Politeness in Mexico and the United States : a contrastive study of the realization and perception of refusals / J. Cesar Felix-Brasdefer.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Félix-Brasdefer, J. César.

Series:

Pragmatics & beyond ; v. 171.

Pragmatics & beyond new series, 0922-842X ; v. 171

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Politeness (Linguistics)--Mexico.

Politeness (Linguistics).

Politeness (Linguistics)--United States.

Speech acts (Linguistics).

Interpersonal relations.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (216 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Philadelphia : J. Benjamins Pub. Co., c2007.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This book explores the issue of politeness phenomena and socially appropriate behavior in two societies, Mexico and the United States, in three different contexts: refusing invitations, requests, and suggestions. In addition to a state-of-the-art review of the speech act of refusals in numerous languages, the book provides a rigorous analysis of data collection methods utilized to examine speech act behavior at the production and perception levels. Many examples of native speaker interactions illustrate the similarities and differences observed in the realization patterns and the perception of refusals by Mexicans and Americans in formal and informal situations. The data are analyzed in terms of refusal sequences and pragmatic strategies which are strategically used to carry out relational work during the negotiation of face. The results of the quantitative and qualitative analyses are interpreted in light of the notions of face, politeness, and relational work in Mexico and the United States. This publication will be of interest to researchers and students in pragmatics and discourse analysis, cross-cultural communication, and sociology.

Contents:

Politeness in Mexico and the United States

Editorial page

Title page

LCC data

Table of contents

List of figures and tables

Figures

Tables

Transcription conventions

Acknowledgements

Introduction

1. The scope of politeness

1.1 Introduction

1.2 Origins of polite behavior: Past to present

1.3 The politeness1 vs politeness2 distinction

1.4 Grice's cooperative principle and the maxim of politeness

1.5 Face/facework, politeness, and relational work

1.6 Concluding remarks

2. Speech acts in context

2.1 Introduction

2.2 Speech act theory

2.3 Speech act theory as an approach for examining speech act sequences

2.4 Speech acts in context

2.5 The speech act of refusals

2.6 Concluding remarks

3. Methodology and organization of the study

3.1 Introduction

3.2 Methodological issues: Data collection methods in pragmatics research

3.3 Organization of the current study

3.4 Pilot study

3.5 Data collection procedures for the current study

3.6 Pragmatic strategies as manifestations of relational work

3.7 Data analysis

4. Results

4.1 Introduction

4.2 Refusal strategies as manifestations of relational work

4.3 Individual variability and speech act production

4.4 Face systems and situational variation

4.5 Internal modification of the refusal sequence: Expressions of epistemic modality

4.6 Concluding remarks

5. Results

5.1 Introduction

5.2 Cognition: Attention to linguistic and sociocultural information

5.3 Perception of directness or indirectness

5.4 Perception regarding an insistence in the act of declining an invitation

5.5 Concluding remarks

6. Conclusions and discussion

6.1 Introductory remarks

6.2 The negotiation of a refusal and face systems

6.3 Insistence as a discourse strategy.

6.4 The discourse function of epistemic expressions: Internal modification of a refusal

6.5 Perceptions of politeness

6.6 The notion of 'face' in Mexico

6.7 Refusals across languages

6.8 Issues on research methodology and implications for future research

References

appendix

Appendix IA. Role plays (Americans)

Appendix IB. Role plays (Mexicans)

Author index

Subject index

The Pragmatics &amp

Beyond New Series.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9786612152115

9781282152113

1282152114

9789027291448

9027291446

OCLC:

608622256