EXPLORING BROWN AND LEVINSON’S POLITENESS THEORY AND THE FORM-FUNCTION FIT IN REQUESTS IN JANE AUSTEN’S PRIDE AND PREJUDICE FROM A RELEVANCE-THEORETIC, CONSTRUCTIONIST, AND CONTRASTIVE PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

The aim of this work is to demonstrate and illustrate the pervasive existence of points of convergence between literature and language in general and form and meaning in particular. Specifically, the connection between language and literature is explored with specific reference to one of the germinal works of English literature, Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice in the light of the principles and taxonomies of Brown and Levinson’s Politeness Theory, with special focus on requests. A further twist added to the analysis presented in this work comes from a relatively fine-nuanced contrastive (English-Spanish) analysis of requests strategies using as the database of analysis a Spanish translation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice (Rodríguez, 2018).