CC BY
0
Теоретическая лингвистика
Научная статья УДК 811.1
DOI 10.25205/1818-7935-2024-22-1-5-16
Politeness as a Linguistic Concept in the Croatian and English Languages - a Comparative Analysis
Klara Kolar
People's Friendship University of Russia Moscow, Russian Federation
1042215228@rudn.university / klara.kolar96@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6762-2790
Abstract
Despite Brown and Levinson's original claims that politeness is a universal concept perceived identically in all cultures, it has long been established that different societies perceive this concept differently. A lack of understanding regarding these differences may lead to intercultural conflict and thus research is required, especially in cultures in which such research is scarce, such as that of Croatia. This article focuses on the comparative corpus analysis of both the word politeness in English and its Croatian "counterpart," the word pristojnost, in dictionaries and their use in corpora. Furthermore, it aims to establish how Croatian speakers perceive pristojnost and the quality of pristojnost (or the lack of it) in people. For this purpose, a qualitative and quantitative comparative corpus analysis based on the definitions of the words in question in certain English and Croatian dictionaries, their usage in their respective corpora and their translations in each of the two languages, as well as a small-scale quantitative and qualitative analysis of a questionnaire, completed by Croatian participants, were conducted. On the basis of such a four-step analysis, it has been concluded that both English politeness and Croatian pristojnost have two meanings, one connected to culture/etiquette, and one oriented towards interpersonal relationships; however, pristojnost has another meaning, that of satisfactoriness. It has also been deduced that pristojnost slightly differs from politeness, as it focuses more on interpersonal behaviour and interaction, rather than social norms and etiquette, which the concept of politeness seems primarily to focus on. Understanding these differences is crucial for high quality communication, especially in intercultural and multicultural contexts, e.g. in academic settings. For this reason, research on a larger scale should be carried out to establish how politeness and its equivalents are perceived in various cultural contexts; this article thus serves as a call for research expansion.
Keywords
politeness, concept, Croatian, English, comparative linguistics, cultural differences, semantics
Conflict of Interest
The author declares that there is no conflict of interests.
Acknowledgments
The completion of this research project would not have been possible without the contributions and support of many individuals and organisations, particularly the People's Friendship University of Russia and Novosibirsk State University. I am deeply grateful to all those who have played a role in the success of this project, especially all the reviewers, members of the editorial board and everybody else directly involved in the creation of this article. I would also like to thank my supervisor, Dr Tatiana Viktorovna Larina, for her invaluable input and support, including great ideas, throughout this research process. Her insights and expertise were key in shaping the direction and course of this project, and my postgraduate studies in general.
In addition, I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to all the participants in this study, who generously shared their time, experiences, opinions and insights with us. Their willingness to engage with this research was essential to its success and completion, and I am extremely thankful for their participation.
© Kolar K., 2024
For citation
Kolar K. Politeness as a linguistic concept in the Croatian and english languages - a comparative analysis. Vestnik NSU. Series: Linguistics and Intercultural Communication, 2024, vol. 22, no. 1, pp. 5-16. DOI 10.25205/1818-7935-202422-1-5-16
Сравнительный анализ вежливости как лингвистического понятия в хорватском и английском языках
Клара Колар
Российский университет дружбы народов Москва, Россия
1042215228@rudn.university / klara.kolar96@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6762-2790
Аннотация
Несмотря на первоначальные утверждения Браун и Левинсона о том, что вежливость является универсальным, одинаково воспринимаемым понятием во всех культурах, давно установлено, что разные общества воспринимают это понятие по-разному. Отсутствие понимания этих различий приводит к потенциальному межкультурному конфликту и, таким образом, требует исследований, особенно в культурах, в которых таких исследований мало, например, в хорватской культуре. Эта статья посвящена сравнительному корпусному анализу слова «politeness» в английском языке и его хорватского «аналога» слова «pristojnost» в словарях и их использованию в корпусах. Кроме того, данная статья направлена и на установление того, как носители хорватского языка воспринимают pristojnost и качество pristojnosti (т. е. ее отсутствие) у людей. С этой целью проводится качественный и количественный сравнительный корпусный анализ, основанный на определениях рассматриваемых слов в некоторых английских и хорватских словарях, их использовании в соответствующих корпусах и их переводах на каждый из двух языков, а также мелкомасштабный количественный и качественный анализ анкеты, заполненной хорватскими участниками. На основе такого четырехэтапного анализа был сделан вывод о том, что и английское politeness, и хорватское pristojnost имеют два значения, одно из которых связано с культурой/этикетом, а другое ориентировано на межличностные отношения, тогда как pristojanost имеет другое значение - порядочность. Также был сделан вывод, что pristojnost немного отличается от politeness, поскольку pristojnost больше фокусируется на межличностном поведении и взаимодействии, а не на социальных нормах, стандартах и этикете, на которых концепция politeness, по-видимому, в первую очередь сосредоточена. Понимание этих различий имеет решающее значение для качественного общения, особенно в межкультурном и мультикультурном контексте, например, в академической среде. По этой причине необходимо провести дополнительные исследования в более крупном масштабе, чтобы установить, как вежливость и ее эквиваленты воспринимаются в различных культурных контекстах, и эта статья служит призывом к расширению таких исследований.
Ключевые слова
вежливость, концепт, хорватский язык, английский язык, сравнительное языкознание, культурные различия, семантика
Конфликт интересов
Автор заявляет об отсутствии конфликта интересов.
Благодарности
Завершение данного исследования было бы невозможно без вклада и поддержки многих людей и организаций, в частности Российского университета дружбы народов и Новосибирского государственного университета. Я глубоко благодарна всем, кто сыграл свою роль в успехе данного проекта, особенно всем рецензентам, членам редколлегии и всем остальным участникам в создании и публикации данной статьи в журнале Вестник НГУ Серия: Лингвистика и межкультурная коммуникация.
Я также хотела бы поблагодарить своего научного руководителя, доктора Татьяну Викторовну Ларину за ее неоценимый вклад и поддержку, включая прекрасные идеи, на протяжении всего исследовательского процесса. Ее идеи и опыт сыграли ключевую роль в формировании направления и курса этого проекта и моей аспирантуры в целом.
Кроме того, я хотела бы выразить искреннюю благодарность всем участникам исследования, которые щедро поделились с нами своим временем, опытом, мнениями и идеями. Их готовность участвовать в данном исследовании сыграла важную роль в его успехе и завершении.
Для цитирования
Колар К. Сравнительный анализ вежливости как лингвистического понятия в хорватском и английском языках // Вестник НГУ Серия: Лингвистика и межкультурная коммуникация. 2024. Т. 22, №№ 1. С. 5-16. DOI 10.25205/18187935-2024-22-1-5-16
Introduction
Politeness, as a concept in linguistics, has for the past forty years been discussed from various points of view [Lakoff, 1973; Leech, 1983; Brown and Levinson, 1987; Wierzbicka, 2003; Watts, 1992/2003; Larina, 2009/2015; Locher, 2002/2004 etc.]. Although the pioneers in this field, namely Robin Lakoff [1973], Penelope Brown and Stephen Levinson [1987] and Geoffrey Leech [1983] initially stated that politeness may be viewed as a universal concept, their assertion has over time been disproved. Specifically, it has been concluded that, although the majority of cultures recognise politeness as a phenomenon, how it is understood depends on the culture itself, that is to say on its members and society [Ide, 1989; Larina, 2015; Leech and Larina, 2014; Wierzbicka, 2003; Kharlova, 2014 etc.]. Thus, it can be concluded that what is subsumed under the term politeness in English does not fully correspond with the "equivalents," or "translations," of that word in other languages. The problem is that the notion native speakers of one language have in mind while discussing this term is often not known to multi-lingual persons with a different native language, which can lead to misunderstanding, tension, and even conflict [Larina, 2009; Leech and Larina, 2014; Kolar, 2022 etc.]. This is often the case in countries, such as Croatia, with a lack of research in the field of (linguistic) politeness. The aim of the study, therefore, will be to get an initial insight into the meaning and usage of the word pristojan/pristojnost, in Croatian, and compare it to its English equivalent, polite(ness). This will be done through a qualitative comparative corpus analysis based on the definitions of the words in question in certain English and Croatian dictionaries, their usage in their respective corpora and their translations in each of the two languages, as well as through a quantitative and qualitative analysis of a small-scale pristojnost-related questionnaire, completed by Croatian participants. The thesis in the article is that the words politeness and pristojnost have semantic differences and are not a perfect match, even though Croatian pristojnost is used as a translation of politeness in Croatian and vice versa.
Literary review: defining politeness
For the purpose of better understanding of this article, what is meant by politeness as a socio-linguistic concept will be destermined with the help of Watts' [1992, 2003], Locher's [2002, 2004] and Locher and Watts' [2005] definition. According to their article, Politeness Theory and Relational Work, politeness is a "discursive concept arising out of interactants' perceptions and judgements of their own and others' verbal behaviour" [2005, p. 13]. They further divide this concept into first order politeness (politeness1) and second order politeness (politeness2), in accordance with which politeness1 reflects how people perceive social behaviour and use the word polite(ness), while politeness2 refers to politeness as a theoretical concept with degrees [2005, p. 14-15; Kharlova, 2014, p. 119]. Considering the topic of this research - how pristojnost, the Croatian cultural "equivalent" of politeness, is perceived by Croatian speakers in comparison to how politeness is viewed by Anglophones - the politeness we shall be referring to is politeness1.
Methodology
To get an initial insight into what is considered polite, or pristojan, in Croatian and English, the analysis that will be conducted here will be similar to that conducted by Kharlova [2014]. Thus, firstly, the definitions of the words polite and pristojan, as well as their synonyms, will be collected
from the following dictionaries: Macmillan Dictionary and Thesaurus, Oxford Learner's Dictionary, Merriam-Webster Online: Dictionary and Thesaurus and Thesaurus.com for English, and Skolski rjecnik hrvatskog jezika, Hrvatski jezicni portal, Veliki rjecnik hrvatskog jezika by Vladimir Anic and Kontekst.io for Croatian, upon which they will be compared, analysed and discussed. Secondly, their usage will be studied in the Corpus of Contemporary American English - COCA and the corpus of Croatian language - hrWaC. For the purpose of the analysis, the usage of the word in the first 50 sentences in both corpora will be analysed. Thirdly, their translations will be compared with the help of two prominent bilingual dictionaries in Croatia - the Croatian-English Dictionary and the English-Croatian Dictionary by Zeljko Bujas - and the online English-Croatian/Croatian-English dictionary, Glosbe. Finally, to gain a deeper understanding of what pristojnost means to Croatian people, a questionnaire, which was conducted for the purpose of this article and focused on the perception of pristojnost in Croatian, will be analysed. More details about the questionnaire will be given below.
On the basis of this four-part analysis, we shall compare how each of the two terms is perceived in the analysed languages and thus conclude what politeness and pristojnost mean in both Anglophone and Croatian cultures. It must be noted that while polite is a gender-neutral term in English, the term which will be analysed in Croatian, pristojan, is the masculine form of the adjective, but will be used here universally, as Croatian dictionaries still use masculine adjectival forms as the prototypical forms denoting characteristics of all genders in the Croatian language. It must also be noted that the questionnaire was conducted only with a Croatian audience, as there is significantly less insight in the meaning of the word pristojnost than there is in the word and concept of politeness. With this in mind, we believe more emphasis should be put on Croatian and the perception of pristojnost, with politeness serving primarily as a point of reference, which is also why politeness was studied more generally, rather than from a point of view of various English vernaculars and Anglophone cultures. Finally, it must be emphasised that the questionnaire in this research was purposefully conducted on a relatively small audience, as well as on the basis of a limited amount of data, as it primarily serves as a "trial research", a first look into the topic of pristojnost. Significantly more research, on a larger scale, is needed to establish more detailed results, but we believe the methodology used here allows for a good general overview of the topic, as well as a basis for further study.
Results
To start with the English definitions, the word polite in the MacMillan Dictionary is defined as a characteristic of someone who "behaves towards other people in a pleasant way that follows all the usual rules of society". Furthermore, Merriam-Webster offers five definitions of this word: "of, relating to, or having the characteristics of advanced culture; marked by refined cultural interests and pursuits especially in arts and belles lettres; showing or characterized by correct social usage; marked by an appearance of consideration, tact, deference, or courtesy; marked by a lack of roughness or crudities". Finally, interestingly, Oxford Learner's Dictionary offers three definitions. According to it, the term polite can be interpreted in the three following ways: "having or showing good manners and respect for the feelings of others," "socially correct but not always sincere," and "from a class of society that believes it is better than others." Among the synonyms for the word polite in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary are the terms "civil, courteous, genteel, gracious, mannerly, well-bred," whereas in the Thesaurus.com database one can find such words as "mannerly, civilized, affable, amiable, attentive, civil, conciliatory, considerate, cordial, courteous, courtly, deferential, diplomatic" and so on.
In the above-mentioned Croatian dictionaries meanwhile, there are several definitions of the word pristojan. Thus, in the Skolski rjecnik hrvatskog jezika, pristojan describes someone/something that, firstly, knows how to act in a well-mannered way, respects common rules of behaviour and is civil (or
refers to someone who knows how to do so / act in such a way), and/or is of a satisfactory quality or quantity; is decent. In Hrvatski jezicni portal and Veliki rjecnik hrvatskog jezika, the definitions are quite similar: polite means respecting societal rules, rules of politeness and rules of civility, but also something of a satisfactory quality, confirming that the word pristojan in Croatian has two distinct, very different meanings. Pristojnost also has a specific definition in the Hrvatski jezicni portal, being defined as the totality of behavioural rules and rules of direct acting accepted in a society. In Kontekst. io, the thesaurus of synonyms and antonyms for the Croatian, Serbian and Slovene languages, the most common synonyms of the wordpristojan in Croatian are "uljudan, uljuden, civiliziran, obziran, skroman, obazriv," which may be translated as civil, civilised, thoughtful, humble and considerate.
When it comes to the usage of these words in their respective national corpora, starting with the word polite in COCA, all of the 50 analysed sentences refer to politeness as a human characteristic of following societal norms, acting pleasantly towards someone directly or following etiquette. In most cases, due to a lack of greater context, these meanings cannot be separated, and often they are mixed, which may be seen from the following sentences:
1. Girls like men that don't behave rudely to people and are also polite.
2. Either the dishes are all really good or everyone is being polite, because no withering criticism is uttered.
On the other hand, when it comes to the use of the word pristojan in the Croatian language corpus, out of the 50 analysed sentences, the meaning which reflects the "primary" meaning of the word - its usage in the context of denoting someone/something acting in accordance with societal rules and norms and/or acting nicely towards others - is used in 23 sentences. This usage may be seen in the following sentences:
3. Moj prvi dojam o Suzani bio je da je vrlo pristojna i poprilicno ukocena. Sjela je na stolac cvrsto drzeci u rukama svoju torbu ipromatrajuci mepomalo iskosa...
My first impression of Suzana was that of a very polite and rather stiff person. She sat onto a chair, clutching her purse tightly and looking at me slightly askance...
4. Nezadovoljni kandidat o rezultatu moze na pristojan nacin porazgovarati s instruktorom i ispitivacem.
The candidate, if dissatisfied, can discuss the result in a polite manner with the instructor and the examiner.
As in COCA s examples, the two meanings in these sentences are mixed. However, more than half of the sentences analysed (27 of them) refer to the "secondary" meaning of the word, carrying the notion of satisfactoriness, as is the case with the following sentences:
5. Unutrasnjost (auta) obiluje i pristojnom kolicinom pretinaca za odlaganje sitnica, sto je uvijek korisno.
The interior (of the car) has a decent amount of compartments for storing miscellaneous items, which is always useful.
When it comes to the translations of these words in English-Croatian/Croatian-English dictionaries, Glosbe translates the word polite as "uljudan, pristojan, uctiv, ugladen, klasican, odgojen," all of which point to the primary meaning of the word in English: using one's manners and ability to follow social norms and etiquette. Bujas's repertoire appears similar, as the same word is translated as "uljudan, fin, ugladen, pristojan" in Croatian, all of which again focus on an individual's ability to adhere to societal rules, as the definitions of the word suggest. On the other hand, the most common translations of pristojan in Glosbe seem to be "decent, polite, proper," whereas the less common translations include words such as "gentle, seemly, decorous, becoming, modest, civil, apposite, well-behaved, respectful, courteous, affable, urbane, bland, civilized, well-mannered, well-spoken, nice, neat," which seems to correspond to both meanings of the word in Croatian. In Bujas's
English-Croatian Dictionary, pristojan is translated with a similar range of words, including: "polite, civil, courteous, good-mannered, appropriate, proper, becoming, fitting, respectable, genteel, decent, fair, acceptable, handsome, goodly, reasonable," which serves to prove the same point.
To gain a better insight into the perception of pristojnost by Croatians and its usage in real life, a small-scale questionnaire focusing on peoples' view on pristojnost was implemented and later analysed and assessed.
The questionnaire was created via Google Forms and shared on social media. Apart from requests for statistical information (focusing on participants' gender, age, mother tongue, nationality, birthplace and residence, and education level), the questionnaire contained four questions:
1. U nekoliko rijeci/recenica opisite sto za vas predstavlja rijec pristojnost, na nacin:
Pristojnost je...
In a few words/sentences describe what the word pristojnost (politeness) means to you, in
the form of: Politeness is...
2. U nekoliko rijeci/recenica opisite sto su za vas karakteristike pristojne osobe, na nacin:
Pristojna osoba je...
In a few words/sentences describe what characteristics you believe a polite person has, in the
form of: A polite person is...
3. Navedite primjerponasanja koje/koja smatrate pristojnim.
Give an example of behaviour you consider to be polite.
4. Navedite primjer ponasanja koje/koja smatrate nepristojnim.
Give an example of behaviour you consider to be impolite.
These questions formed the main part of the questionnaire. The questionnaire was filled out by 53 participants, of whom 69.8 % were female and 30.2 % were male. The participants' ages ranged from 17 to 62, with an average of 27 years. All participants' mother tongue was Croatian, as was their nationality. All participants were born and live in Croatia. As for their education, 70.6 % of participants have finished graduate studies, 11.3 % have finished undergraduate studies and the remaining 17.6 % have a high school diploma.
When it comes to the first question, focusing on what pristojnost means to people, the answers can be divided into six categories, as follows: pristojnost is a form of respect, pristojnost is a result/ reflection of (good) upbringing, pristojnost is (a result of) culture, pristojnost is positive behaviour towards others, and pristojnost is respecting social norms and etiquette, plus several answers in which pristojnost was characterised as a specific deed/action (focused on showing positive behaviour towards others, such as not interrupting them when they are speaking, saying hello, thank you and so on). Their distribution can be seen below (fig. 1).
Вежливость - это
■ форма уважения
5,7
■ результат/отражение (хорошего) воспитания
■ результат культуры
■ позитивное отношение к другим
■ уважение этикета
Fig. 1. Definition of politeness (pristojnost)
Some participants opted for several answers, but, as can be deduced, for Croatians, pristojnost is most commonly an inner quality focused on good behaviour towards others (37.7 %) or a learned, socially accepted and taught quality focused on certain rules of Croatian culture (32.1 %). This signifies that, in Croatia, showing other people that you care about them is the most important form of pristojnost, while following societal rules and norms is of secondary importance, which slightly differs from the view on politeness in the English-speaking world. It must be noted that the secondary meaning of pristojnost, that of satisfactoriness, was not mentioned by any of the participants in the questionnaire.
When defining what a polite person (pristojna osoba) is to the average Croat, which was the focus of the second question, the answers can be divided into several categories, as can be seen in the fig. 2.
■ культурен и соблюдает этикет
■ хороший и отзывчивый
■ другое
■ не настойчивый
■ уважает других
■ не использует вульгарную и оскорбительную лексику
■ терпелив и спокоен
■ помогает другим
■ уважает различия
■ не перебивает других, когда они говорят
■ хорошо образован
■ приятно относиться к другим
■ здоровается с другими
■ всегда улыбается
Fig. 2. Definition of a polite person (pristojna osoba)
As can be deduced, the most common characteristics of a pristojna osoba, according to Croatian speakers, include: being cultured and civilised as well as following etiquette (21.05 %), being empathetic and in general good towards others (15.79 %) and not being pushy and showy when in contact with others (9.65 %). Out of the other categories, the majority (respect towards others, patience and calmness, the willingness to help others, respect towards interpersonal differences, not interrupting others, and the ability to hold pleasant communication), again, are focused on peoples' behaviour towards other people, rather than on etiquette. Even in the category labelled "other," the ideas that were expressed primarily referred to pristojnost as a way of treating / acting towards other people (being open, realistic, positive, honest, assertive and so on). This, again, slightly differs from the dictionary definitions of pristojnost, in which etiquette and good behaviour towards others are equally important in the understanding of the word in Croatian. Thus, it is again confirmed that, while etiquette and culture are important for the understanding of pristojnost in Croatia, how a person treats others seems to be much more important in this regard.
When defining what, exactly, constitutes behaviour typical of a polite person, the results of the question focusing on this topic broadly correspond to the results of the previous two questions, which can be observed below (fig. 3).
Вежливый человек...
Вежливое поведение - это
2.13
■ здороваться с другими
■ относиться к пожилым людям с уважением
■ другое
■ приятно общаться
■ использовать «четыре волшебных слова»
■ помогать другим людям
■ слушать и не перебивать других
■ терпеливо ожидать своей очереди
■ уважать других
■ уступить свое место другим людям
■ одеваться соответствующим образом
■ использование правил поведения за столом
Fig. 3. Definition of polite behaviour (pristojno ponasanje)
The participants answered this question, providing 94 examples of polite behaviour. Again, while respecting etiquette (expressed by categories, such as using the "four magic words" (thank you, you're welcome, please and sorry) (10.64 %), dressing appropriately (3.18 %), and using table manners (2.13 %) is quite important, treating others well and giving them attention seems to be much more important to an average Croat or speaker of Croatian in the context of defining a type of behaviour as pristojno. This especially refers to treating the elderly, and in general people older than ourselves, with respect (15.96 %). How important positive people-oriented behaviour is for Croats when defining pristojnost can be seen in categories in which behaviour, described as pristojno, includes helping others, respecting others and giving up your seat in public transport/spaces to others, which subsumes over 15 % of answers in the questionnaire. Furthermore, it seems that being a good communicator is particularly important in this regard, as greeting people, being pleasant to talk with and not interrupting others while they are speaking were things mentioned in over a third of the responses in this questionnaire (over 35 %). As for the category with answers not belonging to any of the other categories, the majority of them refer to behaviours which include respecting other people (their time, privacy and workspace) and treating them nicely (opening doors for them, smiling at them, not talking deprecatingly about them and so on), which once again indicates that, in Croatia, pristojnost is seen primarily through the prism of peoples' behaviour towards others, and secondarily through the lens of culture and civilisation.
The last question, which required participants to give examples of impolite (nepristojno) behaviour, was the most diverse with regard to answers provided, as can be seen in the fig. 4.
Out of the 92 examples, almost a quarter (21.74 %) consisted of answers that cannot be categorised, as they only appeared once. These included eye rolling, nose picking, walking naked in public, breaking wind, gossiping, arrogance, rudeness, loud chewing, lying, being pushy, throwing trash on the floor, not using the "magic words," and disobedience. As can be deduced, these are mostly focused on behaviour in public, etiquette and "taboo behaviour," whereas the answers related to our behaviour towards other people come in second place. This differs from the results of the previous three questions, in which the most common answer category was the one in which pristojnost is primarily connected to our behaviour towards other people. Nevertheless, answers from almost all
Невежливое поведение - это
« « «
■ ругань
■ оскорбление других
■ действовать агрессивно
неуважительное отношение к пожилым людям
■ плевать в общественном месте
■ осуждение других
■ игнорирование или грубое реагирование на других
■ перебивать других, когда они говорят
■ кричать на окружающих
■ вызывть беспорядки в общественных местах
■ другое
Fig. 4. Definition of impolite behaviour (nepristojno ponasanje)
the other categories included nepristojnost in the sense of negative behaviour aimed at other people (swearing, insulting, yelling at, deprecating, ignoring, interrupting and acting aggressively towards others). This means that, in over half of the answers (51.09 %), for the questionnaire respondents, the idea of both pristojnost and nepristojnost is connected primarily to how we treat other people, and then secondarily to etiquette, or how we act regarding our surroundings.
First and foremost, it must be once again emphasised that the questionnaire-related part of this research is conducted on a rather small scale. The results in it are innovative, as they provide new information with regards to a topic that has not been studied yet, and insightful, but cannot be seen as conclusive and complete - to get such results, significantly more research is to be carried out (on a larger scale). Furthermore, additional research should be conducted with people of more diverse (education) backgrounds, as the majority of questionnaire participants happened to hold a university degree, and as such research would enable a broader insight into the perception of pristojnost. Therefore, the results and conclusions presented in this article should be taken cum grano salis and as a basis for further research.
Having said that, on the basis of this analysis, we may draw three main conclusions. The first is that dictionary definitions of both politeness and pristojnost refer to culture/etiquette on the one hand and (positive) behaviour towards others on the other, which is confirmed by the comparison of dictionary definitions of the words politeness and pristojnost and their use in corpora.
In English, polite behaviour in this sense primarily refers to behaviour fitting the rules of society, and often even to one's position within a culture. What these rules encompass in English and how they are to be followed, however, is (partly) explained only in one definition by Merriam-Webster, in which one can see it subsumes "consideration, tact, deference, or courtesy; marked by a lack of roughness or crudities." However, further "explanation" may be seen in the synonyms of the word in Thesaurus.com. Based on these definitions, we can see that the concept of politeness primarily refers to how one acts, rather than how one treats others, as amiability, cordiality, attentiveness and consideration - all of which can primarily be seen in relation to others - seem to have secondary
Discussion
importance within its frames. In fact, definitions in the Oxford Learner's Dictionary point to the fact that politeness does not necessarily come "from one's heart" or denote one's respect towards others, but rather displays one's understanding of rules others follow.
In Croatian, meanwhile, we can come to a (preliminary) conclusion that the quality ofpristojnost also primarily refers to one's ability to follow societal rules and act pleasantly, with civility and thought towards others. However, we find that there is a third meaning to the word, which does not correspond with the meaning of polite in English and would be closer to the meaning of the English words decent or satisfactory - which is also the second conclusion in this analysis. In Croatian, therefore, the factor of society and acting well in general, rather than towards others, in the context of pristojnost, seems to have equal importance. However, unlike in English, there is also a completely different meaning of the word pristojan, which seems to be used even more often than its "primary" meaning in the corpora. This displays how differently the concepts of politeness and pristojnost are viewed in these two languages, even though they are often used synonymously.
Finally, by conducting a questionnaire among Croatian participants, we arrive at a third conclusion, according to which for Croatian people, pristojnost is primarily connected to interpersonal behaviour, and not etiquette. Although the different dictionary definitions, as well as their usage in corpora, suggest equal frequency - corresponding to the meaning of politeness - the questionnaire findings somewhat disproved this idea. Here, in all four questions, the definitions of pristojnost, characteristics of a pristojna osoba and examples of pristojno and nepristojno behaviour that were given by the respondents all primarily referred to good behaviour towards others, rather than etiquette. This is not to say that culture, etiquette, education and civilised behaviour are not important for the understanding of pristojnost, as they were still mentioned in at least 30 % of answers in all four questions. Nevertheless, they were mentioned at least slightly less than the interpersonal-behaviour-related meaning of the concept. What must also be emphasised is that behaviour that Croatians especially respect, which is not mentioned in the definitions of pristojnost, includes good behaviour towards the elderly and older people. This meaning cannot be deduced from the usage of the words pristojnost/pristojan in the dictionary and corpora but seems to have an especial significance to the mental image of these concepts in the Croatian mind. Another interesting characteristic of pristojnost and (ne)pristojno behaviour is that in many responses it refers primarily to communication, which might also emphasise the importance of close(ness and) interpersonal relationships in Croatian culture. It must be noted that, counter to the dictionary and corpus definitions of pristojnost, which attest that there is a tertiary meaning of this word in Croatian, the respondents did not mention this meaning in any way. While this may seem unusual, an explanation could be that the respondents were probably aware of the context in which the wordpristojno(st) was used in this questionnaire. In other words, while pristojno may mean decent, we cannot use the word pristojno in this sense in relation to people, but, as was mentioned earlier, regarding concepts, such as life, salary, clothes and so on. Thus, this does not disprove the conclusion from the dictionary and corpus analysis, but rather shows that this particular meaning of the word bears tertiary importance.
In addition to all of this, it must be added that the differences in the analysed terms are not only a reflection of linguistics or politeness/pristojnost as concepts per se, but rather of the differences in the context of history and political state in Anglophone countries, such as the US and UK, and Croatia, respectively. As history and politics are not the topic of this research, this will not be discussed in greater detail, but it is worth mentioning how much they have impacted our mental images and language.
Conclusion
The aim of this study was to compare the English word politeness and its Croatian "equivalent," the word pristojnost, to establish the differences and similarities between them. For this purpose, a comparative qualitative and quantitative analysis of different materials, including various English and
Croatian dictionaries, COCA and the Croatian national corpus, as well as the results of a questionnaire, was conducted. On the basis of dictionary and corpora analysis, it has been established that both politeness and pristojnost have two meanings, one connected to etiquette and one oriented towards interpersonal relationships, but pristojnost has another meaning, that of satisfactoriness. On the basis of the questionnaire analysis, it may also be concluded that Croatian people view politeness primarily in the sense of positive behaviour towards others, and secondarily as a way of enforcing etiquette, which seems to slightly differ from the meaning of politeness. While this research has shed some light on the perception of pristojnost in Croatia, more research should be done in this regard on a significantly larger scale, with a more versatile audience, especially in the context of education. Furthermore, research focused on nepristojnost and impoliteness would also make a great addition, as the notion of politeness/pristojnost cannot be fully understood without them. Thus, with this article, we call for more research on the topic, so as to create a fuller image of politeness/pristojnost. In addition to that, as previously mentioned, the idea of pristojnost in Croatia is severely under-researched, meaning that non-native speakers of Croatian, and even young Croatians, often do not know how to act in accordance with standards, as they do not know what standards are and what, in general, is meant by pristojnost. This is especially problematic in the academic community in Croatia, considering that academic mobility has become popular, leading to a great influx of foreign speakers into Croatian academia. This article, therefore, serves as a call for more research in the field, as well as a contribution to an on-going research by Kolar [2021, 2022], focusing on politeness in teacher-student email communication in the university context, which will, hopefully, cast further light on the understanding of pristojnost in Croatia and lead to less intercultural conflict and more comfortable social scenarios.
References
Anic, V. Veliki rjecnik hrvatskog jezika (The Great Dictionary of the Croatian Language). Zagreb: Novi liber, 2009, 1881 p.
Brown, P., Levinson, S. Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1987, 345 p. Bujas, Z. Veliki englesko-hrvatski rjecnik, cetvrto izdanje (English-Croatian Dictionary, Fourth
Edition). Zagreb: Nakladni zavod Globus, 2011, 1920 p. Bujas, Z. Veliki hrvatsko-engleski rjecnik, cetvrto izdanje (Croatian-English Dictionary, Fourth
Edition). Zagreb: Nakladni zavod Globus, 2011, 1691 p. COCA - Corpus of Contemporary American English. URL: https://www.english-corpora.org/coca Glosbe Online Dictionary. URL: https://www.glosbe.com
Hrvatski jezicni portal [Croatian Language Portal]. URL: https://www.hjp.znanje.hr HrWaC - Croatian Web Corpus. URL: https://www.clarin.si/noske/all.cgi/first_form?corpna-me=hrwac;align=
Ide, S. Formal forms and discernment: Two neglected aspects of linguistic politeness // Multilingua, 1989. № 8. P. 223-248.
Kharlova M. L. Konceptualizatsiya nevezhlivosti v russkom i angliyskom yazikah (The Conceptualisation of Impoliteness in Russian and English) // Russian Journal of Linguistics, 2014. № 4. P. 119-131. DOI: 10.22363/2687-0088-9387 (accessed on: 4/5/2022). Kolar, K. Politeness Strategies in Croatian University Student-Teacher Email Communication. // Word, Utterance, Text: Cognitive, Pragmatic and Cultural Aspects - 11th international conference. 2022. Vol. 2. P. 72-76. doi: 10.47475/9785727118054_76 (accessed on: 4/5/2022). Kontekst Thesaurus. URL: https://www.kontekst.io/hrvatski
Lakoff, R. Language and woman's place // Language in Society, 1973. Vol. 2. № 1. P. 45-79. Larina, T. Katergoriya vezhlivosti y stil' kommunikaciyi: sopostavleniye angliyskih y russkih lingvokul'turnih tradiciy (Politeness and communicative styles: comparative analysis of English and Russian language and culture traditions). Moscow : Jazyki slavianskih kul'tur, 2009, 512 p.
Larina, T. Culture-Specific Communicative Styles as a Framework for Interpreting Linguistic and Cultural Idiosyncrasies // International Review of Pragmatics, 2015. № 7. P. 195-215. DOI: 10.1163/18773109-00702003 (accessed on: 1/10/2022). Leech, G. Principles of Pragmatics. London and New York: Longman, 1983, 264 p. Leech, G., Larina T. Politeness: West and East // Russian Journal of Linguistics, 2014. № 4. P. 9-34.
DOI: 10.22363/2687-0088-9380 (accessed on: 12/28/2021). Locher, M. Markedness in politeness research. // Sociolinguistics Symposium 14 (SS14). 2002. Ghent, Belgium.
Locher, M. Power and Politeness in Action: Disagreements in Oral Communication. Berlin/New
York: Mouton de Gruyter, 2004, 385 p. Locher M., Watts R. Politeness theory and relational work // Journal of Politeness Research 1, 2005. P. 9-33.
Macmillan Dictionary and Thesaurus. URL: http://www.macmillandictionary.com Merriam-Webster Online: Dictionary and Thesaurus. URL: http://www.merriam-webster.com. Oxford Learner's Dictionary. URL: https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com. Skolski rjecnik hrvatskog jezika [School Dictionary of the Croatian Language]. URL: https://www. rjecnik.hr/
Thesaurus. URL: https://www.thesaurus.com.
Watts, R. Linguistic politeness and politic verbal behavior: Reconsidering claims for universality // Politeness in Language: Studies in its History, Theory and Practice ed. by Richard J. Watts, Sachiko Ide, and Konrad Ehlich. P. 43-69. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 1992. Watts, R. Politeness. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003, 326 p.
Wierzbicka, A. Cross-Cultural Pragmatics: The Semantics of Human Interaction. Berlin/New York: De Gruyter Mouton, 2003, 541 p.
Information about the Author
Klara Kolar, Postgraduate student of Linguistics, Faculty of Philology, People's Friendship University of Russia, Moscow, Russian Federation
Информация об авторе
Колар Клара, аспирант Российского университета дружбы народов
Статья поступила в редакцию 20.06.2023; одобрена после рецензирования 17.09.2023; принята к публикации 17.01.2024
The article was submitted 20.06.2023; approved after reviewing 17.09.2023; accepted for publication 17.01.2024
