Apologizing in Cuernavaca, Mexico and Panama City, Panama

2010 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 254-278 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Wagner ◽  
Regina Roebuck
Keyword(s):  
Communities Of Practice ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Closed Set ◽  
Panama City ◽  
Naturally Occurring ◽  
Speech Communities ◽  
Linguistic Strategies ◽  
Politeness Strategies

This comparative study of naturally occurring apologies in Cuernavaca and Panamanian Spanish investigates the apology strategies community members employ most often, and the types of positive- and negative-politeness strategies they use to perform this speech act. The authors calculate the frequency with which speakers use positive- and negative-politeness strategies in their apology acts and investigate whether members of these two speech communities demonstrate a preference for positive or negative politeness when apologizing. Instead of using a language-specific parameter such as “Spanish Language” and assuming that all native speakers of this language have and will use a closed set of linguistic strategies in the same way when they apologize, the authors argue that speech acts, politeness and face are socio-culturally sensitive variables whose values and effects vary between communities of practice. To support this claim, they show how the communities of Cuernavaca, Mexico and Panama City, Panama differ from previous findings on apologizing within different communities of practice in the Spanish-speaking world.

Politeness in power-asymmetrical e-mail requests of Korean and American corporate employees

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sun Hee Kim ◽  
Hikyoung Lee
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Values ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Intercultural Experience ◽  
Politeness Strategies ◽  
Employee Groups ◽  
Pragmatic Knowledge ◽  
American Employees ◽  
Pragmatic Strategies ◽  
E Mail

AbstractPrevious research on politeness tends to examine the inadequacy of non-native speakers’ pragmatic knowledge. In this study, we broaden our focus to the influence of different lingua-cultural values on politeness in simulated workplace e-mail requests of Korean and American corporate employees. By exploring differential perceptions towards power-asymmetry, this study investigates how and why politeness strategies are realized similarly and/or differently in and around the speech acts of requests in English. By quantitatively and qualitatively analyzing the elicited data, the study suggests that lingua-cultural values influenced perception and production in power-asymmetrical situations. Findings reveal that power is a more prominent factor than familiarity for Korean employees, but to a lesser extent for American employees when doing politeness in e-mail requests. Results showed that the underlying reasons for formulating requests differed not only between Korean and American employees but also between two Korean employee groups that differed according to depth of intercultural experience. This study contributes to recent research strands in intercultural pragmatics and communication by arguing that pragmatic strategies to express politeness in relation to power are culture specific with existing and newly reconstructed lingua-cultural values coming into play.

scholarly journals Authentic Discourse and Model Exemplars in Japanese Language Textbooks: A Case Study of Apologies and Requests

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Nobuko Kato
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Japanese Language ◽  
Politeness Theory ◽  
Discourse Model ◽  
New Findings ◽  
Politeness Strategies ◽  
Natural Discourse ◽  
Discourse Strategies ◽  
Language Textbooks

<p>In recent years, the communicative approach has prevailed in second language teaching, such that model dialogues are presented in textbooks for language learners. However, there has been little research on the extent to which such exemplars reflect authentic discourse in Japanese. This thesis, therefore, explores the speech acts of Japanese language native speakers (NSs), non-native speakers who are learning Japanese (NNSs), and discourse model examples presented in Japanese language textbooks (TXs) in order to investigate their similarities and differences, and thereby enhance the contents of textbooks. In particular, this thesis focuses on the discourse structure and expressions. The study takes a quantitative approach to the data analysis, using two different scenarios in settings of apology and requests. NSs pairs and NNSs pairs were requested to perform role-plays of two different scenarios in Japanese. The conversational data of the role-plays were transcribed, and the model exemplars of apology and request presented in the selected Japanese language textbooks were also analysed. The analysis employs the framework of cross-cultural speech act realisation patterns (CCSARP) of Blum-Kulka et al. (1989) to categorise utterances based on the intentions of the speakers into two parts, namely: Head Acts (HAs) and Supportive Moves (SMs). Once the data were classified by the CCSARP, individual HAs and SMs were sorted according to Brown and Levinson’s politeness theory (1987), which divides politeness strategies into four types: bald on record, positive politeness, negative politeness, and off record. By adopting both CCSARP and politeness theory, the characteristics of the discourse strategies and expressions of the three groups analysed in this thesis can be grasped. The analysis produces several new findings by identifying various ways in which the model dialogues in Japanese language textbooks fail to reflect the natural discourse of Japanese native speakers. The thesis presents suggestions for improvement for the benefit of textbook authors in future.</p>

CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF REFUSAL EXPRESSIONS IN JAPANESE AND BAHASA AT WORKPLACE

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 132
Author(s):  
Maria Gustini
Keyword(s):  
Social Distance ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Japanese Language ◽  
Contrastive Analysis ◽  
Politeness Theory ◽  
Research Subjects ◽  
Politeness Strategies ◽  
Completion Test ◽  
Age Range

This article examines Contrastive Analysis of Refusal in Indonesian language and Japanese language. Up to now, there have been no contrastive researchs which compare refusal speech acts within Indonesian language and Japanese language, focused on working situations. This article reports on a study to investigate differences and similarities in the politeness strategies of refusals between Japanese language (JS) and Indonesian language (IS). This study employed politeness theory of Brown and Levinson (1987). Therefore the participants of this research were Indonesian and Japanese who currently work in company, school, etc. This research used descriptive method and collecting data using DCT (Discourse Completion Test) in Indonesian and Japanese. Therefore, the research subjects were those who already worked with the age-range from 22 to 50 years. 40 native speakers of Indonesian (IS) and 40 native speakers of Japanese (JS) participated in this study. All participants were asked to fill out a Discourse Completion Test (DCT) which written in the form role-play questionaire, consisting of 3 situations. DCT situations were categorized based on power and familiarity/social distance between speaker and hearer. Results are as follows: (1) JS and IS using apology, reason, fuka, and requeirment in refusal act. (2) IS explain reason clearly in refusal act. Other hand JS using aimai reason. (3) JS used expressions of apology appropriately according to their power (hierarchical position), while IS made appropriate use of these expressions according to relative social distance. (4) IS tend to using requeirement in each refusal act.

scholarly journals Pronouns, Address Forms and Politeness Strategies in Odia

2013 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-46
Author(s):  
Kalyanamalini SAHOO
Keyword(s):  
Communities Of Practice ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Social Relationship ◽  
Politeness Theory ◽  
Address Forms ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
The Social ◽  
Politeness Strategies ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Linguistic Usage

This study discusses how various politeness strategies are implemented linguistically and how linguistic usage is related to social and contextual factors in the Indic language Odia. The study extends the validity of politeness theory (Brown & Levinson, 1978) with reference to Odia speech-patterns and shows that Odia usage of politeness would be more differentiated according to the social relationship and gender than the content of the message.  In Brown and Levinson’s model, individual speech acts are considered to be inherently polite or impolite.  However, in Odia, it is found that communities of practice, rather than individuals, determine whether speech acts are considered polite or impolite. Thus, politeness should be considered as a set of strategies or practices set by particular groups or communities of practice as a socially constructed norm for themselves.

scholarly journals A Linguistic Landscape Study of Signage on Nimmanhemin Road, A Lanna Chiang Mai Chill-Out Street

MANUSYA ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 72-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tiwahporn Thongtong
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Instruction ◽  
Word Formation ◽  
Linguistic Landscape ◽  
Chiang Mai ◽  
Language Choices ◽  
Linguistic Strategies ◽  
Politeness Strategies ◽  
Thai English

This study investigates how the linguistic landscape both creates and reflects a tourist space on language choices in creating signs on Nimmanhemin Road in Chiang Mai, Thailand. In addition, the study explores what linguistic devices are used in the creation of signs on Nimmanhemin Road. Sign data are collected from both sides of Nimanhaemin Road. Every sign in front of stores was photographed and analyzed in terms of language choices and linguistic devices. The study reveals that tourism in Chiang Mai has influences on language choices in sign creation. Monolingual, bilingual and trilingual signs can be found on Nimmanhemin Road, normally written in Thai, English and / or Chinese. In terms of linguistic strategies, transliteration, word formation, lexical relations, speech acts and politeness strategies are demonstrated in my findings. The study has both theoretical and practical contributions. Theoretically, it challenges commonly held notions of bilingual organization of information and language prominence. Practically, the study has pedagogical applications and the study findings can be used for English language instruction.

scholarly journals Discourse of discipline: Communicative strategies in coaches' speech

2020 ◽  
Vol 74 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-56
Author(s):  
Gordana Vekarić ◽  
Ivana Trbojević-Milošević
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Intended Meaning ◽  
Strategic Model ◽  
Communicative Strategies ◽  
Linguistic Strategies ◽  
Politeness Strategies ◽  
Completion Test ◽  
Relationship Of

The great importance sport plays in modern society has resulted in analyses of many aspects of its social dynamics. The relationship of its main actors, in this case the coaches and athletes, was most often discussed form pedagogical, psychological and sociological stances and a relatively small number of studies referred to their communication, or rather its linguistic expression. The aim of this research was to describe the pragmatic mechanisms and the strategy of disciplining that coaches use when talking to athletes in two typical situations in sport: in training and at a competition. The research corpus, collected by a Discourse Completion Test, consists of authentic responses from 93 coaches of both genders. The corpus for analysis included 196 responses, categorised as clusters of speech acts which according to the strategic model could be categorised as examples of the disciplining strategy. Qualitative analysis provided an insight into the types of speech acts used in the analysed speech sequences, the functioning of politeness strategies used to mitigate the pressure on the interlocutors face, conversation implicatures and presuppositions which enable interpretation of the intended meaning that shapes coaches' discourse. The results of the analysis imply that coaches prefer using a more direct strategy in both observed situations, but also that by combining politeness strategies and indirectness they frequently disguise their communicative intentions, which most often refer to disciplining and requiring a change in the behaviour of the athlete. The conclusions we reached could be practically used in the education of coaches, by raising awareness of the importance of the aspects of linguistic production that would be appropriate in training and competitive situations, since the choice of linguistic strategies can improve the interaction of coaches and athletes.

scholarly journals La variación en la cortesía: estudio pragmalingüístico del fenómeno en el español castellano

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alejandro Carmona Sandoval ◽  
Nuria Cabezas Gay ◽  
Zakia Ait Saadi
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Scientific Literature ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Short Film ◽  
Discursive Strategies ◽  
Palabras Clave ◽  
Politeness Strategies ◽  
Completion Test ◽  
Actos De Habla ◽  
Expressive Strategies

Resumen: En este trabajo, se presentan los resultados de un análisis de las estrategias de cortesía empleadas por nativos españoles en su lengua L1 (español castellano), la expresión de diferentes actos de habla: la petición, la negación, la instrucción, la queja y el mandato. La actividad se ha desarrollado mediante un TCD. Se pidió a los encuestados que rellenaran diferentes enunciados a partir de un cortometraje animado mudo. A cada enunciado se solicitaba al informante que asociara el grado de cordialidad de cada escena. Una vez recopilados los datos, se analizaron las diferencias en la formulación de los actos de habla junto con el grado de cordialidad asignado. Los resultados, aplicables en clase de ELE, muestran una relación entre el grado de cordialidad identificado y las estrategias discursivas empleadas, y confirma la adopción de estrategias y procedimientos expresivos ya identificados por la literatura científica. Palabras clave: pragmática, cortesía, TCD, ELE. Traducción del título al inglés: Variation in politeness: a pragma-linguistic study of the phenomenon in Castilian Abstract: This article presents the results from an analysis of the politeness strategies used by Spanish native speakers in their L1 (Castilian) to express different speech acts: request, denial, instruction, complaint and mandate. The analysis was carried out using a Discourse Completion Test (DCT). Respondents were asked to fill in different sentences from a silent animated short film. Respondents were also asked to associate the degree of cordiality of each scene to the sentences they provided. Once the data was collected, the differences in the formulation of the speech acts were analysed together with the assigned degree of politeness. The results, which may also apply to SFL teaching, show a relationship between the identified degree of politeness and the discursive strategies used, and it also confirms the adoption of expressive strategies and procedures already identified by the scientific literature. Key words: pragmatics, politeness, DCT, SFL.

scholarly journals An Investigation of the Use of politeness strategies in refusal among Characters with different power relations in English and Farsi Novels

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (7) ◽  
pp. 180
Author(s):  
Farahman Farrokhi ◽  
Mina Arghami
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Mixed Method Design ◽  
Politeness Strategies ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
Materials Used ◽  
Different Cultures ◽  
Made In

One of the important concerns of communicative way of learning is to be able to convey meaning and not just physical words in a language. The study of speech acts could possibly help achieve this. When using speech acts, one should take into consideration the conversational rules of the language and in order to establish a safe and harmonious conversation, it is better to use certain strategies to eliminate their possible threatening effects. Attempt is made in the present study using a mixed-method design, to investigate the employment of politeness strategies proposed by Brown and Levinson (1987), among the interlocutors with different power relations in English and Farsi novels, when using the speech act of refusal. The speech act of refusal addressed in this study is a face threatening act (FTA) (Brown & Levinson, 1987), which may be used differently by speakers of different languages, with different power relations, in different situations. The materials used are five English and five Farsi novels written by native speakers of English and Farsi. The taxonomy of Beebe, Takahashi and Uliss-Weltz (1990) were employed in order to categories different types of refusal. The frequency of their use and their percentages were calculated manually. The results indicated that even though reflecting two different cultures, the similarities among the English and Farsi novels regarding the use of both speech acts, were more than the differences. The differences were more obvious in the employment of politeness strategies. The findings of this study will probably give insights into the pragmatic and conversational rules of both languages.

scholarly journals Authentic Discourse and Model Exemplars in Japanese Language Textbooks: A Case Study of Apologies and Requests

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Nobuko Kato
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Japanese Language ◽  
Politeness Theory ◽  
Discourse Model ◽  
New Findings ◽  
Politeness Strategies ◽  
Natural Discourse ◽  
Discourse Strategies ◽  
Language Textbooks

<p>In recent years, the communicative approach has prevailed in second language teaching, such that model dialogues are presented in textbooks for language learners. However, there has been little research on the extent to which such exemplars reflect authentic discourse in Japanese. This thesis, therefore, explores the speech acts of Japanese language native speakers (NSs), non-native speakers who are learning Japanese (NNSs), and discourse model examples presented in Japanese language textbooks (TXs) in order to investigate their similarities and differences, and thereby enhance the contents of textbooks. In particular, this thesis focuses on the discourse structure and expressions. The study takes a quantitative approach to the data analysis, using two different scenarios in settings of apology and requests. NSs pairs and NNSs pairs were requested to perform role-plays of two different scenarios in Japanese. The conversational data of the role-plays were transcribed, and the model exemplars of apology and request presented in the selected Japanese language textbooks were also analysed. The analysis employs the framework of cross-cultural speech act realisation patterns (CCSARP) of Blum-Kulka et al. (1989) to categorise utterances based on the intentions of the speakers into two parts, namely: Head Acts (HAs) and Supportive Moves (SMs). Once the data were classified by the CCSARP, individual HAs and SMs were sorted according to Brown and Levinson’s politeness theory (1987), which divides politeness strategies into four types: bald on record, positive politeness, negative politeness, and off record. By adopting both CCSARP and politeness theory, the characteristics of the discourse strategies and expressions of the three groups analysed in this thesis can be grasped. The analysis produces several new findings by identifying various ways in which the model dialogues in Japanese language textbooks fail to reflect the natural discourse of Japanese native speakers. The thesis presents suggestions for improvement for the benefit of textbook authors in future.</p>

scholarly journals Social beliefs for the realization of the speech acts of apology and complaint as defined in Ciluba, French, and English

Pragmatics ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 543-564 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kashama Mulamba
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Cultural Beliefs ◽  
First Language ◽  
Social Beliefs ◽  
Language Groups ◽  
Speech Communities ◽  
French And English ◽  
The Difference

Most cross-linguistic studies of speech acts have dealt mainly with two languages, a native language and a second or foreign language (Carrell and Konneker 1981; Castello 1981; Blum-Kulka 1982; Daikuhura 1986; Eisenstein 1986; Wieland 1989; Chen Rong 1993, 2001; Sifianou 2001; Lee 2004, 2005). Neither have they dealt with an African language as the first language. The present study investigates a multilingual situation where the native speakers of Ciluba, French, and English are compared to the trilingual speakers of the three languages in terms of the realization of the speech acts of apologizing and complaining. It considers the social beliefs of the subjects of the four language groups for the realization of the two speech acts. The study is part of a larger study that was designed to discover the norms of the three languages under investigation and to see how people speaking a second and a foreign language, with different levels of fluency in each, can participate in the activity of the speech communities of the two languages without violating their socio-cultural norms, and what impact, if any, their knowledge of these languages has on each of the languages they speak. Data for the larger study was collected by means of a written questionnaire, role plays, and direct observation. The data and results presented and discussed in this paper come from the written questionnaire administered to the monolingual English and French speakers and trilingual speakers native in Ciluba; and from the same version of the questionnaire administered orally to the monolingual Ciluba speakers. It was found that for the realization of the speech acts of apologizing and complaining, Luba socio-cultural beliefs were different from those of English and French, which are similar. In contrast to French and English, in Ciluba social distance and relative power between the participants play an important role in deciding whether the speech acts can be performed or not. The results also revealed that, despite the difference which exists between Ciluba and the other two languages, i.e., French and English, some subjects from the group of Ciluba monolingual subjects showed some similarities with the groups of French and English monolingual subjects in their responses to some items in the questionnaire. This deviation of some of the native speakers of Ciluba from their social beliefs was hypothesized to be a result of their contact with an urban environment and its mixed culture.

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