Universitatea 1 Decembrie 1918, Alba Iulia

Facultatea de istorie i Filologie

Masterat
Limba i Comunicare n administrarea Afacerilor
(limba englez)

Paperwork for Pragmatics

Second semmester

Masterand:
Molnar Emese

2009
 This is a text from the play All my Sons by Arthur Miller:
FRANK: Thats what Im working on to find out. It takes time! See, the point is, if November
twenty-fifth was his favourable day, then its completely possible hes alive somewhere, because
I mean its possible. [He notices JIM now. JIM is looking at him as though at an idiot. To JIM
with uncertain laugh] I didnt even see you.
KELLER [to JIM]: Is he talkin sense?
JIM: Him? Hes all right. Hes just completely out of his mind, thats all.
FRANK [peeved]: The trouble with you is, that you dont believe in anything.
JIM: And your trouble is that you believe in anything. You didnt see my kid this morning, did
you?
FRANK: No.
KELLER: Imagine? He walked off with his thermometer. Right out of his bag.
JIM [getting up]: What a problem. One look at a girl and he takes his temperature. [Goes to
driveway, looks upstage towards street.]
FRANK: That boys going to be a real doctor; hes smart.
JIM: Over my dead body hell be a doctor. A good beginning, too.
FRANK: Why? Its an honourable profession.
JIM [looking at him tiredly]: Frank will you stop talking like a civics book? [KELLER laughs]
FRANK: Why, I saw a movie a couple of weeks ago, reminded me of you. There was a doctor in
that picture
KELLER: Don Ameche!
FRANK: I think it was, yeah. And he worked in his basement discovering things. Thats what
you ought to do; you could help humanity, instead of
JIM: I would love to help humanity on a Warner Brothers salary.
KELLER [pointing at him, laughing]: Thats very good, Jim.
JIM [looking towards house]: Well, wheres the beautiful girl was supposed to be here?
FRANK [excited]: Annie came?
KELLER: Sure, sleepin upstairs. We picked her up on the one oclock train last night.
Wonderful thing. Girl leaves here, a scrawny kid. Couple of years go by, shes a regular woman.
Hardly recognized her, and she was running in and out of this yard all her life. That was a very
happy family used to live in your house, Jim.
JIM: Like to meet her. The block can use a pretty girl. In the whole neighbouhood theres not a
damned thing to look at. [Sue, Jims wife, enters. She is rounding forty, an overweight woman
who fears it. On seeing her Jim wryly adds] Except my wife, of course.
SUE [in same spirit]: Mrs. Adams is on the phone, you dog.
JIM [to KELLER]: Such is the condition which prevails [going to his wife] my love, my light.
SUE: Dont sniff around me. [Pointing to their house] And give her a nasty answer. A can smell
her perfume over the phone.
JIM: Whats the matter with her now?
SUE: I dont know, dear. She sounds like shes in terrible pain unless her mouth is full of
candy.
JIM: Why dont you just tell her to lay down?
SUE: she enjoys it more when you tell her to lay down. And when are you going to see Mr.
Hubbard?
JIM: My dear; Mr. Hubbard is not sick, and I have better things to do than to sit there and hold
his hand.
SUE: It seems to me that for ten dollars you could hold his hand.
 The text from the page above is an extract from a play of Arthur Miller called
All My Sons. In this part of the play some of the characters are arguing and
talking about different things. All the characters know each other so they are some
sort of friends, more exactly they are neighbours. From their conversation it turns
out how they respect each other or not. Politeness is present in their conversation
but in a quite interesting way. The politeness principles which are a series of
maxims proposed by Geoff Leech are a way of explaining how politeness operates
in conversational exchanges. Further on we will try to point out those parts of the
conversation where the politeness is present in a way or other. In Geoff Leechs
view politeness is a form of behavior that establish and maintain comity and
the ability of participants in a social interaction to engage in interaction in an
atmosphere of relative harmony.
At the beginning of the text Frank and Jim are having a kind of argue in what
concerns their beliefs. Frank tells Jim that he does not believe in anything and
Jim replies that Franks problem is that he believes in anything. In certain points
of view this kind of conversation suffers of lack of politeness. The two characters
do not act politely in front of each other. They both are trying to prove the other
one that it is not right in what the other believes. Even more, before this argue to
start Jim says out loud that he considers Frank completely out of his mind.
Considering someone that he is out of his mind it is a major act of impoliteness.
Further on there is a conversation between Jim and his wife, Sue. Sue is an
overweight woman who fears her husband. Jim is a doctor so he has a lot to do
with different people. When Sue enters the scene she has come to announce Jim
that one of his patients in on the phone. She calls him you dog. This way of
calling a person might ask for a similar answer but Frank calls his wife my love,
my light. Continuing, Sue says Dont sniff around me. And Give her a nasty
answer. From the last sentence the reader has to understand that Sue is ordering
her husband to talk impolite to one of his patient, which is a woman, so that Sue
can stay relaxed that they will not be bothered anymore by the calls of women
patients. On the other hand, Jim is advised by Sue to visit another patient, which
turns out not to be ill, but Sue is convinced that if money comes out of this Jim
could pay a visit to this patient for ten dollars you could hold his hand. This is
Sues opinion but only in the case of male patients.
In conclusion, this text is an example of conversation that suffers of lack of
politeness. All the characters are impolite to each other, only this Jim is the one
that is trying to act politely with his wife even if she is challenging him sometimes.
In a conversation is important to be politeness because if not the participants to the
dialogue could easily in conflict with each other. This is valid for all kind of
discussions, dialogues; it does not matter if they are formal or informal but in case
of a formal speech politeness is a must have.