Considering (im)politeness strategies in Internet Relay Chat opening sequences

Vol.4,No.1(2011)

Abstract
Certain rules are observed taking place during conversation openings in a synchronous Internet Relay Chat (IRC) interaction. It is recognized that through openings a chat participant gives the main impression and positive or negative signal to other participants in a chatroom. However, it is assumed that opening techniques known from face-to-face communication will play a smaller role in the overall interaction and their violation will not be viewed so sternly. The question thus remains whether politeness/impoliteness strategies on IRC differ from those in a standard face-to-face conversation and what counts as polite/impolite in a chatroom. The politeness theory of Watts (2003) has been chosen for its novel approach. The article briefl y outlines a body of research carried out in IRC openings and shows results of the analysis of various methods of openings found in the corpus.

Keywords:
opening strategies; politeness theory of Watts; politeness; impoliteness; appropriateness; efficiency
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