Topic 12 - Meaning between the lines (Session B) >Top Girls revisited - with politeness in mind > Task D

Top Girls revisited - with politeness in mind

Task D – Our answer

This question is clearly a bit sensitive. Win is effectively trying to find out the reason for Louise wanting to change jobs, and as personal issues might be involved, the chances of there being some threat to Louise’s face (positive and negative) is quite high. And she has already accidentally stepped on Louise’s toes, of course.

As a consequence Win involves uses a number of linguistic mitigation strategies in this turn. ‘Between our selves’ is an attempt to lower the threat by indicating that Louise’s answer will remain confidential between the two women. ‘Any trouble, any reason’ involves a reformulation, the reformulation being vaguer than the first attempt. Win’s reference here is in the form of a Noun Phrase, and this helpfully does not have to suggest who caused the trouble. Finally ‘reason . . . that wouldn’t appear on the form’ downtones the extent of the trouble by suggesting that Louise has not declared the issue for reasons of bureaucratic propriety. Win is clearly ‘minding her ps and qs’ at this point in the conversation.

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