book notice

[Harold F. Schiffman]

Forwarded from Linguist-List

Broadening the Horizon of Linguistic Politeness
Series Title: Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 139
2005 John Benjamins http://www.benjamins.com/

http://www.benjamins.com/cgi-bin/t_bookview.cgi?bookid=P%26bns%20139

Editor: Robin Tolmach Lakoff, University of California, Berkeley
Editor: Sachiko Ide, Japan Women's University

This collection of 19 papers celebrates the coming of age of the field of
politeness studies, now in its 30th year. It begins with an investigation
of the meaning of politeness, especially linguistic politeness, and
presents a short history of the field of linguistic politeness studies,
showing how such studies go beyond the boundaries of conventional
linguistic work, incorporating, as they do, non-language insights. The
emphasis of the volume is on non-Western languages and the ways linguistic
politeness is achieved with them. Many, if not most, studies have focused
on Western languages, but the languages highlighted here show new and
different aspects of the phenomena.

The purpose of linguistic politeness is to aid in successful communication
throughout the world, and this volume offers a balance of geographical
distribution not found elsewhere, including Japanese, Thai, and Chinese,
as well as Greek, Swedish and Spanish. It covers such theoretical topics
as face, wakimae, social levels, gender-related differences in language
usage, directness and indirectness, and intercultural perspectives.

Table of contents

Acknowledgments ix

Foreword xi-xii

Introduction: Broadening the horizon of linguistic politeness
Robin T. Lakoff and Sachiko Ide 1-20

Part I. General overviews: The plenary papers

Civility and its discontents: Or, getting in your face
Robin T. Lakoff 23-43

How and why honorifics can signify dignity and elegance: The indexicality
and reflexivity of linguistic rituals
Sachiko Ide 45-64

Whither politeness
Bruce Fraser 65-83

Part II. The theoretical perspective

Yoroshiku onegaishimasu: Routine practice of the routine formula in
Japanese
Makiko Takekuro 87-97

An argument for a frame-based approach to politeness: Evidence from the
use
of the imperative in Cypriot Greek
Marina Terkourafi 99-116

The significance of 'face' and politeness in social interaction as
revealed
through Thai 'face' idioms
Margaret Ukosakul 117-125

Part III. The descriptive perspective

Face threatening acts, primary face threatening acts, and the management
of
discourse: Australian English and speakers of Asian Englishes
Christopher J. Conlan 129-144

Politeness in Thai computer-mediated communication
Krisadawan Hongladarom and Soraj Hongladarom 145-162

Polite diminutives in Spanish: A matter of size?
Martha Mendoza 163-173

Indirectness as a politeness strategy of Thai speakers
Deeyu Srinarawat 175-193

Part IV. The comparative perspective

Japanese honorifics as a marker of sociocultural identity: A view from
non-western perspectives
Megumi Yoshida and Chikako Sakurai 197-215

Directness as a source of misunderstanding: The case of requests and
suggestions
Alexandra Kallia 217-234

Forms of address in Irish and Swedish
Anders Ahlqvist 235-244

Women, men and polite requests: English and Greek
Ekaterini Kouletaki 245-274

Privacy: An intercultural perspective
Mark L 275-282

Selection of linguistic forms for requests and offers: Comparison between
English and Chinese
Masako Tsuzuki, Kazuhiro Takahashi, Cynthia Patschke and Qin Zhang 283-298

Part V. The historical perspective

Japanese pronouns of address: Their behavior and maintenance over time
Andrew Barke and Satoshi Uehara 301-313

An aspect of the origins and development of linguistic politeness in Thai
Wilaiwan Khanittanan 315-335

Index 337-342

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Hardback: ISBN: 902725382X Pages: xii, 342 Price: U.S. $ 144.00
Hardback: ISBN: 902725382X Pages: xii, 342 Price: Europe EURO 120.00