Spencer-Oatey, Helen, 1952-. (2011) Conceptualising 'the relational' in pragmatics: insights from metapragmatic emotion and (im)politeness comments. Journal of Pragmatics, Vol.43 (No.14). pp. 3565-3578. ISSN 03782166

Preview

PDF WRAP_Spencer-Oatey_151011-conceptualising_relational_hso_format.pdf - Accepted Version - Requires a PDF viewer such as GSview, Xpdf or Adobe Acrobat Reader Download (833Kb)

Abstract

Over the past few years, there has been an increased focus on ‘the relational’ in pragmatics. However, different pragmatics scholars (e.g. Holmes and Marra 2004; Locher and Watts 2005; Arundale 2006; Spencer-Oatey 2000/2008) take different approaches to ‘the relational’ and use different terms when analysing interpersonal relations. As a result, there is considerable conceptual and terminological confusion. There are also a number of controversial issues, one of which is how interpersonal relations can best be studied from a pragmatic perspective. Most people agree that it is essential to hear the voice of the participants, yet there is less agreement as to how best to achieve that. I argue in this paper that one fruitful way is to examine the emotions and (im)politeness judgements that people recount in metapragmatic comments. I report a study of workplace project partnerships that illustrates the insights that such an approach can offer. The insights are of both theoretical and applied relevance, which is important because the effective management of diverse teams is widely recognised as particularly challenging. I contend that pragmatics research into interpersonal relations should be able to identify and illuminate such challenges for project participants, and I provide empirical evidence that an exclusive focus on discourse data is too limited for this.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HM Sociology P Language and Literature > P Philology. Linguistics
Divisions:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Centre for Applied Linguistics
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Pragmatics, Interpersonal relations, Emotions, Teams in the workplace
Journal or Publication Title:	Journal of Pragmatics
Publisher:	Elsevier
ISSN:	03782166
Date:	November 2011
Volume:	Vol.43
Number:	No.14
Number of Pages:	14
Page Range:	pp. 3565-3578
Identification Number:	10.1016/j.pragma.2011.08.009
Status:	Peer Reviewed
Publication Status:	Published
Access rights to Published version:	Restricted or Subscription Access
References:	Adler, Nancy, 2007. International Dimensions of Organizational Behavior. 5th ed. Ohio: South-Western College Publishing. Arndt, Horst, Janney, Richard W. 1985. Politeness revisited: cross-modal supportive strategies. IRAL 23 (4), 281-300. Arundale, Robert B., 2006. Face as relational and interactional: A communication framework for research on face, facework, and politeness. Journal of Politeness Research 2 (2),193–216. Arundale, Robert B., 2010. Constituting face in conversation: Face, facework, and interactional achievement. Journal of Pragmatics 42, 2078–2105. Baxter, Leslie A., Montgomery, Barbara M., 1996. Relating. Dialogues and Dialectics. New York: Guildford Press. Brewer, Marilynn B., Gardner, Wendi, 1996. Who is this "we"? Levels of collective identity and self representations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 71 (1), 83–93. Brown, Gillian, Yule, George, 1983. Teaching the Spoken Language. Cambridge: CUP. Brown, Penelope, Levinson, Stephen C., 1987. Politeness. Some Universals in Language Usage. Cambridge: CUP. Originally published as Universals in language usage: politeness phenomenon. In: Esther Goody (ed) (1978) Questions and Politeness: strategies in Social Interaction. New York: CUP. Canney Davison, Sue, Ward, Karen, 1999. Leading International Teams. London: McGraw Hill. Chang, Wei-Lin Melody, Haugh, Michael, 2011. Strategic embarrassment and face threatening in business interactions. Journal of Pragmatics. In press. Christie, Chris, 2005. Editorial. Journal of Politeness Research 1(1), 1–7. Culpeper, Jonathan, 2011. Impoliteness. Using Language to cause Offence. Cambridge: CUP. Culpeper, Jonathan, Marti, Leyla, Mei, Meilian, Nevala, Minna, Schauer, Gila, 2010. Cross-cultural variation in the perception of impoliteness: A study of impoliteness events reported by students in England, China, Finland, Germany and Turkey. Intercultural Pragmatics 7 (4), 597–624. DiStefano, Joseph, Maznevski, Martha, 2000. Creating value with diverse teams in global management. Organizational Dynamics 29 (1), 45–63. Edelmann, Robert J., 1994. Embarrassment and blushing: Factors influencing face-saving strategies. In: Ting-Toomey, Stella (Ed.), The Challenge of Facework, New York, State University of New York Press, pp. 231–267. Eelen, Gino, 2001. A Critique of Politeness Theories. Manchester: St Jerome. Enfield, N.J., 2009. Relationship thinking and human pragmatics. Journal of Pragmatics 41:60–78. Fletcher, Joyce K., 1999. Disappearing Acts. Gender, Power, and Relational Practice at Work. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press. Fraser, Bruce, 1990. Perspectives on politeness. Journal of Pragmatics 14 (2), 219–236. Goffman, Erving, 1967. Interaction Ritual. Essays on Face-to-Face Behaviour. New York: Pantheon. Haugh, Michael, 2005. The importance of "place" in Japanese politeness: Implications for cross-cultural and intercultural analyses. Intercultural Pragmatics 2 (1):41–68. Haugh, Michael, 2007. The discursive challenge to politeness research: An interactional alternative. Journal of Politeness Research 3 (2), 295–317. Holmes, Janet, Marra, Meredith, 2004. Relational practice in the workplace: Women's talk or gendered discourse? Language in Society 33, 377–398. Holmes, Janet, Schnurr, Stephanie, 2005. Politeness, humor and gender in the workplace: Negotiating norms and identifying contestation. Journal of Politeness Research 1 (1):121–149. Ide, Sachiko, 1989. Formal forms and discernment: two neglected aspects of universals of linguistic politeness. Multilingua 8 (2/3), 223-248. Kienpointner, Manfred, 2007. Impoliteness and emotional arguments. Journal of Politeness Research 4 (2), 243–265. Lakoff, Robin, 1989. The limits of politeness: therapeutic and courtroom discourse. Multilingua 8 (2/3), 101-129. Leech, Geoffrey N., 1983. Principles of Pragmatics. London: Longman. Leech, Geoffrey, 2007. Politeness: Is there an East-West divide? Journal of Politeness Research 3 (2), 167–206. Locher, Miriam A., 2004. Power and Politeness in Action. Disagreements in Oral Communication. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Locher, Miriam A., 2010. Relational work, politeness, and identity construction. In: Antos, Gerd, Ventola, Eija (Eds.), Handbook of Interpersonal Communication, Berlin, Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 509–540. Locher, Miriam A., Langlotz, Andreas, 2008. Relational work: at the intersection of cognition, interaction and emotion. Bulletin Suisse de linguistique appliquée 88, 165–191. Available at http://doc.rero.ch/lm.php?url=1000,20,10,bulletin_vals_asla_2008_088.pdf [Accessed 12 August 2011] Locher, Miriam A., Watts, Richard J., 2005. Politeness theory and relational work. Journal of Politeness Research 1 (1), 9–33. Locher, Miriam A., Watts, Richard J., 2008. Relational work and impoliteness: Negotiating norms of linguistic behaviour. In: Bousfield, Derek and Locher, Miriam (Eds.) Impoliteness in Language. Studies on its Interplay with Power in Theory and Practice, Berlin, Mouton de Gruyter, pp.77–99. Matsumoto, Yoshiko, 1988. Reexamination of the universality of face: politeness phenomena in Japanese. Journal of Pragmatics 12, 403–426. Meier, A.J., 1995. Passages of politeness. Journal of Pragmatics 24, 381–392. Metts, Sandra, Cupach, William R., 1989. Situational influence on the use of remedial strategies in embarrassing predicaments. Communication Monographs 56(2), 151–162. Miller, Rowland S., 1992. The nature and severity of self-reported embarrassing circumstances. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 18(2), 190–198. Ruhi, Şükriye, 2007. Higher-order intentions and self-politeness in evaluations of (im)politeness: the relevance of compliment responses. Australian Journal of Linguistics 27 (2), 107–145. Ruhi, Şükriye, 2009. Evoking face in self and other-presentation in Turkish. In: Bargiela-Chiappini, Francesca, Haugh, Michael (Eds.), Face, Communication and Social Interaction, London, Equinox, pp. 155–174. Sedikides, Constantine, Brewer, Marilynn B., 2001. Individual self, relational self, and collective self. Partners, opponents, or strangers? In: Sedikides, Constantine, Brewer, Marilynn B. (Eds), Individual Self, Relational Self, Collective Self, Philadelphia, Psychology Press, pp.1–4. Spencer-Oatey, Helen, 1996. Reconsidering power and distance. Journal of Pragmatics, 26, 1–24. Spencer-Oatey, Helen, 2002. Managing rapport in talk: using rapport sensitive incidents to explore the motivational concerns underlying the management of relations. Journal of Pragmatics 34, 529–545. Spencer-Oatey, Helen, 2005. (Im)Politeness, face and perceptions of rapport: Unpackaging their bases and interrelationships. Journal of Politeness Research 1 (1), 95–119. Spencer-Oatey, Helen, 2007. Theories of identity and the analysis of face. Journal of Pragmatics 39, 639–656. Spencer-Oatey, Helen, 2008. Face, (im)politeness and rapport. In: Spencer-Oatey, Helen (Ed.) Culturally Speaking. Culture, Communication and Politeness Theory. 2nd edition. London, Continuum, pp.11–47. Spencer-Oatey, Helen, Franklin, Peter, 2009. Intercultural Interaction. A Multidisciplinary Approach to Intercultural Communication. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Talmy, Steven, Richards, Keith, 2011. Theorizing qualitative research interviews in applied linguistics. Applied Linguistics 32 (1):1–5. Thomas, David C. , 2002. Essentials of International Management. A Cross-Cultural Perspective. Thousand Oaks: Sage. Watts, Richard, 2008. Rudeness, conceptual blending theory and relational work. Journal of Politeness Research 4(2), 289–317. Watts, Richard J., Ide, Sachiko, Ehlich, Konrad ,1992. Introduction. In: Watts, Richard J., Ide, Sachiko, Ehlich, Konrad (Eds.), Politeness in Language: Studies in its History, Theory and Practice, Berlin, Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 43–69.
URI:	http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/id/eprint/38652

Data sourced from Thomson Reuters' Web of Knowledge

Request changes to a record

Actions (login required)

View Item