O UČTIVOSTI U PERZIJSKOM, JAPANSKOM, KOREJSKOM, FRANCUSKOM I BOSANSKOM JEZIKU / ON POLITENESS IN PERSIAN, JAPANESE, KOREAN, FRENCH AND BOSNIAN

Abstract

All languages of the world have a category of politeness that makes an integral part of everyday interactions; it is present in language, good manners, behaviour, characterizing both verbal and nonverbal communication. If we compare linguis tic forms of politeness in languages, we can see that they vary between languages and are culturally and socially conditioned. We start from a hypothesis, similar to the Sapir-Whorf’s theory of linguistic relativity, that, although the phenome non of politeness is universal, there are languages whose structure allows easier expression of politeness. The richer the politeness repertoire in a language, the easier it is to express it linguistically in that language. Examples of such languages are Persian, Japanese and Korean. Of course, this does not mean that there are no forms of politeness in other languages, and therefore we have chosen French and Bosnian as examples. After a short theoretical introduction on the concept of po liteness in language(s), this paper primarily deals with illustrations of expressing politeness in these languages.