The Politeness Principle is primarily to help both the speakers and the hearers to attain certain social relationships, make the expressions more acceptable and play an important role in human communi
The Politeness Principle is primarily to help both the speakers and the hearers to attain certain social relationships, make the expressions more acceptable and play an important role in human communication. In this paper the politeness we are discussing is not only with some brief polite phrases, such as your lovely hat, but shows an attitude that takes other’s position into account, understands each other’s feelings and situation. Polite language can create a friendly atmosphere for mutual cooperation. Politeness is the embodiment of personal qualities and is able to help you establish a good relationship. Politeness is the external expression of a person’s moral level, cultural attainment and communicative ability.
III. Analysis of Euphemism in Devious Maids
Devious Maids is a popular series whose dialogue has been filled with euphemism. It will be analyzed in the following.
3.1 Introduction to the Devious Maids
Devious Maids is an American television comedy-drama series created by Marc Cherry, produced by ABC Studios and executive produced by Cherry, Sabrina Wind, Eva Longoria, Paul McGuigan, Larry Shuman, David Lonner, John Mass, Paul Presburger, and Michael Garcia. The series premiered June 23, 2013 on Lifetime. This series is mainly talking about a mother who wants to save her son who was involved into a murder case. So she has to work at Beverly Hill to find the evidence which can prove her son didn’t kill anybody. She meets four Latina maids with ambitions and dream of themselves. With the help of them, she finds the evidence to save her son’s life finally.
Although this series starts from a murder case but it still plays as a comedy-drama. The entire series revolves around the murder case and is mainly centered on the daily life of the five maids. Humor and euphemisms are filled with the series. In terms of language, the dialogues of the ordinary people are appropriate and vivid. Due to this reason I choose this series as my case study. So some conversations in this series were chosen and analyzed from the perspective of pragmatics.
This series depicts some amazing characters. Marisol was originally a professor at a university. She works as a maid in the wealthy community not only for a living. Her son was in prison for murder so she decided to try to reverse the verdict in the case. Marisol’s female employer Evelyn Powell, a narcissistic monster, and her marriage with her husband Adrian is only a shell. Marisol son’s murder occurred in the Adrian and Evelyn’s mansion.
Zoila is a senior maid at the Genevieve Delacourt’s. Wisdom and humor are her two magics. She and her 18-year-old daughter Valentina work in the same house. Zoila’ employer Genevieve Delacourt is a beautiful and rich woman but she has an odd character. She is in the pursuit of rich and powerful man all her life. She has changed many husbands but these men could not satisfy her, so she turned to the Armenia - born boy who managed the swimming pool.
Rosie is a single mother. After the death of her husband, with her six-year-old son in Mexico, she came to the United States working for the Hollywood star couple Spence Westmore and Peri Westmore. The husband is a famous daytime television star, and the wife is a beautiful but selfish actress. Rosie is a gentle woman. When she speaks she always uses the mildest words to achieve her purpose, but she can argue with her master because of her job. She still finds that Mrs. Westmore’s baby calling her “Mama” really upsets Mrs. Westmore when the baby said his first word. After that she said to Mr. Westmore, “I'm not. There’s one thing I know about women...” because she knows that Mrs. Westmore doesn’t want her son to call other people ‘mama’. Actually Mrs. Westmore is really a mean and tart woman. She does not care about her family. She needs to make the facial and the interview. She just only concerns about herself. She said, “Rosie, I think the baby needs changing. Unless that awful smell is coming from Brenda” just because she didn’t want to answer the question and she didn’t like the reporter.