On Apologising in Negative and Positive Politeness Cultures (Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, P&BNS 191)

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. On Apologising in Negative and Positive Politeness Cultures......Page 2 Editorial page......Page 3 Title page......Page 4 LCC data......Page 5 Table of contents......Page 6 Abbreviations, figures, tables......Page 10 Preface......Page 12 1.1 Ordinary language philosophy......Page 18 1.2 Brown and Levinson’s politeness theory......Page 22 1.3 Problems with and alternatives to Brown and Levinson’s theory......Page 23 1.4 Postmodern theories vs. cross-cultural research......Page 28 1.5 The present study......Page 31 2.1 Culture in politeness research......Page 34 2.2 Defining culture......Page 36 2.3 Culture-specific perception of social variables......Page 38 2.4 Positive vs. negative politeness cultures......Page 46 3.1 Classifying apologies......Page 56 3.2 Defining apologies......Page 58 3.3 Applying Brown and Levinson’s theory to apologies......Page 60 3.4 Analysing apologies......Page 67 4.1 Cross-cultural research on English apologies......Page 72 4.2 Research on Polish and Russian apologies......Page 73 5.1 DCTs vs. naturally occurring speech......Page 78 5.2 Alternative ways of collecting spoken data......Page 85 6.1 Designing the DCT......Page 92 6.2 Translating the DCT......Page 97 6.3 Testing and refining the DCT......Page 99 6.4 The subjects and the data......Page 100 7.2 Distribution across languages......Page 104 7.3 IFID realisations across languages......Page 106 7.4 IFID realisations contrasted......Page 113 7.5 Apologies across cultures......Page 118 7.6 Syntactic frames......Page 124 7.7 Intensifiers......Page 132 7.8 Evaluation......Page 136 8.1 Apologies and the acceptance of responsibility......Page 142 8.2 Accounts across scenarios......Page 161 8.3 Evaluation......Page 185 9.1 Definition......Page 190 9.2 Offer of repair......Page 191 9.3 Promise of forbearance......Page 207 9.4 Concern for hearer......Page 209 9.5 Evaluation......Page 212 10. On the culture-specificity of apologies......Page 216 10.1 Beyond the speech act set......Page 217 10.2 Contextual conditions and strategy choice......Page 227 10.3 Positive vs. negative face in apologising......Page 245 10.4 Evaluation......Page 266 11.1 Main findings......Page 270 11.2 Suggestions for future research......Page 273 Appendices......Page 280 Notes......Page 286 References......Page 290 Index......Page 306 The Pragmatics & Beyond New Series......Page 308 John Benjamins Publishing On Apologising in Negative and Positive Politeness Cultures 2 Editorial page 3 Title page 4 LCC data 5 Table of contents 6 Abbreviations, figures, tables 10 Preface 12 1. Cross-cultural pragmatics 18 1.1 Ordinary language philosophy 18 1.2 Brown and Levinson’s politeness theory 22 1.3 Problems with and alternatives to Brown and Levinson’s theory 23 1.4 Postmodern theories vs. cross-cultural research 28 1.5 The present study 31 2. The culture-specificity of politeness 34 2.1 Culture in politeness research 34 2.2 Defining culture 36 2.3 Culture-specific perception of social variables 38 2.4 Positive vs. negative politeness cultures 46 3. The speech act of apologising 56 3.1 Classifying apologies 56 3.2 Defining apologies 58 3.3 Applying Brown and Levinson’s theory to apologies 60 3.4 Analysing apologies 67 4. Literature review 72 4.1 Cross-cultural research on English apologies 72 4.2 Research on Polish and Russian apologies 73 5. Methodological considerations 78 5.1 DCTs vs. naturally occurring speech 78 5.2 Alternative ways of collecting spoken data 85 6. Data collection 92 6.1 Designing the DCT 92 6.2 Translating the DCT 97 6.3 Testing and refining the DCT 99 6.4 The subjects and the data 100 7. Illocutionary Force Indicating Devices: IFIDs 104 7.1 Definition 104 7.2 Distribution across languages 104 7.3 IFID realisations across languages 106 7.4 IFID realisations contrasted 113 7.5 Apologies across cultures 118 7.6 Syntactic frames 124 7.7 Intensifiers 132 7.8 Evaluation 136 8. Accounts 142 8.1 Apologies and the acceptance of responsibility 142 8.2 Accounts across scenarios 161 8.3 Evaluation 185 9. Positive politeness apology strategies 190 9.1 Definition 190 9.2 Offer of repair 191 9.3 Promise of forbearance 207 9.4 Concern for hearer 209 9.5 Evaluation 212 10. On the culture-specificity of apologies 216 10.1 Beyond the speech act set 217 10.2 Contextual conditions and strategy choice 227 10.3 Positive vs. negative face in apologising 245 10.4 Evaluation 266 11. Conclusion 270 11.1 Main findings 270 11.2 Suggestions for future research 273 Appendices 280 Notes 286 References 290 Index 306 The Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 308 ISBN-13:,9789027254351 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. Eva Ogiermann. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Investigates how speakers of English, Polish and Russian deal with offensive situations in communication. This book reveals culture-specific perceptions of what counts as an apology and what constitutes politeness. Departing from a reinterpretation of Brown and Levinson's theory, it argues against correlation between indirectness and politeness.