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 The Speech Act of Complimenting as Part of the Ukrainian, Russian and English-Speaking Communities: Ukraine and the USA

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anzhelika Solodka ◽  
Luis Perea
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Values ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
The United States ◽  
Personal Appearance ◽  
The Usa ◽  
On Line ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Language Context

Compliments as speech acts have the reflection and expression of cultural values. Many of the values reflected through compliments are personal appearance, new acquisitions, possessions, talents and skills. It is especially important in linguistic interaction between people. This research aims to analyze the speech acts of complimenting in Ukrainian and American cultures in order to use them for teaching pragmatics second language (L2) students. Defining the ways of complimenting in Ukrainian, Russian and American English help to avoid misunderstandings and pragmatic failures. This study uses a method of ethnomethodology. Speach acts are studied in their natural contexts. To carry out this research native speakers of English in the United States and native speakers of Russian and Ukrainian from all over Ukraine were interviewed on-line. The analysis was made on the data that included: 445 Russian, 231 Ukrainian and 245 English compliments. Results of this study show how native speakers tend to compliment people: syntactical structure of expressions, cultural lexicon, attributes praised and language context. It has implications for teaching English to Ukrainians and for teaching Russian and Ukrainian to speakers of English. Knowing how to use speech acts allows the speaker to have pragmatic competence. Upon completion of the data analysis on the current study, further information on deeper analysis in terms of semantics and metaphorical language can be provided.

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>

An Analysis of Iranian EFL Learners’ English Written Requestive E-mails

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 579 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fatemeh Zarepour ◽  
Masoumeh Imani Saidloo
Keyword(s):  
Electronic Mail ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Efl Students ◽  
Institutional Communication ◽  
Iranian Students ◽  
Opening And Closing ◽  
Pragmatic Knowledge ◽  
E Mail ◽  
Pattern Coding

Electronic mail is one of the widely used medium for institutional communication particularly in academic institutions. The main focus of this study was determining requesting strategies and mitigating elements used by the Iranians’ EFL learners in English written requestive e-mails to their professors. This study also determined opening and closing strategies and supportive moves. To this aim, 61 e-mail were collected using DCT and analyzed by means of CCSARP (Cross-Cultural Speech Act Realization Pattern) coding scheme. The results showed that Iranian students, under the effect of L1 norms, used more direct strategies and to soften the force of requests they tended to use mitigating elements and pre-request supportive moves. It had been concluded that Iranian EFL students have lack of pragmatic knowledge; therefore, it is necessary to make them aware of norms of requestive e-mails written by English native speakers.

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 CULTURAL VALUES OF POLITENESS IN EFL CLASSROOM: A STUDY OF ETNOGRAPHY OF COMMUNICATION

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 207-216
Author(s):  
Fitriyah Fitriyah ◽  
Emzir Emzir ◽  
Sakura Ridwan
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Cultural Values ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Communicative Competence ◽  
Analytical Tool ◽  
Ethnography Of Communication ◽  
English Classes ◽  
Communication Method ◽  
Politeness Strategies ◽  
Cultural Themes

One of the purposes of learning English as a foreign language (EFL) is to be able to communicate. The Students must have communicative competence that does not only consist of linguistic competencies, but also socio-cultural ones. This paper aims to analyse the cultural themes of politeness strategies in EFL Classroom. The research in this paper focused on directive and expressive speech acts in EFL classroom. The participants of this study are three lecturers and the students of three English classes. The data are gathered by video audio by recording the lecturers’ utterances and students’ compliances to the lecturer, in order to find the politeness strategies and the cultural values in EFL classroom. The results show that; 1) There are seven kinds of cultural values of politeness strategies in EFL classroom, such as glorifying God, agreement, apologising, questioning, delivering praise, delivering thank you, and praying for others, 2) The lecturers and students dominantly use agreement and questioning in EFL Classroom. Thereby, this issue is relevant to EFL classes focusing on the improvement of both lecturers and students’ language and cultural skill. The analytical tool refers to the theories of Brown and Levinson’s positive and negative politeness, and the ethnography of communication method. The findings of this study will probably give insights into the pragmatic and conversational rules of EFL. The last part of this paper aims at summarizing that the implications that this paper are relevant to the strategies of teaching English as a Foreign Language.

Incidental pragmatics learning in telecollaborative exchanges

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Federica Del Bono ◽  
Elena Nuzzo
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Advanced Learners ◽  
Written Texts ◽  
Previous Round ◽  
Linguistic Behaviour ◽  
Pragmatic Strategies

This paper aims to explore the outcomes of incidental pragmatics learning in the context of a telecollaboration programme, with a focus on the speech acts of criticising and suggesting. The programme involved Italian learners of English and American learners of Italian. It was organised around weekly Zoom video calls over an academic semester. Every second virtual encounter was devoted to providing and discussing feedback on written texts produced by the partner in the target language. The discussion was held in the feedback provider’s L2. For this study, we focused on three intermediate-to-advanced learners of English whose data were analysed longitudinally. English native speakers’ data, collected during a previous round of the telecollaboration programme, were analysed as a reference baseline. Signs of development in the linguistic behaviour of the three learners were observed with regard to the pragmatic strategies they used to comment on their partners’ errors, but not in the distribution of internal modifiers and supportive moves.

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>

Cultural values in Malay speech acts

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marlyna Maros ◽  
Azianura Hani Shaari
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Values ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Linguistic Identity ◽  
Norms And Values ◽  
The Social ◽  
Compliment Responses ◽  
Linguistic Innovation ◽  
Linguistic Behavior ◽  
New Generation

How do members of the new generation praise each other? Do they still adhere to the communication strategies prescribed in their traditional cultural values or modernization has played a role in initiating changes in peoples linguistic behavior?The book addresses the changes in the cultural values that have emerged in the speech acts of compliments and compliment responses of native speakers of Malay in Malaysia. In the field of sociolinguistics, the discussion provides insights into the current practices of the Malay speech acts and linguistic identity among the speakers, especially after 60 years of Malaysias independence. The rapid developments in technology and cyber communication have contributed to linguistic innovation and changes in language use to a certain extent, hence calling for a look at its impact on Malay cultural values.Through empirical evidence, the book attempts to elucidate the emerging norms that indicate changes in the cultural values of the new Malays. Our arguments are supported by the theories related to how utterances are analysed linguistically, taking into consideration the social factors, such as power, social distance, social status of the interlocutors and weight age of the imposition on the speech acts.This book is written to bring you closer to the members of the new generation, by providing insights into their strategies of communication. Specifically, it is written to uncover and understand the norms and values of the Malays of the 21st century.

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