Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1998. Vol. 2. Eger Journal of English Studies.(Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 26)

Studies - Ágnes Deli: Cognition and politeness

such it works as an external force coming from the speaker and operating on the addressee. When asking a question, the speaker, the source of the compellation, is in the domain of 'NOT KNOWING', whereas the addressee is supposed to be in the domain of 'KNOWING'. The speaker's aim is to get into the domain of 'KNOWING', which can be achieved by the removal of a 'blockage', i.e. the lack of knowledge. The removal of the blockage is to be carried out by the addressee. The diagram below stands here to illustrate this process schematically: The process can be interpreted as a metaphorical tour in which the participants co-operate in getting from one cognitive domain into another; the direction usually being from 'NOT KNOWING' or 'BELIEVING' to 'KNOWING' through the domains of shared experience. A question is a blockage in the communication, which can be embodied in a linguistic sign, a word (e.g. a question word), or it can be 'a blockage' of a more abstract kind, a general sense expressed via the whole utterance. In the discourse the blockage is supposed to be moved by the addressee so that the participants end up in the same domain, the addressee's domain. 4. Question Function Realized by Declarative Form Questions - both interrogative or non-interrogative - are of various forms, and the choices made by the speaker in terms of form are determined by various factors. One of these may be the speaker's motivation for politeness. My observation is, that in radio interviews or in talk shows, i.e., the interviewer or the leader of the programme often uses non-interrogative SPEAKER'S ADDRESSE'S DOMAIN • * DOMAIN Figure D 92