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Crash Course, Pragmatics: Crash Course Linguistics #6

Pragmatics: Crash Course Linguistics #6

Hello, I'm Taylor and welcome to Crash Course Linguistics!

Sometimes we don't say exactly what we mean, and yet we still manage to understand each other.

If you ask, “Is it raining?” when I come inside soaking wet and I say, "Great job, Sherlock",

you'll probably assume that I'm being sarcastic rather than giving you a compliment.

Or if you ask me "Can you close the window?"

I'll probably interpret your question as a polite request, rather than a question about my physical ability.

The reason we can figure out what's going on is because we don't just look at words and sentences for meaning — we also look at context.

The area of linguistics that puts meaning into context is called pragmatics.

[THEME MUSIC]

We don't have 100 percent complete information about everything that's going on when we're talking to people,

so we often need to make some assumptions about the context in order to understand each other.

There are four main assumptions that pragmaticists talk about when it comes to communication.

Let's start with "Great job, Sherlock".

In some contexts, that could be a statement of admiration at your friend's deductive powers.

But in other contexts, like if your friend has done something especially… unwise,

calling them "Sherlock" actually illustrates how much they're NOT like Sherlock Holmes.

That's because most of the time, we assume that people are trying to communicate high-quality information.

We know that people can lie, but we usually assume that they're telling the truth.

So when the context and the words clearly don't match, we can deduce a more subtle truth, like sarcasm.

Let's move on to a second assumption.

Here's a gif that floated around the internet a while back, with the caption "look at all these ducks there are at least ten."

This caption is technically true.

There are at least ten ducks, in fact there's a whole swarm of ducks, probably hundreds.

And "hundreds" is definitely consistent with “at least ten.”

But anyone who can see that there are at least ten ducks in this gif can also see that there are wayyyy more than ten ducks.

And there's something so funny about the way the caption goes against our assumptions about communication.

That assumption is that people are giving us a sufficient quantity of information.

Enough detail, but not too much.

The boring, consistent-with-our-assumption version of this caption would have been "look at all these ducks there are hundreds."

But that ordinary version wouldn't have been as funny, and probably wouldn't have gone viral.

Food labels also generally align with our third assumption.

For example, if a pack of gum says it's sugar-free, it's because gum does sometimes contain sugar.

We generally assume that people will tell us information that is of relevance, so the boring gum packaging checks out.

But our assumption about relevance can also be used for humor or to mislead — to imply that something is relevant when it actually is not.

Like, if an olive oil brand starts labeling its bottles “sugar-free olive oil” you might think, “Wait a sec, I didn't know olive oil ever contained sugar!”

That might convince you to avoid other brands of olive oil that don't say they're sugar free, even though none of them ever contained sugar.

That information actually isn't relevant!

Finally, let's say you're trying to figure out whether you want to take a particular class with a particular professor next year.

You ask one person for advice.

"Well, it certainly is a class," they say.

You ask someone else, who says, "Oh yeah, the professor shows up every week, and wears clothes,

and stands in front of the room, and talks to us, and gives assignments."

Both of these statements theoretically seem like they should be completely unremarkable.

Of course you'd expect a class to be a class, or a professor to show up and wear clothing and give assignments!

And yet, somehow when your friends give you way less detail than expected, or lots of detail about obvious things, it raises suspicions.

What on earth is going on with this class that they can't just tell you if it's good?

Our fourth assumption is that people will say things in a manner which is as straightforward as possible for the context.

If something is good, we can probably just say it's good.

If something is not so great, though, we might be reluctant to criticize it overtly.

So we sometimes say things in a less straightforward manner in order to be more diplomatic.

So when our friends say something that misaligns with our assumptions, that might tell us that something's up with that professor.

These four assumptions, that what someone says will be of sufficient quality, quantity, relevance and manner, can be summed up with one bigger idea:

that we assume people are generally trying to be cooperative with us.

So these assumptions are called the Cooperative Principle.

They were first described by the philosopher Paul Grice, so they're also sometimes known as Grice's Maxims.

But it's ok, we can use them too!

According to the cooperative principle, whenever someone says something that doesn't make sense at a literal level,

we can figure out, or infer, what else they could have meant,

assuming they're still trying to contribute in a cooperative way to the conversation.

Sometimes we assume cooperation so quickly that we don't even really notice it!

For instance, if I say, "Hey Gav, do you wanna have a picnic?" and Gav says, "It's raining," we can probably infer that Gav was declining my picnic suggestion.

But technically speaking, Gav didn't actually say yes or no.

If we were a computer program, or a lawyer, or someone else who cares about very strict literal interpretations,

we'd have to point out that the picnic sentence and the raining sentence don't have to be related.

It's only because we have an understanding of context and cooperation that we interpret them as related.

We know that picnics involve eating food outdoors, and that it's hard to eat outdoors in the rain.

This additional meaning layered on top of the words we're saying is known as an implicature.

Understanding how implicature works can help us make sense of the moments when someone says one thing and means another.

If Gav asks, "Can I have a cookie?" and I reply, "I don't know, can you?",

Gav will quite justifiably be annoyed at me, because I'm deliberately ignoring the implicature that this is a request. And if you watch enough YouTube videos, you know what the ‘subscribe button' looks like and that it sits below this video.

So if I turn to the camera and say “the subscribe button is below this video”, I'm not actually telling you new information.

I'm not even asking you to subscribe, but you might have thought about it.

In this context, pointing out the button is really saying “please subscribe!” without overtly saying “please subscribe!”

I'm using implicature to ask without asking.

It's a way of being polite by being indirect.

And languages have lots of other strategies for being polite.

Some languages add a short word, or particle, to make something polite, like please or sorry.

In Malay, you can add lah to a command, something like, “hand me that, la?”

That turns it from a demand into something more like “Would you please do that?”

In Mandarin, you tell a person to have a seat by just saying “Sit!” zuo4.

That probably sounds way too strong, like something you'd command your pet.

And it sounds strong to Mandarin speakers, too.

But instead of adding a “please,” they repeat the word: Zuo4 zuo4 or “Sit sit” which means something like “here, have a seat.”

Some languages have different forms of verbs or other words depending on the social status of the person you're talking to.

In French, the pronoun "tu" is informal and singular, and "vous" is formal and plural.

English actually also used to make this distinction with "thou" for the informal singular and "you" for the formal or plural version of the word.

Making something seem more question-like or tentative can also make it more polite.

In BSL, raised eyebrows are used both to indicate questions, and also as one way of making a request or an apology more polite.

While there's a wide variety of grammatical ways to show politeness across languages,

we also see a general tendency that adding qualifiers and caveats, known as hedges, to our replies tends to be seen as more polite.

So does being indirect, such as asking or even just hinting, rather than ordering.

So, if I want you to close the window because I'm freezing, it would be more polite to say

“Would you mind closing the window?”

or “Brr, it's chilly in here!”

than it would be to straight up tell you, “Close the window!”

We follow our culture and our language's norms of politeness

because it's part of the whole process by which we create meaning between us and the people we're talking to.

Both politeness and the Cooperative Principle are part of pragmatics.

They're part of our agreement about how we're going to talk to each other.

Pragmatics affects everything from our words to even the very way we have those conversations.

Let's step into the Thought Bubble for a chat.

The flow of words between people is known as turn taking.

I say something, you reply, I reply to that, back and forth.

There's a lot of variation across individuals and even across cultures as to who does more or less of the speaking,

how long they talk for, and how much overlap or silence there is between the people talking.

When it comes to overlap in conversation, we can think broadly about two different ends of a spectrum.

On one end we have a conversation style where people do a lot of overlapping, talk at the same time,

and don't leave much or any silence after the other person has finished speaking.

This is known as high-involvement interactional style.

On the other end, we have a conversational style where people do not overlap, and leave space after someone else is finished before beginning their turn.

This is known as high-considerateness interactional style.

You might tend to be more high-involvement and have a friend who is high-considerateness and it makes you feel like you're doing all the conversational heavy-lifting.

If you tend towards high-considerateness, you might feel like your friend doesn't let you get a word in edgewise.

There are some general trends in different areas, too.

Speakers of Tzeltal and Japanese tend to have more overlap than speakers of Lao and Danish.

Even within American English, New Yorkers tend to be more high-involvement and Californians tend to be more high-considerateness.

These differences are measured in just milliseconds, which shows how sensitive humans can be to turn-taking differences — and to all the other little pragmatic nuances that make up politeness.

Thanks, Thought Bubble.

I appreciate it.

So, when we look at how people use language in conversation,

we see that it's less like one person baking-in all the meaning they want to convey in their words and handing it over to another person,

and more like we're using context to bake a cake as a team.

And just like everyone has their own way of making a carrot cake,

the individual conversation styles and cultural norms mean each conversation or interaction can turn out a little bit differently.

Next time on Crash Course Linguistics, we'll look specifically at how your social reality affects your linguistic choices.

Thanks for watching this episode of Crash Course Linguistics.

If you want to help keep all Crash Coursefree for everybody, forever, you can join our community on Patreon.

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Pragmatics: Crash Course Linguistics #6 语用学||| pragmatyka||| Pragmatik: Crashkurs Linguistik #6 Pragmática: Crash Course Linguistics #6 Pragmatique : Cours accéléré de linguistique #6 Pragmatica: Corso accelerato di linguistica #6 語用論クラッシュコース言語学 第6回 Pragmatyka: Crash Course Linguistics #6 Pragmática: Curso Rápido de Linguística #6 Прагматика: Краткий курс лингвистики №6 Прагматика: Лінгвістичний експрес-курс #6 语用学:语言学速成课程#6 語用學:語言學速成課程#6

Hello, I'm Taylor and welcome to Crash Course Linguistics! cześć|||||||| مرحباً، أنا تايلور

Sometimes we don't say exactly what we mean, and yet we still manage to understand each other. ||||||||||||logramos|||| أحياناً نتفوّه بكلمات لم نقصد قولها،

If you ask, “Is it raining?” when I come inside soaking wet and I say, "Great job, Sherlock", ||||||||||湿透了||||||| ||||||||||completely|||||||detective skills |||||||||||mokry||||||Sherlock إذا سألتني، "هل السماء تمطر؟" عندما أدخل مبلّلاً Если вы спросите: «Дождь идет?» когда я захожу насквозь промокший и говорю: «Отличная работа, Шерлок»,

you'll probably assume that I'm being sarcastic rather than giving you a compliment. ||||||讽刺的||||||赞美 ||||||||||||komplement ربما ستفترض أنّني أسخر منك بدلاً من مدحك. вы, вероятно, решите, что я саркастичен, а не сделаю вам комплимент.

Or if you ask me "Can you close the window?" أو إذا سألتني "هل تستطيع غلق النافذة؟".

I'll probably interpret your question as a polite request, rather than a question about my physical ability. ||解释|||||||||||||| ||zinterpretuję|||||||||||||| ربما سأفهم سؤالك على أنّه طلب بلباقة،

The reason we can figure out what's going on is because we don't just look at words and sentences for meaning — we also look at context. السبب الذي يجعلنا نفهم معنى الكلام

The area of linguistics that puts meaning into context is called pragmatics. |||||||||||语用学 هذا الفرع من اللّغويات الذي يضع معنى لسياق الكلام يعرف بالتداولية.

[THEME MUSIC] [موسقى المقدمة]

We don't have 100 percent complete information about everything that's going on when we're talking to people, ليس لدينا معلومات كاملة حول كل شيء يحدث عندما نتحدث مع النّاس.

so we often need to make some assumptions about the context in order to understand each other. |||||||założenia||||||||| لذلك أحياناً يجب أن نفترض أمور

There are four main assumptions that pragmaticists talk about when it comes to communication. ||||||实用主义者||||||| ||||||pragmatic theorists||||||| ||||||pragmatycy|||||||komunikacji علم التداولية يتحدث عن أربع إفتراضات Er zijn vier belangrijke aannames waar pragmatici het over hebben als het gaat om communicatie.

Let's start with "Great job, Sherlock". لنبدأ بعبارة "أحسنت، شرلوك".

In some contexts, that could be a statement of admiration at your friend's deductive powers. |||||||||||||推理| |||||||||praise||||reasoning| |||||||||||||dedukcyjnych|zdolności في بعض السياقات، In sommige situaties kan dat een uiting van bewondering zijn voor de deductieve vermogens van je vriend.

But in other contexts, like if your friend has done something especially… unwise, |||sytuacjach||||||||| لكن في سياقات أخرى،

calling them "Sherlock" actually illustrates how much they're NOT like Sherlock Holmes. ||||shows|||||||Holmes character |||||||||||Holmes

That's because most of the time, we assume that people are trying to communicate high-quality information.

We know that people can lie, but we usually assume that they're telling the truth. |||||kłamać||||||||| نعرف أن النّاس بإمكانهم الكذب،

So when the context and the words clearly don't match, we can deduce a more subtle truth, like sarcasm. ||||||||||||推断||||||讽刺 ||||||||||||infer||||||sarcasm ||||||||||||wydedukować||||||sarkazm لذلك لمّا سياق الكلام و الكلمات لا يتطابقان بشكل واضح، Поэтому, когда контекст и слова явно не совпадают, мы можем вывести более тонкую истину, например, сарказм.

Let's move on to a second assumption. ||||||假设 لننتقل إلى الإفتراض الثاني

Here's a gif that floated around the internet a while back, with the caption "look at all these ducks there are at least ten." |||||||||||||标题|||||||||| ||image file||||||||||||||||||||| ||gif||||||||||||||||kaczek||||| هذا gif إنتشر على الإنترنت قبل مدّة، Вот гифка, которая некоторое время назад распространилась по Интернету, с подписью «Посмотрите на всех этих уток, их как минимум десять».

This caption is technically true. تقنياً هذا العنوان صحيح.

There are at least ten ducks, in fact there's a whole swarm of ducks, probably hundreds. |||||||||||一群|||| |||||||||||group of|||| |||||||||||stado|||| يوجد على الأقلّ عشرة بطّات،

And "hundreds" is definitely consistent with “at least ten.” ||||一致的|||| ||||in agreement|||| ||||spójne|||| و "مئات" طبعا متوافقة مع "على الأقلّ عشرة".

But anyone who can see that there are at least ten ducks in this gif can also see that there are wayyyy more than ten ducks. |||||||||||||||||||||好多|||| |||||||||||||||||||||a lot|||| |||||||||||||||||||||dużo||||

And there's something so funny about the way the caption goes against our assumptions about communication. |||||||||字幕|||||| و يوجد شيء مضحك حول تعارض العنوان

That assumption is that people are giving us a sufficient quantity of information. |||||||||adequate||| |||||||||sufficient|ilość|| Это предположение состоит в том, что люди предоставляют нам достаточное количество информации.

Enough detail, but not too much. تفاصيل كافية، لكن ليس فوق اللّازم.

The boring, consistent-with-our-assumption version of this caption would have been "look at all these ducks there are hundreds." نسخة العنوان المملة و المتوافقة مع إفتراضنا كانت لتكون

But that ordinary version wouldn't have been as funny, and probably wouldn't have gone viral. ||typical|||||||||||| ||||||||||||||wiralowy لكن النسخة العادية ما كانت لتكون مضحكة،

Food labels also generally align with our third assumption. ||||concordam||||pressuposição |etykiety||||||| ملصقات الأغذية عامة تتماشى مع إفتراضنا الثالث

For example, if a pack of gum says it's sugar-free, it's because gum does sometimes contain sugar. |||||的|口香糖||||||||||| |||||||||||||guma||||cukier على سبيل المثال، إذا كُتِب على حزمة من العلكة "خالي من السّكر"،

We generally assume that people will tell us information that is of relevance, so the boring gum packaging checks out. ||||||||||||相关性||||||| ||||||||||||importance||||||| ||||||||||||istotności|||||opakowanie|sprawdza| عموماً نفترض أن النّاس سيخبروننا بمعلومات ذات أهمية،

But our assumption about relevance can also be used for humor or to mislead — to imply that something is relevant when it actually is not. |||||||||||||误导||暗示||||||||| |||||||||||||deceive||suggest||||||||| |||||||||||||enganar||||||||||| ||||istotności|||||||||wprowadzić w błąd||||||||||| لكن إفتراضنا حول أهمية المعلومة

Like, if an olive oil brand starts labeling its bottles “sugar-free olive oil” you might think, “Wait a sec, I didn't know olive oil ever contained sugar!” |||||||etykietowanie||butelki|||||||||||||||||zawierało| مثلاَّ، إذا أصبحت شركة لزيت الزيتون

That might convince you to avoid other brands of olive oil that don't say they're sugar free, even though none of them ever contained sugar. |||||||marek||||||||||||||||| ربما سيقنعك هذا بتجنب شركات أخرى

That information actually isn't relevant! تلك المعلومة في الواقع ليس لها أهمية!

Finally, let's say you're trying to figure out whether you want to take a particular class with a particular professor next year. أخيرا،لنفترض أنك تحاول معرفة

You ask one person for advice. تسأل شخصاً ما لينصحك.

"Well, it certainly is a class," they say. فيقول، "إنّه فصل دراسي بالطّبع".

You ask someone else, who says, "Oh yeah, the professor shows up every week, and wears clothes, تسأل شخصا أخر، و يقول،

and stands in front of the room, and talks to us, and gives assignments." |||||||||||||作业 |||||||||||||zadania |||||||||||||e passa tarefas. و يقف أمام الغرفة، و يتحدّث معنا، و يعطينا واجبات." и стоит перед комнатой, и разговаривает с нами, и дает задания ».

Both of these statements theoretically seem like they should be completely unremarkable. ||||理论上|||||||毫无特别 |||||||||||ordinary |||stwierdzenia|teoretycznie|||||||

Of course you'd expect a class to be a class, or a professor to show up and wear clothing and give assignments! ||byś||||||||||||||||ubranie||| طبعاً ستتوقع أن يكون الفصل فصلاَّ،

And yet, somehow when your friends give you way less detail than expected, or lots of detail about obvious things, it raises suspicions. ||||||||||||||||||||||怀疑 |||||||||||||||||||||budzi|podejrzenia و مع ذلك، بطريقة ما

What on earth is going on with this class that they can't just tell you if it's good? ماذا يحدث في هذا الفصل الدّراسي

Our fourth assumption is that people will say things in a manner which is as straightforward as possible for the context. |czwarta|||||||||||||||||||

If something is good, we can probably just say it's good. إذا كان شيء ما جيد، نستطيع ببساطة قول أنّه جيّد.

If something is not so great, though, we might be reluctant to criticize it overtly. ||||||||||||批评||公开地 ||||||||||hesitant||||openly ||||||||||||||abiertamente ||||||porém||||relutante||criticar||abertamente ||||||||||||||jawnie لكن إذا لم يكن شيء بتلك الروعة،

So we sometimes say things in a less straightforward manner in order to be more diplomatic. |||||||||||||||外交的 |||||||||||||||dyplomatyczny ||||||||direta|||||||diplomática لذلك أحياناً نقول أشياء بأسلوب أقلّ صراحةً لنتصرّف بلباقة

So when our friends say something that misaligns with our assumptions, that might tell us that something's up with that professor. |||||||不一致|||||||||||||教授 |||||||doesn't match||||||||||||| ||||||||||||||||coś jest|||| |||||||não está alinhado|||pressupostos|||||||||| لما يقول أصدقائنا شيئاً غير متوافق مع إفتراضنا، Dus als onze vrienden iets zeggen dat niet strookt met onze veronderstellingen, kan dat ons vertellen dat er iets aan de hand is met die professor.

These four assumptions, that what someone says will be of sufficient quality, quantity, relevance and manner, can be summed up with one bigger idea: ||||||||||||||||||总结||||| ||||||||||||||||||podsumować||||| |||||||||||||relevância|||||resumido||||| الإفتراضات الأربع هذه، أنّ ما يقوله شخص ما سيكون ذا جودة،

that we assume people are generally trying to be cooperative with us. |||||||||życzliwi|| هي أننا نتفرض أن الناس عامةً يحاولون أن يتعاونوا معنا

So these assumptions are called the Cooperative Principle. ||||||Kooperatywna| لذلك هذه الإفترضات يُطلق عليها اسم "مبدأ التّعاون".

They were first described by the philosopher Paul Grice, so they're also sometimes known as Grice's Maxims. ||||||||||||||||格赖斯准则 ||||||||Grice's Maxims|||||||Grice's Maxims|Grice's principles ||||||||Grice|||||||Grice'a| تم وصفها لأول مرة من قبل الفيلسوف بول غرايس،

But it's ok, we can use them too! لكن لا بأس، بإمكاننا إستخدامها أيضاً!

According to the cooperative principle, whenever someone says something that doesn't make sense at a literal level, |||||||||||||||字面| وفقاً لمبدأ التّعاون،

we can figure out, or infer, what else they could have meant, |||||推断|||||| يمكننا معرفة، أو إستنتاج، ماذا كانوا يقصدون غير ذلك،

assuming they're still trying to contribute in a cooperative way to the conversation. إفتراضاً أنهم مازالوا يحاولون المساهمة بشكل تعاوني في المحادثة.

Sometimes we assume cooperation so quickly that we don't even really notice it! |||współpraca||||||||| أحياناً نتعجّل في إفتراض أن المرء

For instance, if I say, "Hey Gav, do you wanna have a picnic?" and Gav says, "It's raining," we can probably infer that Gav was declining my picnic suggestion. |||||||||||||||||||||||||拒绝||野餐|建议 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||piknik| مثلاً، إذا قلتُ، "مرحباً غاف، هل تريد الذّهاب في نزهة؟" Als ik bijvoorbeeld zeg: "Hé Gav, wil je picknicken?" en Gav zegt: "Het regent", kunnen we waarschijnlijk afleiden dat Gav mijn picknickvoorstel afwees.

But technically speaking, Gav didn't actually say yes or no. لكن تقنياً، غاف لم يقل حقّاً نعم أو لا.

If we were a computer program, or a lawyer, or someone else who cares about very strict literal interpretations, ||||||||||||||||严格的||解释 ||||||||||||||||ścisłych||interpretacje إذا كنا برنامج حاسوب، أو محامي،

we'd have to point out that the picnic sentence and the raining sentence don't have to be related. يجب أن نوضح أن جملة النزهة و جملة المطر

It's only because we have an understanding of context and cooperation that we interpret them as related. كوننا نفهم سياق الكلام و مبدأ التّعاون

We know that picnics involve eating food outdoors, and that it's hard to eat outdoors in the rain. ||||include|||in the open|||||||||| |||||||na świeżym powietrzu||||||||||

This additional meaning layered on top of the words we're saying is known as an implicature. |||分层的||||||||||||暗示意义 |||added||||||||||||implied meaning |||||||||||||||implikatura هذا المعنى المخفي و الإضافي Deze extra betekenis gelaagd bovenop de woorden die we zeggen, staat bekend als een implicatuur.

Understanding how implicature works can help us make sense of the moments when someone says one thing and means another.

If Gav asks, "Can I have a cookie?" and I reply, "I don't know, can you?", ||pyta||||||||||||| إذا سأل غاف، "هل يمكنني الحصول على البسكويت؟"

Gav will quite justifiably be annoyed at me, because I'm deliberately ignoring the implicature that this is a request. |||合理地|||||||故意地|||暗示||||| Gavin|||rightfully||||||||||suggested meaning||||| |||||||||||ignoruję||||||| |||justificadamente|||||||deliberadamente|||implicatura||||| سيكون غاف حقاً منزعجاً مني، And if you watch enough YouTube videos, you know what the ‘subscribe button' looks like and that it sits below this video. ||||||||||||||||||jest umieszczony||| و إذا كنت تشاهد اليوتوب كثيراً،

So if I turn to the camera and say “the subscribe button is below this video”, I'm not actually telling you new information. فإذا نظرتُ إلى الكاميرا و قلتُ

I'm not even asking you to subscribe, but you might have thought about it. ||||||||ты||||| أنا لا أخبرك حتى أن تشترك، لكن ربما فكّرت في الأمر.

In this context, pointing out the button is really saying “please subscribe!” without overtly saying “please subscribe!” |||||||||||||directly||| |||||||||||||abiertamente||| |||wskazanie||||||||||||| في هذا السّياق، الإشارة إلى الزرّ يشير إلى قولي

I'm using implicature to ask without asking. ||暗示|||| أنا أستعمل التّلميح لأسألك بدون أن أسألك في الحقيقة.

It's a way of being polite by being indirect. ||||||||pośredni إنّها طريقة لتكون مُهذّباً

And languages have lots of other strategies for being polite. و اللّغات لديها الكثير من الإستراتجيات الأخرى لتكون مهذباً.

Some languages add a short word, or particle, to make something polite, like please or sorry. |||||||助词|||||||| |||||||cząstka||||||||

In Malay, you can add lah to a command, something like, “hand me that, la?” |马来语||||||||||||| |||||question particle|||||||||question particle |malajski||||partykularne wyrażenie|||||||||lah في لغة الملايو، تستطيع إضافة كلمة "لاه" للأمر،

That turns it from a demand into something more like “Would you please do that?” |||||żądanie||||||||| هذا يُحول الجملة من أمر

In Mandarin, you tell a person to have a seat by just saying “Sit!” zuo4. ||||||||||||||sit |mandaryński||||||||miejsce||||| تقول لشخص التفضّل بالجلوس بقولك "إجلس" أي "تزو".

That probably sounds way too strong, like something you'd command your pet. |||||||||||zwierzęciu

And it sounds strong to Mandarin speakers, too. و يبدوا الأمر فظاً للماندريين أيضاً.

But instead of adding a “please,” they repeat the word: Zuo4 zuo4 or “Sit sit” which means something like “here, have a seat.”

Some languages have different forms of verbs or other words depending on the social status of the person you're talking to. لغات أخرى لديها نوع مختلف من الأفعال أو كلمات أخرى

In French, the pronoun "tu" is informal and singular, and "vous" is formal and plural. ||||||||||||||复数 ||||||nieformalny||||wy|||| في اللغة الفرنسية، الضمير "tu--تو" غير رسمي وبصيغة المفرد،

English actually also used to make this distinction with "thou" for the informal singular and "you" for the formal or plural version of the word. |||||||||你||||||||||||||| |||||||distinction||informal singular||||||||||||||| ||||||||||||nieformalny|||||||||||| |||||||||tú||||||||||||||| اللغة الإنجليزية كانت في العادة تميز بين

Making something seem more question-like or tentative can also make it more polite. |||||||试探性|||||| |||||||niepewne|||||| جعل الامر يبدو كأنه سؤال أو تردد

In BSL, raised eyebrows are used both to indicate questions, and also as one way of making a request or an apology more polite. |British Sign Language|||||||||||||||||||||| |||brwi||||||||||||||||||przeprosiny|| |em LIBRAS||||||||||||||||||||||

While there's a wide variety of grammatical ways to show politeness across languages, ||||||||||grzeczność|| على رغم من وجود طرق نحوية متنوعة لإظهار الأدب في كل اللّغات،

we also see a general tendency that adding qualifiers and caveats, known as hedges, to our replies tends to be seen as more polite. ||||||||限定词||警告|||缓冲语|||||||||| ||||||||||qualifiers|||qualifiers and caveats|||||||||| |||||||||||||hedge'owanie|||odpowiedzi|tenduje|||||| ||||||||||reservas|||hedges|||||||||| نرى أيضا بصفة عامة أن إضاقة تحفظات، we zien ook een algemene tendens dat het toevoegen van kwalificaties en voorbehouden, ook wel hedges genoemd, aan onze antwoorden als beleefder wordt beschouwd.

So does being indirect, such as asking or even just hinting, rather than ordering. ||||||||||sugestia|||rozkazywaniem و أيضا التحدث بشكل غير ظاهر،

So, if I want you to close the window because I'm freezing, it would be more polite to say |||||||||||marznę||||||| لذلك، إذا أردتُك أن تغلق النّافذة لأنني أشعر بالبرد الشديد،

“Would you mind closing the window?” "هل تمانع إذا أغلقتُ النافذة؟"

or “Brr, it's chilly in here!” |哆嗦||寒冷|| |Brr|||| |||frio|| |brr||zimno|| أو "برر، الجو بارد جداً هنا!"

than it would be to straight up tell you, “Close the window!” بدل أن أقولها مباشرةً، "أغلق النافذة!"

We follow our culture and our language's norms of politeness |||||||规范|| ||||||języka|normy|| نتبعُ ثقافتنا و قواعد الأدب في لغتنا

because it's part of the whole process by which we create meaning between us and the people we're talking to. لأنها جزء من العملية التي من خلالها

Both politeness and the Cooperative Principle are part of pragmatics. يُعتبر كِلاً من التهذيب و مبدأ التعاون جزءًا من التداولية.

They're part of our agreement about how we're going to talk to each other. ||||umowa||||||||| إنهم جزء من إتفاقنا حول طريقة التحدث لبعضنا البعض.

Pragmatics affects everything from our words to even the very way we have those conversations. 语用学|影响||||||||||||| |wpływa||||||||||||| التداويلة تؤثر على كل شيء

Let's step into the Thought Bubble for a chat.

The flow of words between people is known as turn taking. |przepływ||||||||| تدفّق الكلمات بين الناس يعرف بأخذ الأدوار

I say something, you reply, I reply to that, back and forth. |||||||||||wprzód |||||||||||de un lado a otro |||||||||||ida e volta أقول شيئا، أنت ترد علي، و أنا أرد على ذلك، و هكذا.

There's a lot of variation across individuals and even across cultures as to who does more or less of the speaking, ||||差异|||||||||||||||| ||||||osób||||kultur|||||||||| هناك كثير من الاختلافات بين الأفراد

how long they talk for, and how much overlap or silence there is between the people talking. ||||||||重叠|||||||| ||||||||concurrent speaking|||||||| ||||||||||ciszy|||||| ||||||||sobreposição|||||||| كم من الوقت يتحدثون، و كمية التشابك أو الصمت بين المتحدثين.

When it comes to overlap in conversation, we can think broadly about two different ends of a spectrum. ||||||||||大致|||||||光谱 ||||||||||generally|||||||range |||||||||||||||||spektum ||||||||||de forma ampla||||||| لما يتعلق الأمر بالتشابك في الكلام،

On one end we have a conversation style where people do a lot of overlapping, talk at the same time, ||||||||||||||重叠||||| ||||||||||||||talking together||||| ||||||||||||||nakładania się||||| ||||||||||||||sobreposição||||| من جهة لدينا أسلوب محادثة حيث يتشابك الأشخاص كثيراً،

and don't leave much or any silence after the other person has finished speaking. ||||||||||||skończył| و قلة أو إنعدام الصّمت بعد أن ينتهي الشخص الآخر من التحدث.

This is known as high-involvement interactional style. |||||参与|互动的| |||||engagement|communication| |||||zaangażowania|interakcyjny| يُعرف هذا بالأسلوب التفاعلي عالي الإنخراط

On the other end, we have a conversational style where people do not overlap, and leave space after someone else is finished before beginning their turn. |||||||turn-taking|||||||||||||||||| |||||||konwersacyjnym|||||||||||||||||| من جهة أخرى،

This is known as high-considerateness interactional style. |||||高体贴性|| |||||thoughtfulness|| |||||troskliwości|| |||||consideração|| يعرف هذا بالأسلوب التفاعلي عالي المراعاة.

You might tend to be more high-involvement and have a friend who is high-considerateness and it makes you feel like you're doing all the conversational heavy-lifting. ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||wysiłku قد تميل إلى أن تكون أكثر انخراطاً

If you tend towards high-considerateness, you might feel like your friend doesn't let you get a word in edgewise. |||||||||||||||||||插嘴 |||||||||||||||||||in edgewise |||||||||||||||||||ni una palabra |||||||||||||||||||uma palavra |||||||||||||||||||wtrącić się إذا كنت تميل إلى أسلوب المراعاة،

There are some general trends in different areas, too. ||||tendencje|||| هنالك ميولات عامة في مناطق مختلفة، أيضاً.

Speakers of Tzeltal and Japanese tend to have more overlap than speakers of Lao and Danish. ||齐尔塔尔|||||||||||老挝||丹麦语 ||Tzeltal speakers|||||||||||Lao language||Danish language |||||||||||||laotańskiego|| ||tzeltal|||||||sobreposição|||||| يميلُ متحدثوا لغة التسيلتال و اليابانية إلى التّشابك أكثر Sprekers van Tzeltal en Japans hebben over het algemeen meer overlap dan sprekers van Lao en Deens.

Even within American English, New Yorkers tend to be more high-involvement and Californians tend to be more high-considerateness. |||||||||||||||||||体贴 |||||New Yorkers||||||||Californians|||||| |||||Nowojorczycy|||||||||||||| حتى في لغة إنجليزية الأمريكية،

These differences are measured in just milliseconds, which shows how sensitive humans can be to turn-taking differences — and to all the other little pragmatic nuances that make up politeness. ||||||毫秒||||||||||||||||||务实的|细微差别|||| ||||||||||||||||||||||||socially relevant|subtle variations|||| |||||||||||||||||||||||||matices sutiles|||| |||mierzone|||milisekund||||||||||||||||||pragmatycznych||||| يتم قياس هذه الاختلافات في أجزاء من الثانية فقط،

Thanks, Thought Bubble. شكراً، فقاعة الأفكار.

I appreciate it. أُقدّر ذلك.

So, when we look at how people use language in conversation, لذلك، لمّا ننظر إلى كيفية إستعمال الّناس للّغة في محادثات،

we see that it's less like one person baking-in all the meaning they want to convey in their words and handing it over to another person, |||||||||在||||||||||||||||| |||||||||in||||||||||||||||| ||||||||||||||||przekazać|||||przekazując||||| ||||||||||||||||transmitir|||||||||| سترى أن أمر لا يقتصر على شخص واحد

and more like we're using context to bake a cake as a team. |||||||upiec||||| بل يقتصر الأمر على إستعمال سياق الكلام

And just like everyone has their own way of making a carrot cake, |||||||||||胡萝卜| |||||||||||marchewka|

the individual conversation styles and cultural norms mean each conversation or interaction can turn out a little bit differently. |||stylów||||||||||||||| أساليب المحادثة الفردية

Next time on Crash Course Linguistics, we'll look specifically at how your social reality affects your linguistic choices. |||||||||||||||||wybory

Thanks for watching this episode of Crash Course Linguistics. شكرًا على مشاهدة هذه الحلقة من سلسلة اللّغويات لقناة "كراش كورس".

If you want to help keep all Crash Coursefree for everybody, forever, you can join our community on Patreon. ||||||||||||||||||Patreon إذا أردت أن تساعد في الحفاظ على مجانية فيديوهاتنا، للأبد،