ANALYSIS OF POLITENESS MAXIMS IN RAYMOND CARVER’S WHAT WE TALK ABOUT WHEN WE TALK ABOUT LOVE

Abstract

This study investigates the use of Geoffrey Leech’s politeness maxims in Raymond Carver’s short story What We Talk About When We Talk About Love through a qualitative descriptive approach. The study aims to identify the types of politeness maxims employed by the characters in their interactions. The data consist of utterances produced by the main characters—Mel, Terri, Nick, and Laura. The findings reveal that, among Leech’s six politeness maxims, only three are present in the story: Modesty, Agreement, and Sympathy, with a total of seven occurrences. The analysis demonstrates that the characters primarily employ strategies of self-effacement, conflict minimization, and emotional alignment, which are central to discussions of love, trauma, and personal experience. The Sympathy Maxim appears most frequently, reflecting the emotional intensity surrounding narratives of past relationships and individual definitions of love. Mel predominantly uses the Modesty Maxim to soften assertive expressions, while the Agreement Maxim maintains conversational harmony by respecting differing viewpoints. These findings suggest that politeness in Carver’s dialogue is highly context-dependent and closely tied to the characters’ emotional openness and sensitivity. This study addresses a gap in previous research, which has largely focused on gendered or sociolinguistic aspects of the text without examining the underlying politeness strategies. By demonstrating that politeness maxims function not only as social conventions but also as emotional devices within literary dialogue, this research contributes to the field of pragmatic literary analysis.