Distance and attitude: exploring grammar's social functions

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Readin~No. 4: Batstone R: (1994), Distance and attitude: erammar in context @ages 16-24) in Grammar,
Oxford: OGT.
Distance and attitude: grammar in context
3.1 Grammar, choice, and point o view

The foregoing discussion has been concerned largely with grammar and
rneaning at a high level of generalization: with heavy-duty idealizations
and with the factors involted in their formulation. Such idealizations
abound in language teaching materials. Yet while there are, as we have
Seen, arguments in favour of broad idealizations, we should also consider
diversifying. In 2.3 ir was noted that the passive may be used to avoid
and to shifc responsibiliry as with 'These windows haven't been cleaned
for ages'. This function of the passive does not emerge from broader
idealizarions. Azar, for instante, notes only that it is 'most frequently used
when iris noc known or not important to know exactly who performs an
action' (1985:125). Of course, Shifting responsibility is nor something
which the passive always signals; it is a function which we will encounter
only in sorne contexts of use. It is grammar at 10000 feet, occupying a
middle ground berween large-scale idealizations and the very finely tuned
rneanings which we will always encounter on specific occasions (see
Figure 2).
This middle ground is worrh investigating furrher. When we communicate through language we do not simpiy pick grammatical items off the
shelf, packiiged with ready-made rneanings. We fashion and choose language to express ourselves, conveying a particular point of view. It is not
only grammar which enables us ro do this. But gramrnar is, none rhe
less, imporrant in helping speakers to situate. themselves in relation ro
rhe world around them. This more context-sensitive accounr of grammar
is the subiect of 3.2, 3nd we will investigate it by focusing in pamcular
on rwo of the besr-known idealizations: the present tense and the past
tense. Can we identify ways in which these forms are used which reveals
something not visible at 30 000 feet?
3.2 Social distance

Grammar has evolved to help us to funcrion effectively in social life. In
fact. it S hard ro disentangle grammar from the very processes of socializarion which we rake for granted. To co-operate effenively in groups,
\ve need both tu ger things done in our own interests, and also ro iirrend
ro rhr nrrds iind wishes of others. In making a request, for rxample,
rhere is alwavs a potencial conflicr between these two needs: we want
Batstone, R. (1994). Distance and attitude: grammar in context. En Grammar (pp. 16-24). Reino Unido: Oxford University Press.
Distance and attitude
17
something for ourselves, but how can we meer our own needs without
appearing to threaten the needs, or the 'face' of rhe other person? Every
request is potentially face-threatening. Language has evolved to give us
conventional ways of handling this porential conflict. We routinely say
things like 'Could 1.. . ?' or 'Would you mind .. . ?',suggesting (at least in
theory) that what we want will depend on the other's willingness to
cooperate (Brown and Levinson 1983); in short, language used for
polireness. When we use language to signal this kind of attention to
face, we convey a sense of respecrful disrance benveen ourselves and our
interlocutor. In signalling differenr degrees of direcmess or intimaq we
are giving expression to what is known as 'social disrance'.
TASK 9
Can you sequence the following ways o making a request so that
they are in order of increasing policeness?
1 20!
2 1 was wondering i f ir might be possible for you to lend me 20.
3 Can you lend me f2O?
4 Could you lend me 20?
5 Lend me 20.
Notice how past and present forms get used here. When we signal a
degree of social distance, we may do so by using present forms; as with
'can you.. . ?' When we step up the social disrance and signal grearer
politeness, we switch to past forms, as with '1 was wondering . . .','Could
you.. . ?'. The more polire and socially disrant, the more likely ir is that
we will shifr from present to past forms.
And yet 'present' and 'past' are no[ the right terms. These are words we
use to talk about rime, not politeness. But there is a connection which
has to do with distance. The past is distanc from us, the present is close,
just as great politeness is seen as being disrant and direcrness as being
close. There is, so to speak, ternpoal disrance benveen presenr 2nd pasr,
as rhere is social disrance between being polite and being direct. What
happens, ir seems, is that we use these present and past forms in a number
of different yet related ways.
As teachers we can consider rhe language of politeness in one of nvo
ways. On the one hand, we mighr say these are essentiallyfarniliar eupirssions for doing useful things wirh language, and so we should teach thrm
as such: as independent chunks, ezch o which caii be separarelv riiughr.
This is 2 common approach in language teaching. where tuncrior,;il
expressions are presented as fixed phrases, with lirrle or no highliehtin~
o t their grammatical consriruents. This is a kind o leuical approxh. in
which language is reveuled JS an inventory of rxpressions, as it [he\- \vere
extended lexical items. In conrrast, we could encourage learners to rnake

generalizations across these expressions, generalizations which have to
do with past and present forms and with the various connections benveen
forrn and meaning which we have been examining. Ths would be a more
gramrnatical approach. There is no reason why both approaches should
not be pursued, at difcerent nmes.
TASK 10
Which of these two approaches-lexical or grarnrnatical-seems
to be taken in the following extract frorn a pedagogic grammar?
ASKING FOR PERMISSION: MAY 1, COULD 1, CAN 1

POLITE QUESTlON
(a) May I please bormw your pwi?
(b) Could I please borrow your pen?
(c) Can I please borrow your pen?
POSSIBLE ANSWERS
Yes.
Yes. 01course.
Yes. Certainiy.
01coune.
Certainly.
Sure. (informan
Okay. (informal)
Uhhuh. (meaning yes)
People uce may l. could 1,' and can I to

ask polite questions. The questions ask
for somwne's pennission.
(a), (b). and (c) have basically the %me
meaning. Note: can 1 is less formal than
may 1 and could l.
Please can come at tha end d me question: May 1 bomw your pen. please?
Piease can be ornitted frorn the questbn:
May 1 bomw your pen?
'In a polne question, could is not the past fonn of can
(Azar 198559)
Another way of 'keeping our distance' when we want something done is
to avoid naming the person we want to do it. We have already encountered an example of this (2.3) with the passive. When sorneone says 'The
windows haven't been cleaned for months', ir is likely to be dear what
they rnean-'i'm not cleaning them! How about you?'-and yet they
cannot strictly be held accountable: 'What? No, I'm not saying that you
should do it. I'rn just making an obsewation'. The passive, that is, enables
us to refer to events without acknowledging the agent responsible for
them, thereby creating a sense of distance benveen events and their
sources.
TASK 11
Which forms are being used to signal distance in the following
examplesl
1 1 suppose you couldn't stay on a bit longer?
2 By the way, the fridge needs cleaning.
3 YOUcouldn't lend me your tape-recorder, could you?
43
Distance and urtitun'e
19
3.3 Psychological distance

Consider the following exchange berween two triends:
Biii:
Hey, have you been watching the re-run of that comedy series on
TV-Fresno, 1 think it's called?
Tom: Ah, Fresno, yes! Annabelle really loves thar programme.
Bil: Look, Tom. I'm sorry bur you really musr Irt go of Annabelle.
She lefr you over two years ago, for goodness sake!
When Tom says 'Annabelle ceally loves that programme' he is using rhe
present tense because his memory of Annabelle is still very much a reaiity.
She is still a part of Tom's subjective 'here and now'-out of si&, perhaps, but not out of mind. If Tom had been able to come to terms with
the loss of Annabelle, then he might have said (much more
dispassionately) 'She loved tKat programme', using the past tense to signal
that both objectively and subjectively the relationship was truly in the
past.
So the choice of past or present forms can be influenced by subjective
perspectives on events. We might use present forms when we feel psychologically that they are still close to us, still relevant to us, and p a n of
our current mental world. Conversely, we can use past forms when the
experiences we refer to are perceived as complete, as no longer relevant,
and therefore at some disrance from h e point to which we have now
moved on. We can refer ro this as 'psychological distance'.
The grammatical signalling of psychological disrance may be used for a
variety of purposes. Sometimes, as in the case of Tom and Annabelle, it
serves to reveal somerhing of the speaker's state of mind, and something
of how he posinons himself in relation to others. On other occasions it
will be used rarher less introspectively, in order to impress a certain
viewpoint on the reader or listener. In the following passage, for example,
the writer uses past and presenr tenses to convey a very particular way
of regarding nvo contrasting schools of thought:
'Skinner (1957) armed that language

learned through a process of
stimulus-response, with large amounts of controUed repetition. Chomsky
(1959)
that language could nevec be learned in this way, and that
al1 endowed at birth with a language acquisition device which
we
provides essential assistance in the learning process.'
(Adapted from Riddle 1986:269)
TASK 12
1 How exactly is rhe writer in the passage above exploiting grammar to signal psychological distance? How common do you
think this panern of language use is, and would you consider
introducing it to learners at any point?
44
LU
Explananon - 1 ne narure o~ grammar
2 Ir is not only through grammar that such meanings are

expressed. Very ohen grammar and lexis function in aiiance to
reinforce a certain viewpoint. How is this achieved in the following examples?
- Skinner (1957) claimed that language was learned.. .
- Chomsky (1959) demonstrates that language could never ...
The text in the examples in question 2 of Task 1 2 is the language of
reported speech. For many years, grammarians have told us that there
are clear rules for the fomulation of reported speech, governing the
choice of tense in the verbs used. For example:
When the 'reporting' verb is past (eg she said; 1 thought; we wondered; Max wanted to know), we do not normally use the same
tenses as the original speaker.
The verbs are 'more past' (because we are not talking at the same
time as the speaker was). Compare:
direct speech
reported speech
present simple
'1 like peaches.'
presenr progressive
'1s it raining?'
pasr simple
'1 didn't recognize you.'
past simple
He said he liked peaches.
past progressive
He asked if it was raining.
past perfect
She explained that she
hadn't recognized me.
past perfect
1 told her she'd annoyed
the dog.
past perfect progressive
He said he was joking (or:
had been joking) about the
price.
present perfect
'You've annoyed the dog.'
pasr progressive
'1 was joking about theprice. '
(Swan 1980:53415)
An over-rigorous application of such accounts can create the impression

that reported speech is a matter o acting on fixed synractic principies
and of providing an objective or faithful record of what was said. It is
very much a '30000 feet idealization', and it has been the subject of
considerable criticism (see, for example, Harman 1990; Yule, Mathis,
and Hopkins 1992). It contrasts sharply with [he way forms are deployed
in Task 12, which is much more specific to a particular context. But there
are arguments on both sides. Swan's presentation has the great benefir
of clarity, and surely there must be many occasions when it works well
Distance and attittide
21
enough. The text in Task 12 reveals something quite diiferent about

reported speech, but it is grammar at 10000 feet, so that inevitably irs
application is more limited. We are saying merely that there are conventions for the signalling of attitude which we can generalize about to
some extent. We should, perhaps, give a more refined and conrestualized
account of such forms to more experienced learners, while keeping things
relatively clear for lower-leve1 learners. In effecr, this would mean providing higher-leve1 ide~lizationsfor lower-leve! learners, and lower-leve1
idealizations for higher-leve1 learners.
3.4 Hypothetical distance

It is a distincrive feature of human language that we can use it to create
imaginary worlds. Thus we-can invent fiaional pasts, and ralk about
possible or impossible futures. Grammar gives us the forms to do this,
including future forms and rhe various past tenses. But we create worlds
not solely to describe past and future.
TASK 13
1 What meanings are being signalled in the following by past and
past perfea tenses?
If 1 was famous I'd feel very exposed. 1 could never escape.
- Isn't it time you were in bed?
If only 1 hadn't said that!
- If 1 were you, I'd think very carefuily before making a
dedsion.
- Hadn't you better leave?
2 The next two examples show how grammar and lexis funaion
together in the creation of pamcular meanings. In terms of time
reference, what effea does the change of lexical item have?
If 1 earned E50 000, I'd be complerely happy.
- If 1 won 50 000, I'd be completely happy.
~Manyo these functions are quite commonplace in existing teaching material~:'expressing regret and wishes', 'giving advice', and so on. Underiving rhem, there is a common grammatical thread. Past forms are being
used to signal 'hypothetical distance': the distance benveen the tangible,
real world and the created world of our own imagination. We can express
rhis distance in a variety of ways: we prefer a certain unreal world to
circumstances as they are (regret), or we signal that the unreal world will
soon become a reality unless certain conditions are met (warn, threaten),
and so on. Typically, rexrbooks and pedagogic grammars present this
kind of material in separate chapters or units, one dealing with 'wishes'
and another with 'threats'. But as was argued with respea ro social
46
distante, there is a case for makiig learners aware of this common grammatical thread, thereby enabling them to formulate useful generalizations
across a range of expressions.
3.5 Grammar and distance in review

By examining grammar as it is used in context, we can begin to idenrify
meanings which are not apparent at 30 000 feet.
Distant
Here-and-now
Temporal
distance (time)
past, future
(past tense, future
forms)
present
(present tense)
Social distance
being polite, avoiding

intwsion into listener's
territory
@ast tense)
being direct
(e.g. imperative
forms)
avoiding 'naming' to
control or to avoid
responsibility
(passive voice)
explicitly 'naming' the

agent or doer of an
action
(active voice)
Psychological
distance
considered outside
current mental world
@ast tense)
considered relevant
to current mental
world
(present tense)
Hypothetical
distance
unlikely or unreal
worlds
(past, past perfect
tenses)
real and actual worlds

(present tense)
'
Figure 3
TASK 14
How clearly does the following account of the past tense deal
with these issues, conveying a more context-sensitive impression
of grammar? It comes from a pedagogic grammar 'for advanced
students'. Do you feel that these are matters which should only be
revealed to more advanced learners? Would you want to modify
it in any way for a particular group of learners?
Distnnce and attitrfde
23
But just as the presenr simple reers to events other than presenr ones,
so the past simple is used ro refer to evenrs other than past. Thus we
use it ro refer ro the present and occasionally [he future when a verb is
back-shifted in indirecr speech, in wishing and hyporherical clauses. We
also use ir referring to the presenr time for the purpose of disrancing
ourselves.
Past events, states and habits
The evenr or srate may be shom or long, and a number of happenings
in the distant past mav be thought of as a single event.
1 was scared stiff that night.
1 knew your mother well.
The gate kd into the lane.
He never let himself become excited by . .. danger.
A plover called three or four times and was silent.
It's time we got back.

[after it's time.. .]
1 wish it would ruin.
[after wish]
Still, he thought, this was no time to pick and choose.
[indirect speech]
1 wouldn't cure ifmy legs wem't so tired.
[in hyporhetical clause]
l
I
We sometimes use a simple past focm ro refer ro h e present time as a

marker of social disrance or polireness:
Could you iust go and try the rope, Hazel?
You wanted me, Hazel?
These ate alternatives far the less poliddeferential Can you just go . .. ?
You want me?
(Broughton 1990.2 11)
i
z
3.6 Condusions
'That's another thing we've learned from your Nation', said Mein Herr,
'map making. But we've carried it much furthec than you. What do you
consider the largest map that would be really useful?'
'About six inches to the rnile.'
'Only six inches!' excfairned Mein Herr. 'We very soon got to six yards
to h e mile. Then we tried a hundred yards to the mile. And then came
rhe grandest idea o aU! We actuaUy made a map of the country, on the
scale of a mile to a mile!'
'Have you used it much?' 1 enquired.
'It has never been spread out, yet,' said Mein Herr: 'the farmers objected:
rhey said it would cover the whole country, and shut out the sunlight!
So we now use the country itself, as its own map, and 1 assure you ir
does nearly as well.'
(Lewis Carroll: Syluie and Bnrno Concluded)
24
Explanation - The nature of grammar
Grammar is the great systematizing force of language, allowing us to be

endlessly creative with a finite ser of resources. But we can represent this
system more or less broadly, using idealizations which are more or less
finely mned. For learners, idealizations provide a rough-and-ready map
which sketches out come of the main routes through the rricky terrain of
forms and their meanings. A map which is too detailed will confuse the
learner and thus fail in its primary purpose: to be a guide. But a rnap
which is too idealized wili fare no better. Learners will become derailed
on encountering landmarks which were not marked-discovering, that
is, so many exceptions that the map becomes an obstade to further leaming. In teaching we need to ensure that learners are not seriously misled
in either of these ways. Of course, we cannot be expected to provide
learners with weekly maps which are perfectly judged to meet their precisely calculated needs. But we can ensure that learners are given a variety
of indicators, and that we do not ignore a more representative perspeaive-grammar at 10 000 feet.

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Este material es proporcionado al alumno con fines educativos, para la crtica y la investigacin respetando la reglamentacin en materia de derechos de autor.

Distance and attitude: grammar in context

3.1 Grammar, choice, and point o view

3.2 Social distance

Distance and attitude

extended lexical items. In conrrast, we could encourage learners to rnake

ASKING FOR PERMISSION: MAY 1, COULD 1, CAN 1

People uce may l. could 1,' and can I to

'In a polne question, could is not the past fonn of can

Distance and urtitun'e

3.3 Psychological distance

'Skinner (1957) armed that language

Explananon - 1 ne narure o~ grammar

2 Ir is not only through grammar that such meanings are

An over-rigorous application of such accounts can create the impression

Distance and attittide

enough. The text in Task 12 reveals something quite diiferent about

3.4 Hypothetical distance

3.5 Grammar and distance in review

being polite, avoiding

explicitly 'naming' the

real and actual worlds

Distnnce and attitrfde

It's time we got back.

We sometimes use a simple past focm ro refer ro h e present time as a

(Broughton 1990.2 11)

Explanation - The nature of grammar

Grammar is the great systematizing force of language, allowing us to be

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