Sprache, Höflichkeit und Sprachkritik

In the organizer's words:

Politeness has been a major topic in linguistics for a number of years - as well as in society, which is often diagnosed as being brutalized these days. According to current concepts in linguistics, politeness goes beyond simple formulas ("please", "thank you", "excuse me") and becomes a comprehensive basic linguistic strategy that people use to regulate their relationships with one another. As a result, rudeness also lurks in many places, not only in the case of obvious insults. From this perspective, communication always runs the risk of creating conflict. As soon as someone speaks to someone else, there is the possibility that they are carrying out so-called 'face-threatening acts'. The concept of face-threatening acts can be used to explain some of the central debates in our society, such as why the demands of 'political correctness' or the proposals for gendering are just as vehemently advocated as they provoke resistance elsewhere.

Dr. Christian Schütte's lecture examines the connection between language use and language criticism from the perspective of politeness and discusses, among other things, the question of whether it is perhaps simply polite to use gender - or whether it is impolite to try to force people to change their language use.

You can also find more information about the event series and booking at: https://www.uni-leipzig.de/transfer/wissen-vermitteln/seniorenakademie/kolleg