(Im)politeness as intersubjective achievement: A comparative study of power interruptions in two radio phone-in programmes

Milan Ferenčík

(Im)politeness as intersubjective achievement: A comparative study of power interruptions in two radio phone-in programmes

Vol.1,No.1(2008)

PDF

One of the serious issues of theorizing about politeness that has recently been raised (Eelen 2001, Watts 2003) is whether the current politeness models devised by researchers adequately account for concepts and procedures to which social actors adhere when engaging themselves in real-life interactions. As an alternative to the core politeness theories of considerable tradition and volume of research that they have inspired and which conceive of politeness as a set of strategies designed to achieve harmony, avoid interpersonal confl ict, enhance mutual co-operation, attend to face-wants, stay within the terms of the current Conversational Contract etc., a newly emerging paradigm of politeness understood as “discursive struggle” approaches (im)politeness issues as being discursively struggled over by the interlocutors themselves in the course of ongoing interaction. Informed by the theoretical and methodological underpinnings of this novel model of politeness and using authentic data from two radio phone-in discussion programmes from two different socio-cultural settings the paper analyzes those instances of authentic interaction involving power interruptions in which interactants appear to be engaged in the struggle for the achievement of mutually shared understanding of what constitutes (im)polite behaviour.

References

Brown, P., Levinson, S. C. (1987) Politeness: Some Universals in Language Use.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Eelen, G. (2001) A Critique of Politeness Theories. Manchester: St. Jerome Publishing.

Ferenčík, M. (2006) ‘Non-impolite interruptions: Politeness aspects of recognitional
interruptions on talk radio.’ In: Mačura, M., Miššíková, G. (eds) Trends and
Perspectives. 1st Nitra Conference on Discourse Studies. Nitra: FF UKF. 47-58.

Fraser, B. (1990) ‘Perspectives on politeness.’ Journal of Pragmatics 14, 219-236.
He, Agnes W. (2004) ‘Identity construction in Chinese heritage language classes.’
Pragmatics 4/2, 199-216. DOI: 10.1016/0378-2166(90)90081-N

Henley, N., Thorne, B. (1975) Language and Sex: Difference of Dominance.
Massachussetts: Newbury House Publishers, Inc.

Goldberg, J. (1990) ‘Interrupting the discourse on interruptions: An analysis in terms
of relationally neutral, power and rapport oriented acts.’ Journal of Pragmatics 14,
883-903. DOI: 10.1016/0378-2166(90)90045-F

Guillot, M-N. (2005) ‘Revisiting the methodological debate on interruptions: From
measurement to classifi cation in the annotation of data for cross-cultural research.’
Pragmatics 15/1, 25-47.

Kasper, G. (1994) ‘Politeness.’ In: Asher, R. E. (ed.) The Encyclopedia of Language and
Linguistics. Oxford: Pergamon Press.

Locher, M. A., Watts, R. J. (2005) ‘Politeness theory and relational work.’ Journal of
Politeness Research: Language, Behaviour, Culture 1/1, 9-33.

Miššíková, G. (2006) ‘Politeness principle and its maxims in discourse of a talk-show.’
In: Mačura, M., Miššíková, G. (eds) Trends and Perspectives. 1st Nitra Conference on
Discourse Studies. Nitra: FF UKF. 107-116.

Psathas, G. (1995) Conversation Analysis: The Study of Talk-in-Interaction. Thousand
Oaks: Sage Publishers.

Talbot, M. (1992) ‘“I wish youd stop interrupting me!”: Interruptions and asymmetries in
speaker rights in equal encounters.’ Journal of Pragmatics 14, 451-466. DOI: 10.1016/0378-2166(92)90084-O

Thornborrow, J. (2001) ‘Authenticating talk: Building public identities in audience
participation broadcasts.’ Discourse Studies 3/4, 459-479. DOI: 10.1177/1461445601003004008

Watts, R. J. (2003) Politeness. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Watts, R. J., Ide, S., Ehlich, K. (eds) (1992) Politeness in Language: Studies in its History,
Theory and Practice. Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter.

Watts, R. J., Ide, S., Ehlich, K. (eds) (2005) Politeness in Language: Studies in its History,
Theory and Practice. 2nd ed. Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter.

Watts, R.J. (2005) ‘Linguistic politeness research: Quo vadis?’ In: Watts, R. J., Ide, S.,
Ehlich, K. (eds) Politeness in Language: Studies in its History, Theory and Practice.
2nd ed. Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter.

Metrics

224

Views

206

PDF views

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

PDF