represent the frequency and relationships of these collocations, emphasizing their significance in various contexts. Qualitative analysis explores the social, cultural, and linguistic dimensions of “politeness”, analyzing its functions in domains such as gender, power, social justice, digital communication, and child development.The findings demonstrate that “politeness” functions as both a linguistic characteristic and a social construct, rooted in cultural norms and values. The study reveals its role in regulating behaviour, maintaining social harmony, and reflecting cultural attitudes toward communication. Corpus contexts also include workplace communication, where “politeness” facilitates professionalism, and digital interactions, in which traditional etiquette often erodes. Additionally, the analysis points to the influence of gender aspects and power structures on the verbalization of politeness.A comprehensive examination of collocations with the lexeme “politeness” reveals how specific pairings reflect habitual language use and cultural priorities.The word cloud provides a dynamic way to visualize the semantic relationships of politeness with its contextual lexemes. At its core is politeness, surrounded by lexemes, which belong to the same semantic field or share similar contextual usage. The present corpus research highlights the connections of politeness with other communicative values such as gentleness, prudence, humility, etc.