Broadening the Horizon of Linguistic Politeness
University of California, Berkeley / Japan Women’s University
This collection of 19 papers celebrates the coming of age of the field of politeness studies, now in its 30th year. It begins with an investigation of the meaning of politeness, especially linguistic politeness, and presents a short history of the field of linguistic politeness studies, showing how such studies go beyond the boundaries of conventional linguistic work, incorporating, as they do, non-language insights. The emphasis of the volume is on non-Western languages and the ways linguistic politeness is achieved with them. Many, if not most, studies have focused on Western languages, but the languages highlighted here show new and different aspects of the phenomena.
The purpose of linguistic politeness is to aid in successful communication throughout the world, and this volume offers a balance of geographical distribution not found elsewhere, including Japanese, Thai, and Chinese, as well as Greek, Swedish and Spanish. It covers such theoretical topics as face, wakimae, social levels, gender-related differences in language usage, directness and indirectness, and intercultural perspectives.
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 139]
2005.
xii, 342 pp.
Publishing status: Available
Hardbound – Available
ISBN
9789027253828
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EUR
120.00
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USD
180.00
e-Book – Sold by e-book platforms
ISBN
9789027294111
|
EUR
120.00
|
USD
180.00
Table of Contents
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Acknowledgments
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ix
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Foreword
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xi–xii
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Introduction: Broadening the horizon of linguistic politeness
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1–20
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Part I. General overviews
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Civility and its discontents: Or, getting in your face
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23–43
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How and why honorifics can signify dignity and elegance: The indexicality and reflexivity of linguistic rituals
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45–64
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Whither politeness
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65–83
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Part II. The theoretical perspective
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Yoroshiku onegaishimasu: Routine practice of the routine formula in Japanese
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87–97
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An argument for a frame-based approach to politeness: Evidence from the use of the imperative in Cypriot Greek
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99–116
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The significance of ‘face’ and politeness in social interaction as revealed through Thai ‘face’ idioms
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117–125
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Part III. The descriptive perspective
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Face threatening acts, primary face threatening acts, and the management of discourse: Australian English and speakers of Asian Englishes
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129–144
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Politeness in Thai computer-mediated communication
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145–162
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Polite diminutives in Spanish: A matter of size?
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163–173
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Indirectness as a politeness strategy of Thai speakers
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175–193
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Part IV. The comparative perspective
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Japanese honorifics as a marker of sociocultural identity: A view from non-western perspectives
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197–215
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Directness as a source of misunderstanding: The case of requests and suggestions
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217–234
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Forms of address in Irish and Swedish
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235–244
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Women, men and polite requests: English and Greek
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245–274
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Privacy: An intercultural perspective
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275–282
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Selection of linguistic forms for requests and offers: Comparison between English and Chinese
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283–298
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Part V. The historical perspective
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Japanese pronouns of address: Their behavior and maintenance over time
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301–313
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An aspect of the origins and development of linguistic politeness in Thai
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315–335
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Index
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337–342
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Quotes
“The papers are a welcome addition to the literature on politeness and will have broadened the base from which scholarship that attempts to develop an etic model of politeness can draw its evidence. [...] To the extent that the volume offers perspectives on politeness behaviour from a range of cultural insiders, it is a useful contribution to the body of evidence against which claims about universality can be tested.”
Chris Christie, Loughborough University
Subjects
Benjamins Subject classification
BIC Subject
CF: Linguistics
BISAC Subject
LAN009000: LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics
U.S. Library of Congress Control Number: 2005048400