CFP: Panel on pragmatics in postcolonial contexts -- DEADLINE 29 MARCH

[Scott G. McGINNIS]

Dear Colleagues,
 
In view of the forthcoming 39th annual meeting of the 
Societas Linguistica Europaea (SLE) scheduled for 30-Aug-
2006 to 02-Sep-2006 in Bremen, Germany, we (Richard W. 
Janney and my self Eric A. Anchimbe) are proposing the 
panel: "Universalism and relativism in face-saving: Focus on 
postcolonial contexts". As the following panel description 
shows, it is our intention to evaluate the relevance of 
certain pragmatic issues claimed to be universal, within 
postcolonial contexts. More information on the SLE 
conference could be got at: http://www.fb10.uni-
bremen.de/sle2006
 
If you are interested in giving a paper, kindly send an 
abstract of not more than a page, at your earliest 
convenience, but before the 29th of March, 2006.
Notification of acceptance would be sent shortly after then.
 
NB: A selection of the papers will be published as chapters 
in a book. Details after the conference.
 
Feel free to forward this CFP to your students and 
colleagues who may be interested in giving a tlak at the 
conference. 
 
Send abstracts to
- anchimbe_eric at yahoo.com and
- janney at lmu.de 
 
With best regards
Eric Anchimbe
 
Workshop proposal for SLE Conference August 30th – 2nd 
September, 2006. Bremen
 
Universalism and relativism in face-saving: Focus on 
postcolonial contexts
 
Richard W. Janney (University of Munich)
janney at lmu.de
Eric A. Anchimbe (University of Munich)
anchimbe_eric at yahoo.com
 
 
 
The main question this panel wishes to address is: to what 
extent are the patterns of face-saving claimed by Brown and 
Levinson (1978) really universal? Since the publication of 
Brown and Levinson’s work, several other works have been 
published that d! escribe patterns of politeness and face-
saving in Non-western cultures that are distinctly different 
from those in Western cultures. Although some researchers 
have discussed politeness in certain African and Asian 
cultures, it is still not established if the further mix of 
languages and linguistic identities created by colonialism 
play a significant role in the way speakers in multilingual 
postcolonial speech communities produce and react to speech 
acts related to politeness and face-saving. This issue is 
particularly complex, because language use and abuse play 
important roles in many areas of postcolonial life. Language 
can be a powerful mediator of understanding, empowerment, 
and solidarity, or a source of repression, disempowerment, 
and discrimination. Choices of what and how (and in what 
languages) things are expressed stand at the centre of 
postcolo! nial pragmatic interest. 
 
If certain face-saving strategies (hedging, complimenting, 
understating, distancing, etc.) are relatively uniform in 
Western cultures, as Brown and Levinson claim, how are these 
realised in postcolonial contexts? What happens to these 
strategies among speakers who have complex, hybrid 
linguistic identities built on mixtures of foreign languages 
imposed during colonialism, indigenous languages, and the 
languages of wider communication (Pidgins and Creoles)? Do 
speakers adopt situational faces, using the different 
languages (and with these, identities) at their disposal to 
project such faces? Or do they adopt stabile face! -saving 
patterns specific to one language and culture in their daily 
communication? Answers to these questions could be found by 
analyzing everyday face-to-face discourse, political and 
institutional discourse, print media discourse, literary 
discourse, and all forms of electronically mediated 
communication. 
 
Although the focus of this panel is primarily on face-
saving, papers related to the myriad locutionary forms, 
illocutionary functions, and perlocutionary effects of 
language communication and communication systems in 
postcolonial contexts are welcome as well. Papers dealing 
with natural disc! ourse and issues of cultural 
displacement, migration, hybridity, diaspora, and the role 
of public and government media in shaping perceptions of 
postcolonial history, politics, and regional, ethnic, and 
social identities will also be considered. With its emphasis 
on communication and issues of identity, agency, 
understanding, and empowerment in different postcolonial 
contexts, this panel wishes to provide a common platform for 
interdisciplinary cooperation between scholars of different 
persuasions with interests in language, communication, and 
postcolonial questions.