Alle Publikationen
2017
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(2017): Tatsuhiko Yoshida. 2016. Höflichkeit als Ressource zur interkulturellen Kommunikation. Theorie und Praxis zur gesprächsanalytischen Höflichkeitsforschung. München. Iudicium. 289 S. In: Zeitschrift für Rezensionen zur germanistischen Sprachwissenschaft 9 (1-2), S. 72-77. DOI: 10.1515/zrs-2017-0012
Abstract: Die vorliegende Monografie präsentiert sich als Beitrag zur Erforschung von sprachlicher Höflichkeit und schreibt sich damit in eine Tradition ein, die mit der wegweisenden Arbeit von Brown & Levinson (1987) beginnt. Seitdem sind zahlreiche Monografien, Sammelbände und Zeitschriftenaufsätze erschienen, die dazu beigetragen haben, dass das Forschungsgebiet, ausgehend von einer kritischen Würdigung der Pioniere, sich weiterentwickelt und differenziert hat. In den meisten Fällen wird dabei auf die Grundbegriffe der Pragmatik und der Soziolinguistik bzw. der Interaktionslinguistik rekurriert. In der Forschung hat sich weitgehend die Auffassung durchgesetzt, dass Höflichkeit im Rahmen von sprachwissenschaftlichen Ansätzen von der Etikette unterschieden werden muss und dass die Höflichkeit einer Äußerung nicht in einem direkten Abhängigkeitsverhältnis zu den verwendeten Wörtern oder Konstruktionen steht. Höflichkeit wird von vielen Forschern als Teil der sozialen Praxis und als Gegenstand von interaktionalen Aushandlungsprozessen verstanden: Sprecher und Hörer beurteilen im Gespräch wechselseitig ihre Verhalten unter dem Gesichtspunkt der Höflichkeit und passen sowohl ihre eigenen Beiträge als auch die Höflichkeitsurteile an ihr Verständnis des Gesprächsverlaufs an. Höflichkeit wird also ko-konstruiert und kann nicht als a priori gegebener und in der Sprachgemeinschaft allgemein geteilter Verhaltensmaßstab angesehen werden. Die Prozesse des Aushandelns lassen sich natürlich am besten an authentischen Gesprächsdaten untersuchen. Aus diesem Grund ist die Auseinandersetzung mit der real existierenden Kommunikation zu einem immer wieder angemahnten Bestandteil der Diskussion geworden. Neuere Arbeiten (etwa Watts 2003 oder Kádár & Haugh 2013) enthalten denn auch regelmäßig Auszüge aus transkribierten Gesprächen und diskutieren diese im Hinblick auf die Höflichkeitstheorie. Bisher wurde aber von Seiten der Höflichkeitsforschung kaum an die Arbeit der Gesprächsanalyse angeknüpft – eine Tradition, die im Umgang mit Daten geschult und empirisch versiert ist. Tatsuhiko Yoshida nimmt sich für sein Buch genau das vor und stößt damit in eine Forschungslücke. Schon im Untertitel wird deutlich, dass es dem Autor darum geht, die Höflichkeitsforschung mit der gesprächsanalytischen Praxis zu verbinden. Davon sind zweifellos interessante Einsichten über die Natur und den Stellenwert von Höflichkeit zu erwarten.
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Ehrhardt, Claus; Neuland, Eva (Hg.) (2017): Sprachliche Höflichkeit. Historische, aktuelle und künftige Perspektiven. Tübingen, Germany: Narr Francke Attempto
Abstract: Sprachliche Höflichkeit ist ein breit diskutiertes Thema in Wissenschaft und Öffentlichkeit. Oft wird ein Mangel an Höflichkeit oder gar deren Verfall beklagt. Neue Medien und die zunehmende Interkulturalität scheinen das Problem zu verschärfen. In der Sprachwissenschaft greifen zahlreiche Ansätze solche Fragen auf und versuchen eine wissenschaftliche Klärung und Einordnung in neuere theoretische und methodische Entwicklungen. Der Band dokumentiert ausgewählte Beiträge einer internationalen Fachkonferenz. Er präsentiert aktuelle Entwicklungen in der deutschen Sprache und neue Ansätze in der Höflichkeitsforschung, auch in kontrastiver Perspektive und in verschiedenen Anwendungsfeldern. Kulturhistorische Einschätzungen über Ursprung und Entwicklung von Höflichkeitskonventionen sowie Ausblicke auf künftige Herausforderungen runden den Band ab.
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(2017): Fight and flight. A multilevel analysis of facework strategies in intercultural face-threatening acts. In: INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INTERCULTURAL RELATIONS 58, S. 69-81. DOI: 10.1016/j.ijintrel.2017.04.008
Abstract: This study investigates facework strategies of managing face-threatening acts in intercultural interactions where communicators' cultural backgrounds are different from each other. Based on a pre-study with U.S. (n = 89) and Chinese (n = 76) college students, four scenarios featuring intercultural face-threatening acts were developed, where a Chinese student communicated politely and appropriately according to the Chinese culture, but the exact same act was considered otherwise in U.S. culture. In the main study, U.S. college students (N = 217) were given these scenarios and asked to report the general level of face needs, perceived face threats, and facework strategies in each scenario. Multilevel analyses (i.e., Hierarchical Linear Modeling) were employed to parse out the different levels of influence in order to understand both separate and joint impacts of situational face threats and individual face needs on facework strategies. Results showed that: 1) intercultural communicators use both mitigating (i.e., fleeing) and aggravating (i.e., fighting) facework strategies, and a slight preference is given to mitigating strategies; 2) facework strategies are more sensitive to particular situational conditions than to individual dispositions; and 3) individuals' value for others' face moderates the relationship between situational conditions and facework strategies. The current study provides empirical evidence of challenges in establishing meaningful intercultural relationships by identifying the multiple levels of impact on facework strategies in intercultural communication. Further discussion and implications of the findings are also included.
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(2017) : Der face-Begriff im Schnittpunkt zwischen politeness und facework. Paradigmatische Überlegungen In: Ehrhardt, Claus; Neuland, Eva (Hg.): Sprachliche Höflichkeit: Historische, aktuelle und künftige Perspektiven: Tübingen, Germany: Narr Francke Attempto, S. 57-76
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(2017): Competition and conflict between communicative norms. In: Journal of Argumentation in Context 6 (2), S. 220-246. DOI: 10.1075/jaic.6.2.05hop
Abstract: When engaging with each other, discussants navigate a complex set of communicative norms that aim at very different goals. Within argumentation theory naturally the most studied set of norms are those aiming at reasonableness, of which I take the pragma-dialectical rule set to be a representative example. They are however far from the only norms that guide communicative behavior. This paper offers an analysis of the areas of intersection and potential conflict of reasonableness (as understood by pragma-dialectics) with other communicative norms in general and rules of politeness (as presented by Geoffrey Leech) in particular.
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(2017) : Interpersonale Pragmatik und (Un)Höflichkeitsforschung In: Ehrhardt, Claus; Neuland, Eva (Hg.): Sprachliche Höflichkeit: Historische, aktuelle und künftige Perspektiven: Tübingen, Germany: Narr Francke Attempto, S. 77-88
2016
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(2016): Being Politically Impolite. Extending Politeness Theory to Adversarial Political Discourse. In: Discourse & Society 12 (4), S. 451-472. DOI: 10.1177/0957926501012004003
Abstract: This article attempts to extend politeness theory beyond informal situations to adversarial political discourse, using Prime Minister's Question Time in the British Parliament as data. Viewing the House of Commons as a 'community of practice' (Lave and Wenger, 1991) provides a way of exploring concepts of politeness and impoliteness against a set of member expectations. The article argues three main propositions: (1) that much of the discourse of Prime Minister's Question Time is composed of intentional and explicitly face-threatening (or face-enhancing) acts and that these can be analysed in terms of both propositional and interactional levels: (2) that negative politeness features co-exist with the performance of intentional threats to the hearer's positive face and that these can only be understood and interpreted in relationship to Parliament as an Institution and the wider political context; and (3) that systematic impoliteness is not only sanctioned but rewarded in accordance with the expectations of Members of the House by an adversarial and confrontational political process.
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(2016): Polite like an Egyptian?. Case Studies of Politeness in the Late Ramesside Letters. In: Journal of Politeness Research 12 (2), S. 149-153. DOI: 10.1515/pr-2016-0007
Abstract: The Late Ramesside Letters, a corpus of over 70 personal communications written in Late Egyptian, form one of the most complete letter collections from ancient Egypt (c. 1099-1069 BCE). A key feature of ancient Egyptian letter writing is the adherence to the social positions of, and relationships between, the interlocutors, allowing scholars to reconstruct the hierarchical network of individuals directly and indirectly included in the corpus. From this understanding, how can modern scholars discern what was considered to be 'polite' communicative behaviour within these relationships and how can developments in historical politeness help us do this? This article will explore three case studies surrounding different aspects of politeness research: first-order politeness, facework, and discernment politeness in order to explore the phenomenon of 'politeness' in Late Egyptian and reflect on the suitability of current politeness frameworks for the analysis of the Late Ramesside Letters.
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(2016): Special Issue: Case studies in historical politeness (ancient languages): Introduction. In: Journal of Politeness Research 12 (2), S. 149-153. DOI: 10.1515/pr-2016-0020
Abstract: The collection of papers included in this Special Issue represents the first contribution of its kind to the study of politeness, bringing together studies from across many different historical disciplines to collectively assess and challenge the concept of ‘politeness’ in the ancient world. Here, the authors of the papers experiment with modern politeness frameworks, assessing the different ways in which historical politeness can be understood and pursued. What becomes clear in these studies is that the modern concept of ‘politeness’ needs to be better defined when it is applied to the ancient world, especially if the culture or language system under study has no direct terminology or understanding of ‘politeness’ as it is defined today.
2015
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(2015): Der „kommunikative Raum“ in der kulturologischen (Un)Höflichkeitsforschung. In: Glottodidactica. An International Journal of Applied Linguistics 40 (1). DOI: 10.14746/gl.2013.40.1.3
Abstract: The paper attempts to define the term "communicative space” for (im)politeness research. “Communicative space” is a crucial notion for the definition of concepts such as “ritual balance”, “discursive rule”, “discursive position”, “territoriality”, “field of action” and “co-construction of communicative interaction” (Jacoby, Ochs 1995). “Communicative space” cannot be reduced to the mere physical space in which an (im)polite communicative interaction takes place (“transactional space” according to Kendon 1990). It is a mental space, which is “co-constructed” in so far as it is the result of the convergence of the mental worlds of interactants mediated by utterences. In this sense it can be defined as a “phenomenal space” which is ruled by structuring principles and field laws. The capacity of creating convergent communicative spaces is a key competence which lays the foundations for dialogue capacity and permits successful communicative interactions; therefore it is defined as a very important educational goal in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (2001).
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(2015): The landscape of impoliteness research. In: Journal of Politeness Research 11 (2), S. 329-354. DOI: 10.1515/pr-2015-0013
Abstract: This article attempts to give a state-of-the-art picture of impoliteness studies and to indicate a few prospective research directions to enrich them. It critically surveys a number of theoretical and methodological problems (impoliteness vs. rudeness; intention; sanctioned face-threat; and impoliteness strategies), as well as the paramount topics of investigation (such as disagreement; arguments; insults, taboo words; or sarcasm), and discourse domains in which impoliteness can be found. Importantly, this paper brings to focus a selection of notions central to impoliteness, albeit not yet widely recognized in the scholarship on impoliteness. These include: slurs; pejoratives; and a number of phenomena promoted by computer mediated communication (e.g., flaming or trolling).
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(2015): Interpersonal pragmatics and its link to (im)politeness research. In: Journal of Pragmatics 86, S. 5-10. DOI: 10.1016/j.pragma.2015.05.010
Abstract: In light of the fact that politeness research has been on the map since the 1970s, this paper revisits some of the more recent developments. The scope of analysis has been widened from face-maintaining and face-enhancing data to instances of conflictual and face-aggravating behaviour. There is an increase in discussions about appropriate methodological and theoretical approaches to politeness, and we see a tendency to creatively draw on approaches from other fields (such as identity construction research). These trends have made the field an especially vibrant one that is currently witnessing a struggle to (re)define its focus. Two connected issues (clarifying and refining the scope of our research questions and efforts of developing an interdisciplinary approach within interpersonal pragmatics) are particularly discussed in an endeavour to outline potential research paths. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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(2015) : INTRODUCING RELATIONAL WORK IN FACEBOOK AND DISCUSSION BOARDS In: Locher, Miriam A.; Bolander, Brook; Höhn, Nicole (Hg.): Relational work in Facebook and discussion boards/fora, S. 1-21
Abstract: This paper functions as the introduction to the special issue on ‘relational work in Facebook and discussion boards’. We position our research endeavors within interpersonal pragmatics (see Locher and Graham 2010), by reviewing literature on politeness, impoliteness and relational work in the context of computer-mediated communication. Foregrounding the relational aspect of language, we are particularly interested in establishing the connections between politeness, face and linguistic identity construction. We then position the four papers that form this special issue within this field of research. Two papers contribute to the study of relational work on discussion boards (Kleinke and Boes; Haugh, Chang and Kádár) and two deal with practices on Facebook (Theodoropoulou; Bolander and Locher).
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(2015): Agency, accountability and evaluations of impoliteness. In: Journal of Politeness Research 11 (2), S. 207-238. DOI: 10.1515/pr-2015-0009
Abstract: It is now well recognized that the recipients' evaluations need to be given serious consideration when theorizing impoliteness. Yet despite the importance placed on evaluations by recipients, the role of the recipient in interaction has been reduced through theorizing within the field to the ascribing of (perceived) intentions or interpreting of (perceived) social norms and expectations. We suggest, in this paper, that this under-theorizes the role of the recipient vis-a-vis evaluations of impoliteness. Building on an account of (im)politeness as social practice (Haugh 2013b, 2015; Kadar and Haugh 2013), we argue that evaluations of impoliteness inevitably involve those recipients construing the speaker's action as a particular kind of social action, and holding them accountable for that particular kind of social action with respect to particular dimension(s) of the moral order (Haugh 2013a, 2015). The accountability of social action is underpinned, in part, by the presumed agency of participants. Agency involves the socially mediated capacity to act that is afforded through 1. knowing one has the ability to act, 2. knowing that these actions may affect others (and self), and 3. knowing that one will thus be held accountable for those actions (Ahearn 2001; Duranti 2004; Mitchell forthcoming). We argue that a focus on agency in theorizing impoliteness allows for the ways in which recipients do not just simply invoke social norms or (in some cases at least) perceived speaker intentions in evaluating talk or conduct as impolite, but may also exercise their own agency in construing the speaker's actions as a particular kind of action, and thus as offensive or not. It is concluded that the agency exercised by recipients with respect to the degree to which they hold speakers accountable for impolite or offensive stances needs to be examined more carefully in theorizing about (im) politeness more generally.
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(2015): Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Im/politeness. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company
Abstract: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Im/politeness brings together the work of linguists, psychologists, neuroscientists, and second language experts in order to provide readers with a snapshot of the possibilities for studying im/politeness in the 21st century. The volume is organized along methodological lines in three parts each preceded by a brief introduction outlining the evolution and advantages and disadvantages of the relevant methodologies, while a specially commissioned epilogue places the volume in the field as a whole. Part I is dedicated to self-reporting studies, Part II covers observational studies, and Part III introduces experimental studies. A central goal of the present collection is to make a case for the relevance of all these types of data and of both quantitative and qualitative methodologies to the ongoing theoretical debates in the field of im/politeness.
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(2015): Journal of Politeness Research. Introduction. In: Journal of Politeness Research 11 (2), S. 165-178. DOI: 10.1515/pr-2015-0007
Abstract: This issue marks the 10th year anniversary of the Journal of Politeness Research: Language, behaviour, culture. Ten years ago, founding Editor-in-Chief Christine Christie established the journal as an "international and multidisciplinary forum for research into linguistic and non-linguistic politeness phenomena" (Christie 2005: 1). Under her editorial guidance, the journal published a great number of papers which embodied this founding principle. In 2010, Derek Bousfield and Karen Grainger took over the editorship and in 2013 Karen Grainger became the sole Editor-in-Chief, and the Journal of Politeness Research has grown and matured further under the stewardship of Bousfield and Grainger. Today, with the invaluable contributions of authors and reviewers, and the continuous support of the journal's readership, editorial team and advisory board, the journal remains a flagship for and a pioneer of research into all kinds of politeness phenomena. To celebrate this 10th year anniversary, it is worth reviewing in detail what has been achieved so far, and to take a look at promising future developments of politeness research.
2014
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(2014): Politeness processing as situated social cognition. A RT-theoretic account. In: Journal of Pragmatics 71, S. 117-131. DOI: 10.1016/j.pragma.2014.07.010
Abstract: That Relevance Theory (RT) is capable in principle of explaining social or interpersonal dimensions of verbal communication has been adequately documented in the literature (as partly summarized in Wilson and Sperber, 2005). Of all the available attempts at applying the theory in this direction, the most discussed issue is perhaps politeness. Major studies along this line include Escandell-Vidal (1996, 1998), Jary (1998a), Watts (1989, 2003), Christie (2007) and Ruhi (2008). Admittedly, these studies have advanced our understanding of how politeness is processed in the course of communication, but some new issues have arisen, mainly including (i) whether the use of conventional polite forms relative to their default contexts is communicatively relevant or not; (ii) what politeness is taken to be social adequacy, means of maintaining or improving social relations, or perlocutionary effect; (iii) whether politeness interpretation relies on the recognition of speakers' intention or not; (iv) how frames, schemata, etc. are activated in the course of politeness interpretation such that the same utterance might be assigned different interpretations, polite, neutral, or impolite; and (v) whether the communication of politeness is an individual-based social act or a joint action. These issues make it necessary to continue the discussion further. Accordingly, my aim in this study is to propose a new account of how RT might be employed to more fully explain the phenomenon of politeness. Drawing on the fundamental assumptions of RT, together with some pertinent insights on situated social cognition (Langlotz, 2010), I explore the cognitive processing of politeness in three major types of case: the situated use of conventional polite forms, contents, and associations. Approaching politeness in relevance-theoretic terms, I will argue that (i) politeness processing is a matter of situated social cognition, involving interaction between assumptions derived from various sources in a dynamic context; (ii) situated social cognition of polite behavior as a joint act which may be conscious to varying degrees is relevance-oriented; and (iii) processing different manifestations of politeness in dynamic contexts is communicatively relevant in that it yields interpersonal cognitive effects as part and parcel of utterance meaning. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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(2014): The pragmatics of politeness. Oxford u.a.: Oxford Univ. Press (Oxford studies in sociolinguistics). Online verfügbar unter http://lib.myilibrary.com?id=610156
Abstract: This readable book presents a new general theoretical understanding of politeness. It offers an account of a wide range of politeness phenomena in English, illustrated by hundreds of examples of actual language use taken largely from authentic British and American sources. Building on his earlier pioneering work on politeness, Geoffrey Leech takes a pragmatic approach that is based on the controversial notion that politeness is communicative altruism. Leech's 1983 book, Principles of Pragmatics, introduced the now widely-accepted distinction between pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic aspects of politeness; this book returns to the pragmalinguistic side, somewhat neglected in recent work. Drawing on neo-Gricean thinking, Leech rejects the prevalent view that it is impossible to apply the terms 'polite' or 'impolite' to linguistic phenomena. Leech covers all major speech acts that are either positively or negatively associated with politeness, such as requests, apologies, compliments, offers, criticisms, good wishes, condolences, congratulations, agreement, and disagreement. Additional chapters deal with impoliteness and the related phenomena of irony ("mock politeness") and banter ("mock impoliteness"), and with the role of politeness in the learning of English as a second language. A final chapter takes a fascinating look at more than a thousand years of history of politeness in the English language.
2013
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(2013): Introduction. Face, identity and im/politeness. Looking backward, moving forward: From Goffman to practice theory. In: Journal of Politeness Research 9 (1), S. 1-33. DOI: 10.1515/pr-2013-0001
Abstract: The field of linguistic politeness has of late experienced a renewed interest in conceptualizations of one of its core concepts, face. Since the publication of Brown and Levinson’s formative paper in 1978 and the subsequent application of its tenets, politeness scholars, mainly Asian and non-Anglo, have raised concerns regarding the suitability of Brown and Levinson’s conceptualization of face to their respective cultures (Wierzbicka 1985; Matsumoto 1988; Ide 1989; Gu 1990; Nwoye 1992; Mao 1994). Different options were put forth to solve what was seen by many as a fundamental flaw of the model, from culture-specific reconceptualizations (Sifianou 1992; Strecker 1993; Bravo 1999) to elaborations (O’Driscoll 1996; Terkourafi 2008) or simplifications (Bousfield 2008). Some (Bargiela-Chiappini 2003; Locher and Watts 2005), have argued for a return to the Goffmanian essence of face. Yet, others, Arundale (2006, 2009, 2010), have posited new approaches to face inspired by more current models of communication based on the dyad and on social constructionist premises or have come up with discursive accounts of face (O’Driscoll 2011, Sifianou 2011). Furthermore, there seems to be a consensus that to come to grips with an understanding of face, it has to be studied on its own right, aside from politeness (Bargiela Chiappini and Haugh 2009; Haugh and Bargiela-Chiappini 2010). This renewed interest in face has coincided with the advent, albeit with some delay, of the discursive turn within politeness scholarship. The discursive turn refers to the strong trend that emerged toward the end of the 20th century to reconfigure the subject as something socio-cultural and socio-historical: an unfinished product of discourse (Benwell and Stokoe 2006). Its impact on im/politeness scholarship has been manifold. Among the many effects, it has had important repercussions for the relationship between face and identity, the focus of this special issue.
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(2013): Understanding politeness. 1. publ. Cambridge u.a.: Cambridge University Press
Abstract: Politeness is key to all of our relationships and plays a fundamental part in the way we communicate with each other and the way we define ourselves. It is not limited only to conventional aspects of linguistic etiquette, but encompasses all types of interpersonal behaviour through which we explore and maintain our relationships. This groundbreaking exploration navigates the reader through this fascinating area and introduces them to a variety of new insights. The book is divided into three parts and is based on an innovative framework which relies on the concepts of social practice, time and space. In this multidisciplinary approach, the authors capture a range of user and observer understandings and provide a variety of examples from different languages and cultures. With its reader-friendly style, carefully constructed exercises and useful glossary, Understanding Politeness will be welcomed by both researchers and postgraduate students working on politeness, pragmatics and sociolinguistics more broadly.
Keywords: Disziplin, Dritte Welle, Favoriten, frames, Good manners, Höflichkeit, Höflichkeitsforschung, Höflichkeitsforschung der dritten Welle, (Im)Politeness Research, Linguistik, Modelle/Theorien, Observablen/Kriterien für sozial angemessenes Verhalten und dessen Bewertung, Soziale Angemessenheit, Sozialer Raum / Kultureller Kontext, Überblick, Understandings of politeness -
(2013): An Overview of Politeness Theories: Current Status, Future Orientations. In: American Journal of Linguistics 2 (2), S. 17-27
Abstract: This paper is an endeavour to depict a holistic image of theories of politeness ranging from classic theories of politeness to the most up-to-date theories. To this end, the reviews of the social norm view, the conversational maxim view, the conversational-contract view, Brown and Levinson’s face-saving view, Arndt and Jannaey’s Supportive face-work and interpersonal politeness, Spencer-Oatey’s view of rapport management, Ide’s notion of discernment and volition, Scollon and Scollon’s intercultural communication, and Watt’s politeness view are provided and the main tenets of every theory are explained critically. The explanation of the current status of theories of politeness would be followed by conclusions that provide some orientations for future studies conducted on politeness.
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(2013): The impact of globalisation on politeness and impoliteness. In: Journal of Pragmatics 55, S. 86-102. DOI: 10.1016/j.pragma.2013.05.016
Abstract: Globalisation tends to be perceived as one of the most powerful forces shaping today's world. In its simplest sense, globalisation refers to the acceleration of processes of interconnectedness in every aspect of social life. It is assumed that this will lead to the homogenisation of the world under the influence of the omnipresent American culture. However, since globalisation is a process rather than an end state, its consequences are contingent on various factors and are, therefore, uncertain and unpredictable. Discourse practices fall within the heart of this interconnectedness not least because it entails various kinds of interaction. In this paper, I would like to consider if and to what extent globalisation affects the expression of politeness and impoliteness. I will draw my evidence from the service sector, primarily in Greece and in England. More specifically, I will consider issues of formality and informality and terms of address, drawing from naturally occurring data and research findings. Such evidence may offer indications as to the kinds of changes that increased interconnectedness may produce. Without denying the homogenising power of globalisation, it is argued that greater interconnectedness does not necessarily mean cultural homogenisation but rather change arising out of various sources. (c) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
2012
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Bax, Marcel; Kádár, Dániel Z. (Hg.) (2012): Understanding historical (im)politeness. Relational linguistic practice over time and across cultures. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Pub. Co (Benjamins Current Topics)
DOI: http://site.ebrary.com/lib/uniregensburg/Doc?id=10613337 Abstract: Exploring a largely uncharted territory of cultural history and linguistic ethnography, Understanding Historical (Im)Politeness offers in-depth analyses and perceptive interpretations of the conveyance of social-relational meaning in times (long) past and across historical cultures. A collection of essays from the pens of authoritative historical (pragma)-linguistics researchers, the volume examines the forms and functions of historical (im)politeness, varying from single utterances and act sequences to fully-fledged (im)polite speech encounters and genres, with a focus on their period- and culture-bound appraisal. What is more, the book sheds light on what is still very dimly seen: diachronic trends in ‘relational work’ and the cultural-societal factors behind patterns of sociopragmatic change. The volume reviews theoretical concepts, methods and analytical approaches to improve our present-day understanding of the historical understanding of relational practices of the distant as well as the more recent past. Since it includes newly established themes and positions and breaks new ground, this collection furthers considerably the field of historical (im)politeness research. [This paper is intended as an overall template of the evolution of (im)politeness. It elucidates how (linguistic) rapport management originated and developed over time, and tries to come to grips with (some of) the sociocultural factors behind such changes. Taking its point of departure in human prehistory (Section?1), the paper argues that, contrary to received wisdom, politeness and impoliteness are not two sides of the same coin (Section?2), and it discusses the dissimilar evolutionary antecedents of politeness and impoliteness (Sections 3 and 4). The paper then maps out three broad-scale di Includes bibliographical references and index]
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(2012): Epilogue: The first-second order distinction in face and politeness research. In: Journal of Politeness Research 8 (1), S. 111-134. DOI: 10.1515/pr-2012-0007
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(2012): (Im)politeness in cross-cultural encounters. In: Language and Intercultural Communication 12 (4), S. 284-301. DOI: 10.1080/14708477.2012.722097
Abstract: In this article I will first discuss the notions of 'politeness' and 'impoliteness' including a multilevel model of politeness and impoliteness that relates universal levels to culture-and language-specific ones. Given this framework and my earlier postulation of a set of parameters along which members of two linguacultures differ in terms of communicative styles and preferences conventionally holding in a particular linguaculture, I will provide several examples of cross-cultural interactions in academic advising sessions. These examples will be discussed and some conclusions about misunderstandings in cross-cultural communication and ways to mitigate or avoid them will be drawn.