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.
Author(s): J. César Félix-Brasdefer
Series: Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 171
Publisher: John Benjamins
Year: 2008
Language: English
Pages: 195
Politeness in Mexico and the United States......Page 2
Editorial page......Page 3
Title page......Page 4
LCC data......Page 5
Table of contents......Page 6
Figures......Page 10
Tables......Page 11
Transcription conventions......Page 12
Acknowledgements......Page 14
Introduction......Page 16
1.2 Origins of polite behavior: Past to present......Page 22
1.3 The politeness1 vs politeness2 distinction......Page 25
1.4 Grice’s cooperative principle and the maxim of politeness......Page 26
1.5 Face/facework, politeness, and relational work......Page 28
1.6 Concluding remarks......Page 48
2.2 Speech act theory......Page 50
2.3 Speech act theory as an approach for examining speech act sequences......Page 54
2.4 Speech acts in context......Page 56
2.5 The speech act of refusals......Page 57
2.6 Concluding remarks......Page 70
3.2 Methodological issues: Data collection methods in pragmatics research......Page 72
3.3 Organization of the current study......Page 77
3.4 Pilot study......Page 79
3.5 Data collection procedures for the current study......Page 83
3.6 Pragmatic strategies as manifestations of relational work......Page 87
3.7 Data analysis......Page 97
4.1 Introduction......Page 100
4.2 Refusal strategies as manifestations of relational work......Page 101
4.3 Individual variability and speech act production......Page 107
4.4 Face systems and situational variation......Page 109
4.5 Internal modification of the refusal sequence: Expressions of epistemic modality......Page 141
4.6 Concluding remarks......Page 151
5.2 Cognition: Attention to linguistic and sociocultural information......Page 154
5.3 Perception of directness or indirectness......Page 164
5.4 Perception regarding an insistence in the act of declining an invitation......Page 168
5.5 Concluding remarks......Page 171
6.1 Introductory remarks......Page 174
6.2 The negotiation of a refusal and face systems......Page 175
6.3 Insistence as a discourse strategy......Page 178
6.4 The discourse function of epistemic expressions: Internal modification of a refusal......Page 179
6.5 Perceptions of politeness......Page 180
6.6 The notion of ‘face’ in Mexico......Page 181
6.7 Refusals across languages......Page 183
6.8 Issues on research methodology and implications for future research......Page 187
References......Page 190
Appendix IA. Role plays (Americans)......Page 200
Appendix IB. Role plays (Mexicans)......Page 203
Author index......Page 206
Subject index......Page 208
The Pragmatics & Beyond New Series......Page 212
