INTERCULTURAL FEATURES OF THE EXPRESSION OF POLITENESS IN PASSIVE CONSTRUCTIONS (BASED ON THE MATERIAL OF GERMAN AND ENGLISH)

Abstract

The article examines intercultural features of the expression of politeness in passive constructions in German and English. The authors prove that some directive speech acts (prescriptives, requestives, suggestive), expressed by passive constructions, are the most in demand for maintaining politeness in the com- munication process. This becomes possible, according to the authors, due to the elimination of the agent inherent in German and English passive constructions, the withdrawal of the addressee of the motivation into the subtext and the implicit motivation of the addressee to act, which helps to mitigate the illocutionary force of some types of directive speech acts and reduce their categoricity. This allows maintaining a positive tone of communication and ensure a successful act of communication. Passive constructions are one of the most effective linguistic means of forming harmonious communicative interaction.