14.2806, Sum: Cross-Cultural Politeness

Fri Oct 17 02:17:00 UTC 2003

LINGUIST List:  Vol-14-2806. Thu Oct 16 2003. ISSN: 1068-4875.

Subject: 14.2806, Sum: Cross-Cultural Politeness

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1)
Date:  Thu, 16 Oct 2003 11:20:51 +1300
From:  Fay Wouk <f.wouk at auckland.ac.nz>
Subject:  summary: cross-cultural politeness

-------------------------------- Message 1 -------------------------------

Date:  Thu, 16 Oct 2003 11:20:51 +1300
From:  Fay Wouk <f.wouk at auckland.ac.nz>
Subject:  summary: cross-cultural politeness

A while back I posted a query (Linguist 14.1811) on the sources of the
following three claims, which I believed I had read somewhere:

1. Cross-culturally polite/mitigated utterances tend to be longer
(more words, longer words) than bald-on-record/unmitigated utterances.

2. Cross-culturally politeness tends to increase with greater
differences in status, in particular from the lower status person to
the higher status person.

3. In many cultures, the politeness/intimacy relationship follows a
u-shaped curve, with greatest politeness in the middle area, with
acquaintances, and less politeness with intimates and strangers.

I would like to thank Maria Sifianou, Susan Burt and Jo Tyler for
their helpful responses.

In response to my first point, no one was able to specify a source.
So if anyone reading this summary can remember reading such a claim
anywhere, and can identify the source, I would still be interested in
hearing from them.

Mary Sifianou suggested that Brown and Levinson might have made such
a claim, howver, I have gone back and looked through B&L, and have
not yet found them to say anything along these lines.

Susan Burt wrote:

I think that this is the usual assumption, although there are some
indications that this may be an antifact of research methods--written
responses to DCTs (discourse completion tasks) tend to be longer than
corresponding spoken responses.  In addition, there seems to be some
tendency for non-native speakers to produce longer utterances than
native speakers.  Articles you might want to look at include:

Bardovi-Harlig, Kathleen and Beverley S. Hartford.  (1993).
"Refining the DCT: Comparing Open Questionnaires and Dialogue
Completion Tasks."  Pragmatics and Language Learning  4, pp. 143-165.

Beebe, Leslie M. and Martha Clark Cummings. (1995).  "Natural speech
act data versus written questionnaire data: How data collection
method affects speech act performance."  in Susan M. Gass and Joyce
Neu (eds.), Speech Acts Across Cultures: Challenges to Communication
in a Second Language, pp. 65-86.   Berlin and New York: Mouton de
Gruyter.

Cohen, Andrew (1995).  "Investigating the production of speech act
sets." in Susan M. Gass and Joyce Neu (eds.), Speech Acts Across
Cultures: Challenges to Communication in a Second Language, pp.
21-43.   Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter.

Hartford, Beverly S. and Kathleen Bardovi-Harlig (1992).
"Experimental and Observational Data in the Study of Interlanguage
Pragmatics."   Pragmatics and Language Learning 3, pp. 33-52.

Hinkel, Eli.  (1997).  "Appropriateness of Advice: DCT and Multiple
Choice Data."  Applied Linguistics  18:1, pp. 1-26.

Houck, Noel  and  Susan Gass. (1995).  "Non-native refusals: A
methodological perspective."  in Susan M. Gass and Joyce Neu (eds.),
Speech Acts Across Cultures: Challenges to Communication in a Second
Language, pp. 45-64.   Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter.

Johnston, Bill, Gabriele Kasper and Steven Ross (1998).  "Effect of
Rejoinders in Production Questionnaires."  Applied Linguistics  19:2,
pp. 157-182.

Kasper, Gabriele (2000).  "Data Collection in Pragmatics Research."
In Helen Spencer-Oatey (ed.) Culturally Speaking: Managing Rapport
Through Talk Across Cultures.  London: Continuum, pp 316-341.

Kasper, Gabriele and Merete Dahl.  (1991).  "Research Methods in
Interlanguage Pragmatics."  Studies in Second Language Acquisition
13, pp. 215-247.

Kuha, Mai (1997). "The Computer-Assisted Interactive DCT: A Study in
Pragmatics Research  Methodology."  Pragmatics and Language Learning
8, pp. 99-123.

Rintell, Ellen M. and Candace J. Mitchell (1989).  "Studying Requests
and Apologies: An Inquiry into Method."  in Shoshana Blum-Kulka,
Juliane House and Gabriele Kasper (eds.) : Cross-Cultural Pragmatics:
Requests and Apologies,  pp. 248-272.  Norowood, NJ: Ablex.

Rose, Kenneth R. (1992).  "Speech acts and questionnaires: The effect
of hearer response."  Journal of  Pragmatics  17, pp. 49-62.

Rose, Kenneth R. (1994).  "On the Validity of Discourse Completion
Tests in Non-Western Contexts."  Applied Linguistics  15:1, pp. 1-14.

Wolfson, Nessa, Thomas Marmor and Steve Jones. (1989) "Problems in
the Comparison of Speech Acts Across Cultures."  in S. Blum-Kulka, J.
House and G. Kasper (eds.) Cross-Cultural Pragmatics: Requests and
Apologies,  pp.174-196.  Norwood, NJ: Ablex.

In response to my second point, both Mary Sifianou and Susan Burt
pointed me back to Brown & Levinson, as having first made that claim.

In response to my third point, Mary Sifianou, Susan Burt and Jo Tyler
provided the following references:

Nessa Wolfson (1988). The Bulge: A Theory of Speech Behavior and
Social Distance.  In Jonathan Fine (ed): Second Language Discourse: A
Textbook of Current Research.  Norwood NJ: Ablex.. pp. 21-38

Nessa Wolfson, Perspectives: Sociolinguistics and TESOL, 1989, pp.
129-139 (Heinle & Heinle)

Jo Tyler also pointed out  that Diana Boxer, in studying the speech
act of complaints, found a different "bulge" pattern (Complaining and
Comisserating, 1994, Peter Lang Publishing

-
Dr. Fay Wouk
Senior Lecturer in Linguistics
Department of Applied Language Studies and Linguistics
University of Auckland
Private Bag 92019
Auckland
New Zealand
f.wouk at auckland.ac.nz

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