Broadening the Horizon of Linguistic Politeness
Edited by Robin T. Lakoff and Sachiko Ide
University of California, Berkeley / Japan Women’s University
John Benjamins Publishing Company
Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 139
2005. xii, 342 pp.

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.

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Table of contents

Acknowledgments ix
Foreword xi–xii

Introduction: Broadening the horizon of linguistic politeness
Robin T. Lakoff and Sachiko Ide 1–20

Part I. General overviews: The plenary papers

Civility and its discontents: Or, getting in your face
Robin T. Lakoff 23–43

How and why honorifics can signify dignity and elegance: The indexicality and reflexivity of linguistic rituals
Sachiko Ide 45–64

Whither politeness
Bruce Fraser 65–83

Part II. The theoretical perspective

Yoroshiku onegaishimasu: Routine practice of the routine formula in Japanese
Makiko Takekuro 87–97

An argument for a frame-based approach to politeness: Evidence from the use of the imperative in Cypriot Greek
Marina Terkourafi 99–116

The significance of ‘face’ and politeness in social interaction as revealed through Thai ‘face’ idioms
Margaret Ukosakul 117–125

Part III. The descriptive perspective

Face threatening acts, primary face threatening acts, and the management of discourse: Australian English and speakers of Asian Englishes
Christopher J. Conlan 129–144

Politeness in Thai computer-mediated communication
Krisadawan Hongladarom and Soraj Hongladarom 145–162

Polite diminutives in Spanish: A matter of size?
Martha Mendoza 163–173

Indirectness as a politeness strategy of Thai speakers
Deeyu Srinarawat 175–193

Part IV. The comparative perspective

Japanese honorifics as a marker of sociocultural identity: A view from non-western perspectives
Megumi Yoshida and Chikako Sakurai 197–215

Directness as a source of misunderstanding: The case of requests and suggestions
Alexandra Kallia 217–234

Forms of address in Irish and Swedish
Anders Ahlqvist 235–244

Women, men and polite requests: English and Greek
Ekaterini Kouletaki 245–274

Privacy: An intercultural perspective
Mark Lê 275–282

Selection of linguistic forms for requests and offers: Comparison between English and Chinese

Masako Tsuzuki, Kazuhiro Takahashi, Cynthia Patschke and Qin Zhang 283–298

Part V. The historical perspective

Japanese pronouns of address: Their behavior and maintenance over time
Andrew Barke and Satoshi Uehara 301–313

An aspect of the origins and development of linguistic politeness in Thai
Wilaiwan Khanittanan 315–335

Index 337–342

Posted by Evelin at April 26, 2006 01:13 PM