Abstract Although linguistic politeness has been extensively theorized about, the role of nonverbal behaviour in managing politeness in interactions has been neglected until recently. In this analysis of natural conversations between female friends in dinner settings, I show how nonverbal hospitality can influence rapport management and the constructionist nature of politeness among Saudi and British female friends, and I compare the two cultures. I show how these nonverbal acts can be observed by looking at the sequences and turns taken in talking, exploring metapragmatic evaluations, and using second-order politeness concepts in interpreting politeness as situated in discourse. The combination of these analytical tools allows for an explanation of what is going on rather than a mere description of the interaction. The analysis demonstrates that nonverbal hospitality plays an important role in the management of rapport and discursive relations. I find that, although the motivation and role of nonverbal hospitality in the management of interactions in young female friendship groups in the two cultures are similar, there are remarkable differences in frequency, reactions, and complexity in the negotiation of nonverbal hospitality.
{"title":"Politeness of nonverbal hospitality in Saudi and British female interactions","authors":"Inas I. Almusallam","doi":"10.1515/pr-2020-0042","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/pr-2020-0042","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Although linguistic politeness has been extensively theorized about, the role of nonverbal behaviour in managing politeness in interactions has been neglected until recently. In this analysis of natural conversations between female friends in dinner settings, I show how nonverbal hospitality can influence rapport management and the constructionist nature of politeness among Saudi and British female friends, and I compare the two cultures. I show how these nonverbal acts can be observed by looking at the sequences and turns taken in talking, exploring metapragmatic evaluations, and using second-order politeness concepts in interpreting politeness as situated in discourse. The combination of these analytical tools allows for an explanation of what is going on rather than a mere description of the interaction. The analysis demonstrates that nonverbal hospitality plays an important role in the management of rapport and discursive relations. I find that, although the motivation and role of nonverbal hospitality in the management of interactions in young female friendship groups in the two cultures are similar, there are remarkable differences in frequency, reactions, and complexity in the negotiation of nonverbal hospitality.","PeriodicalId":45897,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Politeness Research-Language Behaviour Culture","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2022-09-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43031509","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract Digital discourse has emerged as a substantial focus of interest within the pragmatic field. Specifically, (im)politeness practices on social media have increasingly received scholarly attention in the last decade (Tagg, Caroline, Philip Seargeant & Amy Aisha Brown. 2017. Taking offence on social media. Conviviality and conviviality and communication on Facebook. Switzerland: Springer Nature, Palgrave McMillan; Tsoumou, Jean Mathieu. 2020. Analyzing speech acts in politically related Facebook communication. Journal of Pragmatics 167. 80–97). However, research combining COVID-19, Facebook and (im)politeness in a politically polarizing context is still scarce. This paper is an analysis of (im)politeness in Facebook comments posted as reactions to Giuliani’s COVID diagnosis. Thus, by combining quantitative and qualitative approaches, the aim of the present paper is twofold: On the one hand, it intends to further our understanding of the manifestation of (im)politeness practices on Facebook through an analysis of reactive comments to Giuliani’s Covid-19 diagnosis on BBC news Facebook page. On the other hand, the paper aims to examine how the struggle between impoliteness and politeness divides Facebook users between sympathizers and detractors of the patient. Through a metadiscursive analysis, the identified (im)politeness items are distributed in an uneven fashion, with impoliteness-oriented items prevailing as the dominant macro category against politeness-oriented ones. The findings suggest that users employ different strategies to express or intensify (im)politeness, favoring explicit expressions of impoliteness such as redress/agreement, insults, pointed criticisms/complaints, unpalatable questions and/or presuppositions over others like threats.
{"title":"(Im)politeness on Facebook during the Covid-19 pandemic","authors":"Jean Mathieu Tsoumou","doi":"10.1515/pr-2021-0008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/pr-2021-0008","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Digital discourse has emerged as a substantial focus of interest within the pragmatic field. Specifically, (im)politeness practices on social media have increasingly received scholarly attention in the last decade (Tagg, Caroline, Philip Seargeant & Amy Aisha Brown. 2017. Taking offence on social media. Conviviality and conviviality and communication on Facebook. Switzerland: Springer Nature, Palgrave McMillan; Tsoumou, Jean Mathieu. 2020. Analyzing speech acts in politically related Facebook communication. Journal of Pragmatics 167. 80–97). However, research combining COVID-19, Facebook and (im)politeness in a politically polarizing context is still scarce. This paper is an analysis of (im)politeness in Facebook comments posted as reactions to Giuliani’s COVID diagnosis. Thus, by combining quantitative and qualitative approaches, the aim of the present paper is twofold: On the one hand, it intends to further our understanding of the manifestation of (im)politeness practices on Facebook through an analysis of reactive comments to Giuliani’s Covid-19 diagnosis on BBC news Facebook page. On the other hand, the paper aims to examine how the struggle between impoliteness and politeness divides Facebook users between sympathizers and detractors of the patient. Through a metadiscursive analysis, the identified (im)politeness items are distributed in an uneven fashion, with impoliteness-oriented items prevailing as the dominant macro category against politeness-oriented ones. The findings suggest that users employ different strategies to express or intensify (im)politeness, favoring explicit expressions of impoliteness such as redress/agreement, insults, pointed criticisms/complaints, unpalatable questions and/or presuppositions over others like threats.","PeriodicalId":45897,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Politeness Research-Language Behaviour Culture","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2022-08-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47201250","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract Address forms have been studied in various contexts, and it has been assumed that the determining dimensions are solidarity, including closeness and equality, and power, including distance and hierarchy. Solidarity is indexed with singular forms while power is represented with plural forms. Using ethnography of communication framework, this study enriches this discussion by examining the use of address forms by Bima people in a multilingual community in Bima, Indonesia, where Bima, Indonesian and other languages in contact have been used for centuries. Address forms including speaker reference forms were identified and classified in 1,250 h of data collected through observation, interviews, elicitation, and recordings of conversation. The study shows that address forms from languages in contact with Bima have been borrowed to represent dimensions within the solidarity-power continuum including intimacy, closeness, equality, hierarchy and respect. The Bima forms are used to exercise traditional solidarity-power relations, but the borrowed forms of Arab, Bugis, Chinese, English, and Makassarese origins are used to negotiate more intimate, close, equal and respectful relations within the social hierarchy. Using the native and the borrowed forms according to referent’s age, gender, status, and contexts, speakers construct different social spaces of intimacy, closeness, equality, hierarchy, respect, and power.
{"title":"Borrowing of address forms for dimensions of social relation in a contact-induced multilingual community","authors":"Kamaludin Yusra, Y. Lestari, J. Simpson","doi":"10.1515/pr-2021-0022","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/pr-2021-0022","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Address forms have been studied in various contexts, and it has been assumed that the determining dimensions are solidarity, including closeness and equality, and power, including distance and hierarchy. Solidarity is indexed with singular forms while power is represented with plural forms. Using ethnography of communication framework, this study enriches this discussion by examining the use of address forms by Bima people in a multilingual community in Bima, Indonesia, where Bima, Indonesian and other languages in contact have been used for centuries. Address forms including speaker reference forms were identified and classified in 1,250 h of data collected through observation, interviews, elicitation, and recordings of conversation. The study shows that address forms from languages in contact with Bima have been borrowed to represent dimensions within the solidarity-power continuum including intimacy, closeness, equality, hierarchy and respect. The Bima forms are used to exercise traditional solidarity-power relations, but the borrowed forms of Arab, Bugis, Chinese, English, and Makassarese origins are used to negotiate more intimate, close, equal and respectful relations within the social hierarchy. Using the native and the borrowed forms according to referent’s age, gender, status, and contexts, speakers construct different social spaces of intimacy, closeness, equality, hierarchy, respect, and power.","PeriodicalId":45897,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Politeness Research-Language Behaviour Culture","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2022-08-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45593944","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract To date, there has been little attention for the factors that influence the perception of online complaints. We present two experiments in which we test the impact of the degree of linguistic (in)directness and the formal realization of complaint components on complaint perception. Our experimental stimuli are designed on the basis of French-language authentic Twitter complaints which have been coded in terms of the presence of four constitutive complaint components: the complainable, the negative evaluation of the complainable, the person/company responsible for the complainable, and a wish for compensation. In our experiments, participants are asked to read Twitter complaints, and they are invited to assess them in terms of perceived strength, dissatisfaction, (im)politeness, and offensiveness. Our results indicate that not only the number but also the type of component that is formally realized shape complaint perception. We also find a positive correlation between perceived complaint strength and impoliteness. In addition, different formal realizations of the negative evaluation of the complainable have a different effect on complaint perception; in particular, negative emoji make the complaints softer and more polite. We also discuss methodological issues that have arisen while designing the experiments and that have to do with the operationalization of face-threat.
{"title":"Experiments into the influence of linguistic (in)directness on perceived face-threat in Twitter complaints","authors":"Nicolas Ruytenbeek, S. Decock, I. Depraetere","doi":"10.1515/pr-2019-0042","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/pr-2019-0042","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract To date, there has been little attention for the factors that influence the perception of online complaints. We present two experiments in which we test the impact of the degree of linguistic (in)directness and the formal realization of complaint components on complaint perception. Our experimental stimuli are designed on the basis of French-language authentic Twitter complaints which have been coded in terms of the presence of four constitutive complaint components: the complainable, the negative evaluation of the complainable, the person/company responsible for the complainable, and a wish for compensation. In our experiments, participants are asked to read Twitter complaints, and they are invited to assess them in terms of perceived strength, dissatisfaction, (im)politeness, and offensiveness. Our results indicate that not only the number but also the type of component that is formally realized shape complaint perception. We also find a positive correlation between perceived complaint strength and impoliteness. In addition, different formal realizations of the negative evaluation of the complainable have a different effect on complaint perception; in particular, negative emoji make the complaints softer and more polite. We also discuss methodological issues that have arisen while designing the experiments and that have to do with the operationalization of face-threat.","PeriodicalId":45897,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Politeness Research-Language Behaviour Culture","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2022-04-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48703415","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract This article investigates online metacommunication about politeness and second-person pronouns in Peninsular Spanish. I propose a framework that integrates a discursive approach to politeness, speech codes theory, and dialogism to capture emically the contested nature of politeness at the cultural level. The analyses show two oppositional codes of address: Las formas ‘manners’ presumes that the use of usted (formal-second person pronoun) is the default polite way to enact respect towards societal hierarchical structures. El tuteo ‘the act of addressing somebody as you[tú]’ presumes that respect is not inherent in terms of address or an obligation towards hierarchy; instead, respect is owed to all people and earned through one’s actions. These codes co-exist in tension and their respective meanings stem from how they articulate with each other. I conclude that online metacommunication provides new affordances to study politeness and speech codes.
{"title":"“People confuse respeto ‘respect’ with terms of address”: an analysis of online metacommunication about politeness and second-person pronoun use in Peninsular Spanish","authors":"D. Chornet","doi":"10.1515/pr-2019-0038","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/pr-2019-0038","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This article investigates online metacommunication about politeness and second-person pronouns in Peninsular Spanish. I propose a framework that integrates a discursive approach to politeness, speech codes theory, and dialogism to capture emically the contested nature of politeness at the cultural level. The analyses show two oppositional codes of address: Las formas ‘manners’ presumes that the use of usted (formal-second person pronoun) is the default polite way to enact respect towards societal hierarchical structures. El tuteo ‘the act of addressing somebody as you[tú]’ presumes that respect is not inherent in terms of address or an obligation towards hierarchy; instead, respect is owed to all people and earned through one’s actions. These codes co-exist in tension and their respective meanings stem from how they articulate with each other. I conclude that online metacommunication provides new affordances to study politeness and speech codes.","PeriodicalId":45897,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Politeness Research-Language Behaviour Culture","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2022-04-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44115017","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract The present study examined the differences between Mandarin Chinese and Australian English in email refusals. An email production questionnaire (EPQ) and retrospective verbal reports (RVR) were used to collect data. Results showed that while both groups preferred directness to indirectness at the utterance level, Chinese participants used indirectness significantly more frequently than Australian participants in refusals of requests. In addition, Chinese refusals were more indirect than Australian refusals at the discourse level. Chinese participants chose significantly more supportive moves than Australian participants and tended to put multiple supportive moves before the direct head act in refusals of either invitations or requests. The two groups also differed considerably in the content of refusal strategies. Moreover, both the EPQ and RVR data showed that Chinese were more sensitive to social status than Australians. The findings of this study were broadly consistent with studies on refusals in oral communication despite some differences.
{"title":"Saying “no” in emails in Mandarin Chinese and Australian English","authors":"Wei Li","doi":"10.1515/pr-2020-0005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/pr-2020-0005","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The present study examined the differences between Mandarin Chinese and Australian English in email refusals. An email production questionnaire (EPQ) and retrospective verbal reports (RVR) were used to collect data. Results showed that while both groups preferred directness to indirectness at the utterance level, Chinese participants used indirectness significantly more frequently than Australian participants in refusals of requests. In addition, Chinese refusals were more indirect than Australian refusals at the discourse level. Chinese participants chose significantly more supportive moves than Australian participants and tended to put multiple supportive moves before the direct head act in refusals of either invitations or requests. The two groups also differed considerably in the content of refusal strategies. Moreover, both the EPQ and RVR data showed that Chinese were more sensitive to social status than Australians. The findings of this study were broadly consistent with studies on refusals in oral communication despite some differences.","PeriodicalId":45897,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Politeness Research-Language Behaviour Culture","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2022-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46666004","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Sinkeviciute, Valeria: Conversational humour and (im)politeness: a pragmatic analysis of social interaction","authors":"Na Yang","doi":"10.1515/pr-2020-0015","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/pr-2020-0015","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45897,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Politeness Research-Language Behaviour Culture","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2022-03-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46122434","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Freytag, Vera: Exploring Politeness in Business Emails. A Mixed-Methods Analysis","authors":"Carmen Santamaría-García","doi":"10.1515/pr-2021-0011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/pr-2021-0011","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45897,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Politeness Research-Language Behaviour Culture","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2022-03-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47892510","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Spencer-Oatey, Helen and Dániel Z. Kádár: Intercultural Politeness: Managing Relations across Cultures","authors":"Jiayi Wang","doi":"10.1515/pr-2021-0030","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/pr-2021-0030","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45897,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Politeness Research-Language Behaviour Culture","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2022-03-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41370053","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract The present study investigates the role of proficiency in the development of second language (L2) Chinese learners’ ability to negotiate refusals of invitations and offers in conversational interactions. Fifty-four American English learners of L2 Mandarin Chinese at three proficiency levels, and 22 native speakers, completed a four-item naturalized roleplay task. Findings suggest positive effects of proficiency on L1 American English L2 Chinese learners’ production of refusals at both actional and interactional levels, though different aspects of their pragmatic competence may not develop in parallel. NSs and learners across proficiency levels had access to a similar range of refusal strategies, but learner production showed a more target-like context-specific combination of refusal strategies with increasing proficiency. The effect of proficiency can also be observed on learners’ acquisition of sequential organization of refusals, in terms of delay and discourse patterns, in various context. Nevertheless, it is still unclear at what point along the developmental trajectory learners are sociopragmatically competent enough to show consistent orientation towards the hearer in their refusals as NSs do.
{"title":"Refusing invitations and offers in second language Chinese: effect of proficiency at the actional and interactional levels","authors":"Yunwen Su","doi":"10.1515/pr-2019-0041","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/pr-2019-0041","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The present study investigates the role of proficiency in the development of second language (L2) Chinese learners’ ability to negotiate refusals of invitations and offers in conversational interactions. Fifty-four American English learners of L2 Mandarin Chinese at three proficiency levels, and 22 native speakers, completed a four-item naturalized roleplay task. Findings suggest positive effects of proficiency on L1 American English L2 Chinese learners’ production of refusals at both actional and interactional levels, though different aspects of their pragmatic competence may not develop in parallel. NSs and learners across proficiency levels had access to a similar range of refusal strategies, but learner production showed a more target-like context-specific combination of refusal strategies with increasing proficiency. The effect of proficiency can also be observed on learners’ acquisition of sequential organization of refusals, in terms of delay and discourse patterns, in various context. Nevertheless, it is still unclear at what point along the developmental trajectory learners are sociopragmatically competent enough to show consistent orientation towards the hearer in their refusals as NSs do.","PeriodicalId":45897,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Politeness Research-Language Behaviour Culture","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2022-03-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47927232","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}