VERBALIZATION OF POLITENESS IN MODERN ENGLISH

INTRODUCTION The ability of human beings to talk – to use language in order to communicate with each other – is so universal and seems so natural that most of us do not think much about it. We take it for granted that it is normal for human beings to talk, the same as to eat, sleep or walk. Though it is true that every normal human being is able to use language, it is misleading to compare this with his/her ability to eat, sleep, or walk. All of these abilities are passed on to us by genetic transmission: we inherit them from our parents, but in the case of language it is only the ability to talk and understand that is inherited genetically. The language or languages we speak are passed on to us by cultural transmission, i.e. a language is something that we learn and are taught, not something that we know by instinct. By the statement that language is culturally transmitted we mean that it is part of the whole complex and shared behaviour which is called culture. The latter includes a shared background (for example, national, ethnic, religious) resulting from a common language and communication style, customs, beliefs, attitudes, and values 1 . Culture, unlike language, is not composed of fixed rules that apply to all members of one culture. In its broad sense, culture has two major aspects: the history of civilization and a sociological component by which we mean the attitudes, customs, traditions, daily activities of people, their ways of thinking, their values, etc. Moreover, cultural patterns, customs and ways of life are generally reflected in the language because language and culture are mutually interdependent and mutually influential. Furthermore, without a strong power – base, whether political, military or economic, no language can make progress as an international medium of communication. Language has no independent existence, living in some