Distance and closeness: The im/politeness of space in communication

Space has been integral to the way that im/politeness has been theorized, most notably in the concept of “social distance” (Brown and Levinson 1987) and also Arundale’s (2006) “connection/separation face” dialectic. In this chapter, we show how previous research has positioned what we refer to as “socio-proxemic space” not merely as a theoretical concept, but as interactionally relevant in the ways that speakers understand and perform im/politeness across multiple languages. Speakers invoke the metaphor of space when talking about human relationships (“close”/”distant” relationships) and the language used within them (speaking in a “close”/“distant” way; speaking “up/down” to someone). In order to index various degrees of proximity and separation, research shows that speakers manipulate deictic expressions related not just to interpersonal distance but also to physical distance. Furthermore, speakers manipulate the spatial organization of communication in relation to im/politeness factors. When im/politeness is called for, research shows that physical proximity is modulated, along with bodily alignment and the use of large gestures that may threaten personal space. To illustrate how interaction is spatially organized in relation to im/politeness factors, we employ a case study of speakers of Catalan performing a map task in two contrasting social situations: (1) with an intimate and (2) with an unfamiliar status superior. Our analysis shows that speakers make subtle adjustments to the form of deictic gestures according to the relative socio-proxemic distance with the interlocutor. In sum, this chapter demonstrates the importance of space in the way that im/politeness has been conceptualized in im/politeness research