1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910972650603321

Autore

Ogiermann Eva

Titolo

On apologising in negative and positive politeness cultures / / Eva Ogiermann

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Philadelphia, Pa. ; ; Amsterdam, : John Benjamins Pub. Company, c2009

ISBN

9786612395512

9781282395510

1282395513

9789027288899

9027288895

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (312 p.)

Collana

Pragmatics & beyond new series, , 0922-842X ; ; v. 191

Classificazione

ES 146

Disciplina

306.44

Soggetti

Apologizing

Social interaction

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Cross-cultural pragmatics -- The culture-specificity of politeness -- The speech act of apologising -- Literature review -- Methodological considerations -- Data collection -- Illocutionary force indicating devices: IFIDs -- Accounts -- Positive politeness apology strategies -- On the culture-specificity of apologies -- Conclusion.

Sommario/riassunto

This book investigates how speakers of English, Polish and Russian deal with offensive situations. It reveals culture-specific perceptions of what counts as an apology and what constitutes politeness. It offers a critical discussion of Brown and Levinson's theory and provides counterevidence to the correlation between indirectness and politeness underlying their theory. Their theory is applied to two languages that rely less heavily on indirectness in conveying politeness than does English, and to a speech act that does not become more polite through indirectness. An analysis of the face considerations involved in apologising shows that in contrast to disarming apologies, remedial apologies are mainly directed towards positive face needs, which are crucial for the restoration of social equilibrium and maintenance of relationships. The data show that while English apologies are



characterised by a relatively strong focus on both interlocutors' negative face, Polish apologies display a particular concern for positive face. For Russian speakers, in contrast, apologies seem to involve a lower degree of face threat than they do in the other two languages.