Politeness in Mexico and the United States. A contrastive study of the realization and perception of refusals.

This book explores the issue of politeness phenomena and socially appropriate behavior in two societies, Mexico and the United States, in three different contexts: refusing invitations, requests, and suggestions. In addition to a state-of-the-art review of the speech act of refusals in numerous languages, the book provides a rigorous analysis of data collection methods utilized to examine speech act behavior at the production and perception levels. Many examples of native speaker interactions illustrate the similarities and differences observed in the realization patterns and the perception of refusals by Mexicans and Americans in formal and informal situations. The data are analyzed in terms of refusal sequences and pragmatic strategies which are strategically used to carry out relational work during the negotiation of face. The results of the quantitative and qualitative analyses are interpreted in light of the notions of face, politeness, and relational work in Mexico and the United States. This publication will be of interest to researchers and students in pragmatics and discourse analysis, cross-cultural communication, and sociology. Politeness in Mexico and the United States......Page 2 Editorial page......Page 3 Title page......Page 4 LCC data......Page 5 Table of contents......Page 6 Figures......Page 10 Tables......Page 11 Transcription conventions......Page 12 Acknowledgements......Page 14 Introduction......Page 16 1.2 Origins of polite behavior: Past to present......Page 22 1.3 The politeness1 vs politeness2 distinction......Page 25 1.4 Grice’s cooperative principle and the maxim of politeness......Page 26 1.5 Face/facework, politeness, and relational work......Page 28 1.6 Concluding remarks......Page 48 2.2 Speech act theory......Page 50 2.3 Speech act theory as an approach for examining speech act sequences......Page 54 2.4 Speech acts in context......Page 56 2.5 The speech act of refusals......Page 57 2.6 Concluding remarks......Page 70 3.2 Methodological issues: Data collection methods in pragmatics research......Page 72 3.3 Organization of the current study......Page 77 3.4 Pilot study......Page 79 3.5 Data collection procedures for the current study......Page 83 3.6 Pragmatic strategies as manifestations of relational work......Page 87 3.7 Data analysis......Page 97 4.1 Introduction......Page 100 4.2 Refusal strategies as manifestations of relational work......Page 101 4.3 Individual variability and speech act production......Page 107 4.4 Face systems and situational variation......Page 109 4.5 Internal modification of the refusal sequence: Expressions of epistemic modality......Page 141 4.6 Concluding remarks......Page 151 5.2 Cognition: Attention to linguistic and sociocultural information......Page 154 5.3 Perception of directness or indirectness......Page 164 5.4 Perception regarding an insistence in the act of declining an invitation......Page 168 5.5 Concluding remarks......Page 171 6.1 Introductory remarks......Page 174 6.2 The negotiation of a refusal and face systems......Page 175 6.3 Insistence as a discourse strategy......Page 178 6.4 The discourse function of epistemic expressions: Internal modification of a refusal......Page 179 6.5 Perceptions of politeness......Page 180 6.6 The notion of ‘face’ in Mexico......Page 181 6.7 Refusals across languages......Page 183 6.8 Issues on research methodology and implications for future research......Page 187 References......Page 190 Appendix IA. Role plays (Americans)......Page 200 Appendix IB. Role plays (Mexicans)......Page 203 Author index......Page 206 Subject index......Page 208 The Pragmatics & Beyond New Series......Page 212 P&BNS 171 Politeness in Mexico and the United States 2 Editorial page 3 Title page 4 LCC data 5 Table of contents 6 List of figures and tables 10 Figures 10 Tables 11 Transcription conventions 12 Acknowledgements 14 Introduction 16 1. The scope of politeness 22 1.1 Introduction 22 1.2 Origins of polite behavior: Past to present 22 1.3 The politeness1 vs politeness2 distinction 25 1.4 Grice’s cooperative principle and the maxim of politeness 26 1.5 Face/facework, politeness, and relational work 28 1.6 Concluding remarks 48 2. Speech acts in context 50 2.1 Introduction 50 2.2 Speech act theory 50 2.3 Speech act theory as an approach for examining speech act sequences 54 2.4 Speech acts in context 56 2.5 The speech act of refusals 57 2.6 Concluding remarks 70 3. Methodology and organization of the study 72 3.1 Introduction 72 3.2 Methodological issues: Data collection methods in pragmatics research 72 3.3 Organization of the current study 77 3.4 Pilot study 79 3.5 Data collection procedures for the current study 83 3.6 Pragmatic strategies as manifestations of relational work 87 3.7 Data analysis 97 4. Results 100 4.1 Introduction 100 4.2 Refusal strategies as manifestations of relational work 101 4.3 Individual variability and speech act production 107 4.4 Face systems and situational variation 109 4.5 Internal modification of the refusal sequence: Expressions of epistemic modality 141 4.6 Concluding remarks 151 5. Results 154 5.1 Introduction 154 5.2 Cognition: Attention to linguistic and sociocultural information 154 5.3 Perception of directness or indirectness 164 5.4 Perception regarding an insistence in the act of declining an invitation 168 5.5 Concluding remarks 171 6. Conclusions and discussion 174 6.1 Introductory remarks 174 6.2 The negotiation of a refusal and face systems 175 6.3 Insistence as a discourse strategy 178 6.4 The discourse function of epistemic expressions: Internal modification of a refusal 179 6.5 Perceptions of politeness 180 6.6 The notion of ‘face’ in Mexico 181 6.7 Refusals across languages 183 6.8 Issues on research methodology and implications for future research 187 References 190 appendix 200 Appendix IA. Role plays (Americans) 200 Appendix IB. Role plays (Mexicans) 203 Author index 206 Subject index 208 The Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 212