Carmen García

Apologizing in English: Politeness strategies used by native and non-native speakers

This paper presents the results ofempirical research comparing the politeness strategies used by Americans and Venezuelans in an English language roleplay Situation, apologizing to a friend for not having attended his party. The analysis of their conversations indicates that whereas the Americans were deferential and self-effacing towards the offended American host (using negative politeness strategies), the Venezuelans, in line with their sociocultural rules of language use, werefriendly but not contrite, expressing themselves in terms of familiarity and solidarity with the host (using positive politeness strategies). The result of the American approach was the establishment ofharmony. It left bot h the participants and the host comfortable with the outcome. By contrast, the Venezuelan approach led to disharmony between the host and the participants resulting in miscommunication of the intended message. The host was offended by what he perceived äs callousness on the pari of the Venezuelans, and the Venezuelans for their part feit harassed by a friend who demanded respect when none was called for. This and other studies have shown that differences in conversational style have the potential for creating disharmony and misunderstanding. Thus, äs Byrnes (1986) indicates, it may be desirable to improve cross-cultural communication by using a common highly deferential style which subsequently could be modified ifmutually acceptable to the communicative partners. Multilingua 8-1 (1989), 3-20 0167-8507/89/0008-0003

Disagreeing and requesting by Americans and Venezuelans

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Making a request and responding to it: A case study of Peruvian Spanish speakers

This paper examines the stylistic devices used by American (L1) and Venezuelan (L2) speakers in two different English language role-play situations: disagreeing and requesting. Although each of the participants used a different combination of devices, there were patterns followed by L1s and L2s that reflected their distinctive cultural styles. In general L1s preferred nonconfrontational stylistic devices when they disagreed with an L1 interlocutor and impersonal stylistic devices when they requested a service. L2s, on the other hand, used more confrontational devices when disagreeing and more personal devices when requesting a service. This suggests that L1s and L2s participated within different frames, respectively “This ls Business” and “This ls “(Un)Friendly.” In general these different frames of participation led to more harmonious outcomes for L1s than for L2s in each of the conversational interchanges. The study shows that for second and foreign language education and education in general, students can profit from acquiring skills that permit them to identify and adjust to different cultural and language-appropriate situations.

Reprimanding and responding to a reprimand: A case study of Peruvian Spanish speakers

Abstract This article examines the strategies used by male and female Peruvian Spanish speakers when participating in two speech events: making a request for a service and responding to it. In addition, it looks at cross-gender similarities and/or differences. In classifying the strategies used by Peruvian speakers the analysis uses both Blum-Kulka et al.s (1989) model, differentiating between head acts and supporting moves, as well as Brown and Levinsons (1978) framework of politeness strategies. The analysis showed that the strategies used by Peruvian Spanish speakers when making a request showed a marked preference for the expression of deference over camaraderie. However, when responding to the request they preferred the establishment of camaraderie with the interlocutor. It also showed that although there were some differences between male and female participation, this difference was not statistically significant. Although the results cannot be generalized to all Spanish speakers, the results should prove helpful in understanding the preferred rules of language use of Peruvian Spanish speakers.

The three stages of Venezuelan invitations and responses

Abstract This paper presents empirical research analyzing the politeness strategies and frames of participation for male and female Peruvian Spanish speakers in two role-play situations: reprimanding and responding to a reprimand. When reprimanding, both male and female participants preferred solidarity over deferential politeness strategies. They also preferred strategies that threatened the interlocutors face wants rather than their own, and her negative rather than positive face wants. This reflects a preference for being authoritative while maintaining friendliness. Males were far more authoritative than females and participated within what we call a ‘this is business’ frame. On the other hand, females generally expressed concern for the interlocutor and participated within a ‘this is friend’ frame. Older participants, both male and female, and members of the upper middle class were the more forceful and imposing. Unlike what was characteristic of reprimanding, when responding to a reprimand a second set of males and females preferred deferential as opposed to solidarity politeness strategies. In this situation participants threatened their own face wants rather than their interlocutors, preferring also to threaten their negative rather than positive face wants. This demonstrates once more the preference for expressing friendliness as opposed to imposing on themselves or the interlocutor. There were again decided differences between males and females. Males were confrontational participating in a ‘this is challenge’ frame. Females, on the other hand, balanced their confrontation with an admission of responsibility and participated in a ‘this is acceptance’ frame. Older participants, both male and female, and members of the upper middle class were the more deferential.