Alle Publikationen
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2016
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(2016): Politeness and the communication of uncertainty. In: Cognition 154, S. 1-10. DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2016.05.005
DOI: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27232520 Abstract: Ambiguity in language derives, in part, from the multiple motivations that underlie the choice to use any particular expression. The use of some lexical items, such as probability expressions and scalar terms, can be motivated by a desire to communicate uncertainty as well as a desire to be polite (i.e., manage face). Research has demonstrated that the interpretation of these items can be influenced by the existence of a potential politeness motive. In general, communications about negative events, relative to positive events, result in higher likelihood estimates whenever politeness can be discerned as a potential motive. With few exceptions, however, this research has focused only on the hearer. In the present research we focused on the dyad and examined whether speakers vary their messages as a function of politeness, and the effect that this has on subsequent judgments made by a recipient. In two experiments we presented participants with situations that varied in terms of face-threat and asked them how they would communicate potentially threatening information. Both experiments included a second set of participants who read these utterances and provided judgments as to the degree of uncertainty conveyed by the utterance. In both experiments, messages in the face-threatening condition conveyed greater uncertainty than messages in the non-face-threatening condition, and the probability estimates made by the second set of participants varied as a function of conveyed uncertainty. This research demonstrates that when examining speakers and hearers together, severe events may be judged less likely (rather than more likely), because speakers tend to hedge the certainty with which they communicate the information.
2015
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(2015) : Politeness and Language In: Wright, James D.: International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences (Second Edition): Oxford: Elsevier, S. 326-330
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-08-097086-8.53072-4 Abstract: This article assesses the advantages and limitations of three different approaches to the analysis of politeness in language: politeness as social rules, politeness as adherence to an expanded set ofGricean Maxims, and politeness as strategic attention to ‘face.’ It argues that only the last can account for the observable commonalities in polite expressions across diverse languages and cultures, and positions the analysis of politeness as strategic attention to face in the modern context of attention to the evolutionary origins and nature of human cooperation.
2006
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Encyclopedia of Language & Linguistics (2006). Amsterdam, Netherlands: Elsevier
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(2006) : Politeness: Encyclopedia of Language & Linguistics: Amsterdam, Netherlands: Elsevier, S. 679-684
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/B0-08-044854-2/00348-5 Abstract: Politeness is a controversial term, relevant to the linguist in two basic senses. The first is derived from folk notions of what constitutes polite or impolite behavior, and it is therefore a value-laden, culture-sensitive term. The second is as a technical term that has gained currency in the field of linguistics since the beginning – in the 1970s – of a scientific approach to the study of the phenomenon, whose character had thus far been understood as a more abstract and pancultural feature of human behavior and communication. This article outlines the development of the field of politeness studies and the ontological and epistemological issues on today's research agenda.
1998
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(1998): Relevance theory and the communication of politeness. In: Journal of Pragmatics 30 (1), S. 1-19. DOI: 10.1016/S0378-2166(98)80005-2
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0378-2166(98)80005-2 Abstract: Abstract Studies of linguistic politeness have traditionally assumed a Gricean norm-based approach to communication. On this view, instances of the use of polite forms and/or strategies necessarily communicate a message above and beyond the one that motivates the communicative act. The problems raised by this position are discussed and an alternative Relevance Theoretic account of polite verbal behaviour is proposed. This provides a far more fine-grained picture of politeness which (a) provides an alternative …
1996
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(1996): Towards a cognitive approach to politeness. In: Language Sciences 18 (3-4), S. 629-650. DOI: 10.1016/S0388-0001(96)00039-3
1995
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(1995): Passages of politeness. In: Journal of Pragmatics 24 (4), S. 381-392. DOI: 10.1016/0378-2166(94)00053-H
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/0378-2166(94)00053-H Abstract: This paper reexamines Brown and Levinson's theory of politeness and its application in subsequent studies and raises serious questions regarding its value for empirical studies. An alternative view of politeness is offered, and in light of this, a new approach to the analysis of Repair Work, placed within a more comprehensive framework of social interaction, is outlined.
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