Politeness in Mexico and the United States

Transcription

1 Linga-Bibliothek Linga A/ Politeness in Mexico and the United States A contrastive study of the realization and perception of refusals J. Cesar Pelix-Brasdefer Indiana University John Benjamins Publishing Company Amsterdam / Philadelphia

2 Table of contents List of figures and tables Transcription conventions Acknowledgements ix xi xm Introduction 1 CHAPTER 1 The scope of politeness Introduction Origins of polite behavior: Past to present The politeness 1 vs politeness2 distinction Grices cooperative principle and the maxim of politeness Face/facework, politeness, and relational work Goffman's notion of 'face' and facework LakofFs rules of politeness Leech's politeness principles Brown and Levinson's universal model of linguistic politeness Fraser's conversational contract Arndt and Janneys' supportive facework and interpersonal politeness Spencer-Oatey s view of rapport management Ides typology of linguistic politeness: Discernment and volition Haverkate's typology of politeness strategies: Functional and formal categories Scollon & Scollon's intercultural communication and face systems Watts' politic behavior and relational work The current study: Face, relational work, and polite behavior Concluding remarks 33

3 n Politeness in Mexico and the United States CHAPTER 2 Speech acts in context: Refusals Introduction Speech act theory Speech act theory as an approach for examining speech act sequences Internal modification of a refusal sequence: Epistemic markers Speech acts in context The speech act of refusals Empirical studies on refusals Studies on English and Spanish refusals Concluding remarks 55 CHAPTER 3 Methodology and organization of the study Introduction Methodological issues: Data collection methods in pragmatics research Ethnographic data Production questionnaires: Discourse completion tasks Role plays Verbal reports Organization of the current study Participants Instrumentation Pilot study Participants, instrumentation, and data collection procedures Results of the pilot study Data collection procedures for the current study Role-play scenarios used in the present study Retrospective verbal reports Pragmatic strategies as manifestations of relational work Pragmatic strategies that comprise the speech act set of refusals Direct refusals Indirect refusals Adjuncts to refusals 79

4 Table of contents vn Internal modification of a refusal sequence: Expressions of epistemic modality Data analysis 82 CHAPTER 4 Results: Relational work and linguistic politeness: The negotiation of refusals by Mexicans and Americans Introduction Refusal strategies as manifestations of relational work Individual variability and speech act production Face systems and situational variation Hierarchical face system: Farewell, Bookstore, Advisor (+P, +D) The negotiation of face in an employee-boss relationship: Farewell and Bookstore Refusing a professor's suggestion: Advisor (+P, +D) Deference face system - Notes (-P, +D) Solidarity face system - Birthday and Bar (-P, -D) Declining an invitation from a friend - Birthday (-D) Refusing a friends suggestion to go to a bar - Bar (-D) Internal modification of the refusal sequence: Expressions of epistemic modality Mental state predicates Modal adverbs Degree modifiers Tag questions Concluding remarks 136 CHAPTER 5 Results: Perceptions of politeness: Cultural values of refusals among Mexicans and Americans Introduction Cognition: Attention to linguistic and sociocultural information Perception of refusals in a hierarchical face system (+P, +D) Perception of refusals in a deference face system (-P, +D) Perception of refusals in a solidarity face system (-P, -D) Perception of directness or indirectness 149

5 vin Politeness in Mexico and the United States 5.4 Perception regarding an insistence in the act of declining an invitation Concluding remarks 156 CHAPTER 6 Conclusions and discussion Introductory remarks The negotiation of a refusal and face systems Forms of address and linguistic politeness Insistence as a discourse strategy The discourse function of epistemic expressions: Internal modification of a refusal Perceptions of politeness The notion of 'face' in Mexico Refusals across languages Issues on research methodology and implications for future research 172 References 175 Appendix 185 Author index 191 Subject index 193