Derek Bousfield

Impoliteness revisited: with special reference to dynamic and prosodic aspects

This paper focuses on impoliteness, the use of communicative strategies designed to attack face, and thereby cause social conflict and disharmony. Using television documentary recordings of disputes between traffic wardens and car owners as our data, we revisit the impoliteness framework mapped out in Culpeper [J. Prag. 25 (1996) 349]. Having justified why an impoliteness framework is needed, we explore the notion of impoliteness and consider whether the impoliteness strategies identified in Culpeper can be found in another discourse type. We argue that for impoliteness to be fully appreciated we need to move beyond the single strategy (lexically and grammatically defined) and examine both how impoliteness pans out in extended discourse and the role of prosody in conveying impoliteness. Our paper has important implications for politeness theory and discourse studies in general, and the role of prosody in discourse in particular.

Impoliteness in language : studies on its interplay with power in theory and practice

The volume addresses the enormous imbalance that exists between academic interest in politeness phenomena when compared to impoliteness phenomena. Researchers working with Brown and Levinsons ([1978] 1987) seminal work on politeness rarely focused explicitly on impoliteness. As a result, only one aspect of facework/relational work has been studied in detail. Next to this research desideratum, politeness research is on the move again, with alternative conceptions of politeness to those of Brown and Levinson being further developed. In this volume researchers present, discuss and explore the concept of linguistic impoliteness, the crucial differences and interconnectedness between lay understandings of impoliteness and the academic concept within a theory of facework/relational work, as well as the exercise of power that is involved when impoliteness occurs. The authors offer solid discussions of the theoretical issues involved and draw on data from political interaction, interaction with legally constituted authorities, workplace interaction in the factory and the office, code-switching and Internet practices. The collection offers inspiration for research on impoliteness in many different research fields, such as (critical) discourse analysis, conversation analysis, pragmatics and stylistics, as well as linguistic approaches to studies in conflict and conflict resolution.

Introduction : impoliteness and power in language

This collection of papers on impoliteness and power in language seeks to address the enormous imbalance that exists between academic interest in politeness phenomena as opposed to impoliteness phenomena.

Impoliteness: Eclecticism and Diaspora An introduction to the special edition

Impoliteness research has finally begun to expand with researchers, like those contributing to this Special Edition, drawing from an eclectic range of research paradigms. One of the most enduring language-oriented lines of research feeding into the study of “impoliteness” must be the study often philological in flavour of swearing. The classic is Montagu’s Anatomy of Swearing (1968) and the most substantial work to date is Hughes’s mighty An Encyclopaedia of Swearing (2006). However, perspectives on swearing have recently broadened to include both a sociolinguistic perspective (see McEnery 2005), and one that combines both social and cognitive issues (see Jay 2000). Nevertheless, whilst, unlike earlier studies, these approaches do consider the use of swearing in context, it is obvious that there is more to being impolite than just swearing. Perhaps the first comprehensive and theoretically-grounded paper on the topic is Lachenicht’s (1980) “Aggravating language: A study of abusive and insulting language”. Although there are problems with both the theory and methodology (see Culpeper et al. 2003: 1553 1554), it is weighty and innovative. Surprisingly, far from being a catalyst for further research, it almost disappeared without trace. In the interim, research into “politeness” gathered momentum. The classic politeness theories, such as Lakoff (1973), Brown and Levinson (1987 [1978]) and Leech (1983), focused on harmonious interactions, and thus, quite understandably, ignored impoliteness. Moreover, as elaborated by Eelen (2001: 98 100), they are generally not well equipped, conceptually or descriptively, to account for impoliteness. In particular, they tend to give the impression that impoliteness is either some kind of pragmatic failure, a consequence of not doing something, or merely anomalous behaviour, not worthy of consideration. The revival of discussions of impoliteness, within pragmatics at least, seems to have come

Chapter 6. Emotion and empathy in Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas: A case study of the “funny guy” scene

This chapter examines how the emotion fear is generated through the linguistic, paralinguistic and kinesic actions of multiple characters in the “funny guy” scene from Martin Scorsese’s 1990 film Goodfellas. The scene in question takes place in The Bamboo Lounge restaurant-bar and features Tommy, a mafioso, relating a humorous story to his compatriots. Henry, a friend of Tommy’s, laughs and compliments Tommy on his story. Tommy reacts surprisingly badly to this and begins to behave in a threatening manner. Henry displays a number of traits that suggest he is frightened by Tommy’s outburst and afraid of what it might lead to. We use insights from im/politeness theory, theories of characterisation and work on multimodal stylistics in order to account for how we recognise Henry’s fear in this scene. We claim that the interplay between linguistic and non-linguistic elements is essential for conveying Henry’s fear and invoking this emotion in the viewing audience. Our analysis reveals the necessity of analysing both the linguistic and non-linguistic aspects of film, and we propose this as a methodological necessity for future work in Film Studies, Cultural Studies and some branches of Stylistics.

Im)politeness in Fictional Texts

This chapter discusses the importance of fictional data for the study of (Im)politeness. After making the case for the value of fiction as linguistic data, the chapter goes on to survey work from stylistics and pragmatics on (Im)politeness in fiction that has led to new insights into the phenomenon. In particular, it discusses how fictional texts have been used to test, counter and refine the classic Brown and Levinson (Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987) model of politeness. It considers how deviation from pragmatic norms in the pursuit of (Im)politeness can be explained in terms of foregrounding theory, the linchpin of stylistics. It then goes on to consider the functional effects of (Im)politeness in fiction, including its capacity for contributing to characterisation and plot development. To demonstrate some of these effects, the chapter concludes with an analysis of a scene from the US sitcom Friends.

The grand debate: where next politeness research?

Abstract: This article analyses the use of English in printed advertising aimed at the Spanish market, from the perspective of discourse analysis, the multimodal theory, as well as the communicative and ethnographic dimension. The presence of the foreign language is justified by contextual reasons (the opening up of new markets, internationalization of the product, the economic globalization), by emotional and ideological values linked with English on the consumers part, by the formation of the new generations and by textual and argumentative strategies, which interact with the verbal text in Spanish and with the images. The conclusion is that English is part of the advertising discourse to the point of being defined as an identifying sign of this textual typology, and so does the receiver accept it in his discursive competence. ________________________________________________________________________________ Resumen: El articulo analiza el uso del ingles en la publicidad impresa dirigida al mercado espanol desde la perspectiva del analisis del discurso, la teoria multimodal, sin olvidar la dimension comunicativa y etnografica. La presencia del idioma extranjero se justifica por motivos contextuales (apertura de mercados, internacionalizacion del producto, globalizacion economica), por los valores ideologicos y emocionales vinculados con el ingles por parte del consumidor, por la formacion de las nuevas generaciones y tambien por las estrategias textuales y argumentativas, en la interaccion con el texto verbal en espanol y con las imagenes. La conclusion es que el ingles forma parte del discurso publicitario hasta el punto de definirse como un signo identificador de esta tipologia textual, y asi lo asume el destinatario en su competencia discursiva.Osvaldo Bayer’s Los vengadores de la Patagonia tragica (1972) has prompted a large sequence of polemical discourses about the so-called “Patagonia tragica” (1921) [the slaughter of rural workers in this Argentinian region]. The different interpretations of the event have gone through stages of silence and revitalization throughout the decades, presenting the ideological interpretative movement in each historical period under analysis as a consequence of the specific dominant discursive formations of the times. Accordingly, this paper examines the mutations experienced by the «rightist» interpretations sponsored by landowners’ associations, the Army, the Press, the Liga Patriotica Argentina [Argentinian Patriotic League] and some traditionalist historians, in order to meet their own social and political agendas.ABSTRACT: This article discusses the dance performance project Interface 2, which involved live dancers, animated computer projections (remediated creations of the live section), and the interface of live dancers with dancers on film. It analyses the responses and perceptions of an audience to the changing transformations of the media and the staging of the dance performance. Alongside these responses, I compare and contrast some of the philosophical and aesthetic debates from the past three decades regarding dance and technology in performance, including that of the tension between the acceptance or rejection of «unnatural» remediated bodies and «natural» live bodies moving in the stage space. ____________________________________________________________________ RESUMEN: Este articulo aborda el proyecto de danza Interface 2, que agrupaba bailarines en directo, proyecciones animadas por ordenador (creaciones transducidas de la seccion en vivo) y la interfaz de bailarines en vivo con bailarines filmados. Se analizan la respuesta y percepciones del publico hacia las transformaciones continuas de los medios tecnologicos de la puesta en escena de la danza. Igualmente, se comparan y contrastan algunos de los debates filosoficos y esteticos de las ultimas tres decadas en relacion con la danza y el uso de la tecnologia en la representacion, en particular el referente a la tension entre la aceptacion o rechazo de la falta de «naturalidad» de los cuerpos transducidos y la «naturalidad» de los cuerpos en vivo moviendose por el espacio escenico.This article applies the concept of horizontal and vertical cultural transfers to the process of cultural exchange between France and England in the Restoration period (1660-1688). It focuses on Aphra Behn as a mediator between French and English cultures by analysing how she negotiated the «cultural», gender and creative elements in her translations from the French.Las piezas teatrales de Ben Jonson, The Masque of Blackness y The Masque of Beauty, contienen discursos secundarios sobre la naturaleza de la «alteridad» de la raza negra en la Inglaterra del siglo XVII, que reflejan las tensiones sociales existentes con respecto a las narrativas oficiales y el imaginario colectivo de la epoca. La transformacion de un personaje de raza negra en protagonista que cuestiona, como forma de conservar su independencia y dignidad, la doctrina oficial encamada por el estamento de la monarquia podria considerarse una reivindicacion de la propia identidad racial Sin embargo, tal discurso queda relegado a un segundo plano al encuadrarlo en la estructura y genero teatrales de la mascarada, a pesar de que no se llegue a cuestionar la autoridad del mismo durante el transcurso de la pieza. De esta manera, se refleja la diversidad de los discursos contradictorios que circulaban en la sociedad de la epoca, asi como los mecanismos utilizados para propiciar el cierre ideologico y textual de las creaciones artisticas en favor de las narrativas dominantes.In Jane Austen’s novels much of the action takes place at social gatherings, where good mariners and rigorous formalities are the arbitrator of social acceptance or exclusion, and help to maintain social hierarchy and social identities. The cinematic adaptations of Austen’s works announce a change in the fabric of society and the conceptions of politeness. By promoting self-knowledge and independence, these films take the part of me characters, who speak their minds without paying too much attention to good manners and politeness, which are considered as a hindrance to the expression of feelings and as a slavish following of rules verging on hypocrisy.Abstract: This article explores two related and highly significant aspects of British broadcasting: how the nature and identity of British television have been influenced by the potentially contradictory demands of high and low culture and associated popular and quality programming; and how (far) national broadcasting has been able to face the threat to its existence posed first by internationalisation and now by globalisation. After an initial discussion of the notions of the global and the popular, this study considers how past conceptions of the role of television affected attitudes to programming, before considering the difficulty of determining what is national, popular television in a world where domestic broadcasts and global pastiches are scheduled side by side. The conclusion examines how national and local characteristics have enabled British programmes to maintain popularity in the face of globalisation. ________________________________________________________________________________ Resumen: El presente articulo explora dos aspectos relevantes de las retransmisiones britanicas: como la identidad y naturaleza de la television britanica se han visto influidas por las exigencias potencialmente contradictorias de la alta cultura, con su programacion de calidad, y de la cultura popular, con su busqueda de audiencia; y si la produccion nacional ha resistido la amenaza, primero de la internacionalizacion y ahora, de la globalizacion. Tras una discusion inicial sobre las nociones del hecho popular y global, se aborda como ciertos conceptos pasados sobre el papel de la television han condicionado la programacion de contenidos. Seguidamente, se exploran las dificultades para definir que es una television nacional o popular en un mundo en el que productos locales y pastiches globales coexisten en la parrilla. La conclusion avanza que las caracteristicas locales y nacionales han permitido a los programas britanicos mantener su popularidad a pesar de la globalizacion.This paper offers an analysis of Anglo-Kuwaiti dramatist Sulayman AlBassam’s celebrated adaptation The Al-Hamlet Summit, and situates the play into the history of Arable appropriations of Shakespeare. Despite the uneven development of theatre as a medium in Arab cultures, Shakespeare has been a familiar point of reference for Arab dramatists since the late 19th century. Received in the Middle East as a great icon of classical theatre, Shakespeare is there for writers to admire, emulate, imitate or challenge. Arab productions of Hamlet have taken different forms over the years: early productions produced a romantic Arab national hero, while later works from the 1970s onwards cast Hamlet as an impotent intellectual. Al-Bassam’s play fuses these traditions to bring Hamlet right up to date, as both a freedom fighter and a suicidal martyr. Al-Bassam’s adaptation modernises Shakespeare, demonstrating the capacity of his plays to speak about urgent issues of the present as well as indispensable meanings from the past.The notion of the stereotype is categorized as a semiotic and ideological construction in the representation of the Other, whose articulation consists of locating it in the area of a distant space and time. The semiotic deictic categories associated with the opposition between the present and the post tenses and the personal pronouns «I», «we» / «they», «them», are representative of the distinction between periphery and center, which is at the root of the gulf existing between cultures that interact asymmetrically. The cultural subjects exerting a symbolic dominance place themselves in the centre / present, indicating progress and civilization, while positioning the Other in the post /periphery, implying primitivism and underdevelopment. Bringing to the fore the internal semiotic mechanisms with which the stereotype presents specific views of the world as naturalised versions of reality, i.e. binary oppositions and static borders, may help explain the ideological role of the stereotype in the perpetuation of certain dominant discourses.In its early stages, the globalization process relied on economic criteria so as to guarantee the flux of manufactured goods from North to South, and of energetic resources and raw materials from South to North. From economic and financial transnationalism, globalization moves on towards the universalization of value systems. However, the latter process has been challenged relatively suceessfully by anti-globalization movements, migratory fluxes of workers from South to North, and identity conservadurism at the ethnic and cultural levels. Thus, transnational economic fluidity has not an equivalent in the exchange of cultural values, reflecting the state of crisis that affects the recognition of the Other and the elements configuring the systems of representation. In this context, translation would be understood as direct style, while representation (giving voice to the Other) would constitute indirect style. From such premises, this article explores the place of translation in relation to actual and objective knowledge of the Other, as well as to its representation as mediatised and selective knowledge.This paper, adopting a theoretical frame that combines the constructionist approach with the techniques of critical discourse analysis (CDA), explores, qualitatively, the discourse that the media generate about irregular or illegal immigration. To do so, a representative sample of articles published in newspaper El Pais throughout 2002 is studied. The results suggest that media discourse, through the strategic use of tire legal-illegal axis, serves an institutional function that legitimizes a policing and judiciary vision of immigration focused on the idea of exclusion and the construction of the «other» as non-citizen, as the only possible interpretations for this phenomenon.Abstract: Speakers of English and Spanish often understand gender differences in terms of animal imagery. It is quite common in both languages to come across metaphors presenting women in the guise of chickens, bitches or vixens. Given the cognitive and social force of metaphor in our understanding of the world and of ourselves, such animal images offer a window on the role given to women in our society. In fact, whether in the form of pets, livestock or wild animals, women tend to be seen as inferior and subordinated to men. _____________________________________________________________ Resumen: Los hablantes de lengua inglesa y espanola usan a menudo la imagineria animal con el fin de comprender diferencias de genero. En ambas lenguas es bastante frecuente encontrar metaforas que presentan a la mujer en la forma de pollitos, perras y zorras. Dada la fuerza social y cognitiva de la metafora en nuestro entendimiento del mundo y de los seres humanos, dichas imagenes animales reflejan el papel otorgado a la mujer en nuestra sociedad. De hecho, ya sea bajo la apariencia de mascotas, ganado o animales salvajes, existe una tendencia a representar a las mujeres como inferiores y subordinadas al hombre.Abstract: Praise names are very important means through which individuals in the Igbo society generally articulate and express their ideologies, boast about their abilities and accomplishments, as well as criticize and subvert the visions of the Other. With particular reference to chieftaincy in the Igbo society, praise-naming as a pragma-semiotic act ties up with constructions and deconstructions of power, and so does have serious implications for the meanings attached to chieftaincy, as well as the roles of the chief in the postcolonial democratic system. The present paper therefore discusses the semiotics of praise names in the contemporary Igbo society, drawing data from popular culture and chieftaincy discourses. It addresses the interface between signification and politics (and the politics of signification) in Africa, arguing that change in the understanding and relevance of chieftaincy in postcolonial Africa calls for attention to how chieftaincy is (re)staged at the site of the sign. ________________________________________________________________________________ Resumen: Los nombres laudatorios constituyen un importante medio a traves del cual los individuos de la sociedad Igbo articulan y expresan sus ideologias, se vanaglorian de sus logros y critican, asi como subvierten las representaciones del Otro. En referencia a la figura del jefe tribal, los nombres laudatorios, en cuanto acto pragma-semiotico, se relacionan con la construccion y deconstruccion del poder, de lo que se derivan importantes implicaciones para el significado endosado al jefe tribal y sus roles en el sistema democratico poscolonial. El articulo explora la semiotica de los terminos laudatorios en la sociedad Igbo contemporanea, utilizando datos de la cultura popular y de los discursos de los jefes. Igualmente, aborda la interfaz entre significacion y politica (la politica de la significacion) en Africa para concluir que el cambio en la relevancia y la manera de entender al jefe tribal en la Africa poscolonial se (re)escenifica en el nivel del signo.Abstract: This paper analyses language attitudes in a rural region as Els Ports (Castellon). By the means of a sociolinguistic questionnaire, we have found that certain indices (such as language loyalty or linguistic pride) illustrate that Valencian and Spanish still live in diglossia. However, if we focus on some social factors (age, gender and social class) we can confirm an important dynamism and more favorable attitudes towards the Valencian language in certain subgroups: women, informants from lower classes and, especially, young people, whose attitudes toward Valencian are always more positive. _______________________________________________________________________________________ Resumen: El estudio de las actitudes linguisticas en la comarca de Els Ports (Castellon) revela que los indices de fidelidad y orgullo linguistico asi como los de presion social subjetiva obtenidos por medio de un cuestionario sociolinguistico, manifiestan que el valenciano y el espanol conviven aun hoy en una situacion diglosica. Con todo, el analisis de ciertos factores sociales (edad, sexo y estrato social) nos lleva a confirmar un mayor dinamismo respecto a esta situacion y unas actitudes mas favorables hacia el valenciano en determinados subgrupos de la muestra: entre las mujeres, entre los informantes de estrato bajo y, sobre todo, entre los jovenes, cuyas actitudes hacia la lengua vernacula son siempre mejores que las de cualquier otro sector de la poblacion.This article presents the partial results of my research into the factors that, in the context of ethnic groups in contact, may favour the usage of the usted treatment formula observed amongst the Chileans configured as a Minority Group (GMI in its Spanish acronym) in Sweden, where the usage of the du pronoun (tu in Spanish), commonly associated with solidarity, is prevalent. The ethnic identity index variable of those who belong to the OMI, correlated with their perception about rejection from the majority group, will encourage their observed linguistic behaviour, which would represent a conscious attempt to fit in and to reach acceptance of me GMI, thus becoming an ethno-linguistic marking. The correlation study is based on the results of a questionnaire about perceptions and attitudes administered to 107 people.Con el telon de fondo de las «guerras culturales» en la decada de los anos ochenta en Estados Unidos, se propone una mirada a la fotografia de Robert Mapplethorpe y de Andres Serrano como formas esteticas liberadoras en un panorama cultural conservador favorable a la censura institucional. La fotografia, tanto de Mapplethorpe como de Serrano, abre el debate sobre los limites de lo permisible en el terreno artistico a traves de la representacion abierta de una serie de tabues socio-culturales a los que subvierten dotandolos de un contenido politico de oposicion. Su trabajo pretende escandalizar y, de este modo, romper la dinamica cultural de los discursos patriarcal y heterosexual dominantes, utilizando una estrategia que difumina los limites entre arte y pornografia y articula, con sus imagenes explicitas, aunque estilizadas, del cuerpo humano, los miedos atavicos y deseos inconscientes del espectador conformando una vision critica de la censura que recupera la voz de los colectivos marginados.Asuncion Lopez-Varela Azcarate and Steven Totosy de Zepetnek discuss how intermediality may influence negotiations of culture and education, and how, in turn, cultural and educational practices can employ new media, with the result of an increase in social impact and significance. Intermediality refers to the blurring of generic and formal boundaries among different forms of new media practices. Intermediality means the employment of theoretical presuppositions in application together with the application of new media technology in action for the betterment of society against essentialisms and towards inclusion and interculturalism. Thus, the notion and potential of intermediality is associated with the incorporation of digital media in a wide variety of loci and spaces of representation and production that deal with the transfer of information and the creation of knowledge in an inclusive society. The trajectories of intermedial spaces between new media and the proliferation of texts, intertexts, hypertexts, and similar acts of remediation, transmediality, multimediality, hypermediality, etc., reveal and offer possibilities about how culture can be negotiated in the context of social and technological change.The main aim of this article is to analyse the links between time and person deixis, and the expression of verbal politeness in English and Spanish. The research instrument implemented has been a discourse completion test, which has been administered to native speakers of English and Spanish and to non-native English speakers whose mother tongue is Spanish. The results obtained show that there exists a close connection between the notions of deixis and verbal politeness in English and Spanish. However, significant differences have also been observed between both languages in this respect.Abstract: The aim of our study is to analyze, from a pragmatic point of view, the use of expressions of threat by young Spanish men (for example, constructions with como at the beginning of sentences, como te coja, te voy a reventar la cara; time sentences introduced by cuando, cuando te pesque, te mato; verbal periphrases of immediate future, hijo de puta, te voy a partir la cara, etc.). The corpus for this study is made up of the answers to 315 anonymous questionnaires passed in different Andalusian high schools. Eventually, we will try to contribute to the definition, expansion and understanding of the phenomenon of verbal impoliteness by engaging in the current scholarly discussions about it. ________________________________________________________________________________ Resumen: El objetivo principal de nuestro estudio consiste en el analisis de las estructuras y recursos verbales que utilizan los jovenes espanoles en la expresion de un acto de habla altamente descortes: la amenaza (asi, por ejemplo, analizaremos construcciones con como antepuesto, como te coja, te voy a reventar la cara, oraciones temporales introducidas por el conector cuando: cuando te pesque, te mato, perifrasis verbales de futuro inmediato, hijo de puta, te voy a partir la cara, etc.). Para ello, utilizaremos la metodologia de la Linguistica Pragmatica y nos basaremos en 315 cuestionarios realizados en diversos centros andaluces de Educacion Secundaria. De esta forma, se intentara contribuir a la definicion, delimitacion y explicacion del fenomeno de la descortesia verbal.El caracter fronterizo de la poesia de Alberto Rios constituye un ejemplo del proceso liberador que puede conseguirse a traves del mestizaje cultural, en este caso el representado por la comunidad hispana del sur estadounidense. Se ilustra el poder transgresor derivado de la union de las diferencias sociales y Culturales en la obra del autor a la que se le aplica el modelo teorico de Gloria Anzaldua en Borderlands / La frontera (1987). Los mecanismos estructurales y conceptuales que Rios utiliza para reivindicar un contexto mestizo en el que se reciclan algunos de los elementos distintivos de la cultura azteca primigenia, como seria el uso de la mascara, sirven para defender una identidad fronteriza e hibrida compuesta de los elementos de ambos lados de tal frontera, tanto fisica como imaginada.The argument over the appropriateness and correction of the term «violencia de genero» [gender violence] in me Spanish language gathered new momentum with the Spanish government’s legislative project to regulate this phenomenon, Ley organica integral de medidas contra la violencia de genero [Integral Organic Law of Measures Against Gender Violence]. This article surveys me range of opinions for and against the use of the term, as well as the number of new terms suggested to substitute it. A quantitative analysis of the appearance of me various terms in El Pais and El Mundo newspapers is conducted to conclude that, following the Law’s approval in the Parliament with the aforementioned title, the general use of the expression has become more widespread in what could be considered an institutional coinage to meet the needs of a changing and dynamic society.Partiendo de la premisa de que una de las caracteristicas principales del discurso literario poscolonial consiste en la apropiacion de los textos canonicos de la metropoli, en este articulo se explora la reescritura de uno de los textos coloniales emblematicos para la literatura caribena en lengua inglesa, Robinson Crusoe, presente en Moses Ascending de Samuel Selvon y Pantomime de Derek Walcott. Ambas obras abordan la cuestion de la hegemonia colonial y la consiguiente condicion poscolonial desde perspectivas divergentes (la del sujeto poscolonial en la metropoli yen las Antillas, respectivamente), aunque utilicen la misma tecnica de la inversion carnavalesca para distanciar el hecho colonial y enfocarlo desde la vision del Otro o subalterno. Estas dos obras ilustran la complejidad de la condicion poscolonial, asi como las estrategias utilizadas para establecer una definicion propia de tal estado, lo que implica que la inversion carnavalesca del orden establecido sea a su vez problematizada para trascender los discursos coloniales anclados en la oposicion binaria de centro y periferia.By resorting to the comparative analysis of oriental and western languages (Chinese, Japanese, American English, Australian English) Haugh questions the universal nature of positive / negative face, which he describes as ethnocentricoriented, and thus should be reconceptualized. To do so, he proposes a dialectic approach based on connectedness-separateness which may transcend the divisions into binary oppositions, and account for both the universal and culture-specific elements inherent in the phenomenon of politeness.The aim of this article is to explore the role and characteristics of communicative interaction in an intercultural context and, more specifically, within multicultural teams. To this end, after defining the concept of intercultural communication, highlighting its importance, and examining the main elements affecting it, this study concludes by stressing the importance of certain variables of verbal and non-verbal communication, production strategies and skills or attitudes necessary to perform a successful intercultural exchange in the working place. The article is pan of a more exhaustive research action dealing with multicultural teams recently carried out iu Spain and inserted within me 2003-2006 ICOPROMO Project (a Leonardo da Vinci programme sponsored by the European Cominission).Bousfield suggests the need to focus on the negative term in the binary opposition im/politeness, that is impoliteness, though acknowledging that it has a distinctive nature which requires that it be approached in its own terms. In this light, the study of positive / negative face in relation to im/politeness must be reoriented to give appropriate weight to contextual factors such as the psychology of im/politeness, the generation of contextualised implicatures and the context of discursive production.This article analyzes an interview with Mr Martin Camino, spokesman of the Spanish Episcopal Conference, by journalist M. A. Iglesias in newspaper El Pais. There, the journalist adopts a prominent position of power, relinquishing any attitude of politeness towards the interviewee. Thus, the speaker’s face is privileged to the detriment of the hearer’s. By means of different linguistic techniques the journalist reorientates the information provided by the interviewee, or poses questions about the inferences that she makes from Martin Camino’s replies, resulting in an impolite act. Such a procedure might be classified as a special genre of journalism tentatively termed as authorial.The aim of this paper is to integrate two topics of research, identity and language use, within the field of socio-psycholinguistics, thereby increasing our understanding and knowledge of the acculturation process involved in promoting Hispanic identity and Spanish language use by second-generation Hispanic Adolescents in Australia. A specific aim is to examine the four acculturation groups identified by Berry (1970, 1980, 1990, 2001) and their impact on group identity and language use through the use of qualitative data. The analysis uses portions of transcripts from tape-recorded interviews obtained through the participation of fifty male and female Hispanic adolescents. Taken together, the results provide evidence that language does not determine identity, but does provide a way to express it; and that culture is a salient predictor of ethnic identity.ABSTRACT: The article explores the processes of practice in terms of intermediality, and presents a visual and metaphorical concept for collaborative process. Through the use of a case study, Men in the Wall by Liz Aggiss and Billy Cowie, the gallery is discussed as an intermedial environment. Certain technical devices, such as «the fade» are considered and it is argued that they contribute to the experience of an «other» space, a liminal moment that is at once present and absent, which is achieved through the blend and collision of media. The article concludes by suggesting a metaphorical analogy for the process and practice of intermedial and interdisciplinary work: the mollusc. _________________________________________________________________ RESUMEN: Este articulo explora los procesos de puesta en accion desde la perspectiva de la intermedialidad y propone un concepto visual y metaforico de los procesos colaborativos. Mediante el estudio de un caso practico, Men in the Wall , de Liz Agiss y Billy Cowie, se analiza el area del anfiteatro como espacio de intermedialidad. Se tienen en cuenta aspectos tecnicos como el fundido y su contribucion en la configuracion de un espacio alternativo, un momento liminal que esta presente y ausente simultaneamente y que se consigue por medio de la amalgama y choque de media. Se concluye con una analogia metaforica para describir el proceso y practica del trabajo interdisciplinario e intermedial: el molusco.espanolEste articulo presenta las conclusiones de una investigacion global acerca del funcionamiento de la descortesia verbal en la tertulia periodistica espanola de tema politico, emitida a traves de la radio y la television. Especificamente, ademas de constatar que el tema politico no constituye un obstaculo para la aparicion de actos verbales descorteses, pretendemos observar la incidencia que factores como el medio, el sexo o el rol del hablante poseen en el empleo de la descortesia verbal. El analisis del corpus, compuesto por un conjunto de transcripciones que alcanza las veinticuatro horas de grabacion, nos ha permitido constatar la presencia de los tres tipos de actos de habla descorteses caracteristicos de las tertulias, tales como la interrupcion, la expresion de desacuerdo y la descalificacion. En lo relativo a las diferencias segun el rol y el sexo del hablante, el estudio concluye que, por una parte, los tertulianos producen, como era de esperar, mas actos verbales descorteses que los moderadores y, por otra, que los resultados obtenidos por las tertulianas en lo relativo al uso de descortesia supera, en los casos de la interrupcion y la disension, a los producidos por los tertulianos masculinos. EnglishThis article presents the main results obtained from a global research about the impoliteness used in the Spanish political talk show, broadcasted in Radio and TV. Specifically, our purpose was to confirm that the political topic of the interaction does not avoid the use of verbal impoliteness, and to analyse the effect of parameters such as the speaker’s gender or role in this phenomenon. By studying the corpus (formed by a set of transcriptions of 24 hours of recordings), three verbal impoliteness strategies (interruptions, disagreements and insults) have been delimited and characterised. According to the influence of the speaker’s gender and role, the study concludes: commentators employ verbal impoliteness more frequently than moderators, and, generally speaking, female journalists utilise interruptions and dissensions more often than their male colleagues.This article focuses on how the representation of violent events is tackled by a number of visual artists and contemporary writers. From their response to such events, there emerges the artists’ concern with avoiding the possible trivialization of violence when fixing the significance of the object or event through the act of representation itself. Incorporating a critical approach towards their chosen method of representation, which may highlight its shortcomings as well as the contingency of the final product, constitutes a shared strategy to overcome such a danger. Consequently, their aesthetic stance evolves towards the trope of silence, which they regard as holding the necessary subversive potential to transcended the postmodern model of the “image-event”Politeness may sometimes be manipulated in order to become a key strategy for the success of given companies, especially of those companies where a high quality service and a friendly environment constitute a fundamental part of the product sold. This is the case of the Disney theme parks, whose helpful and polite employees are often seen as one of me most appreciated aspects of the park experience. The present work analyzes some of the most significant verbal tactics adopted by the Disney staff during interactions with visitors, concluding that the nature, function and potential social effects of «Disney politeness» exemplifies a linguistic creation of reality aimed at preserving and reinforcing the corporate image of the Disney trademark.In this paper I examine the type of discourse developed on Selves and Otherness in a Podcast dedicated to intercultural communication. Based on the first episode of the Podcast, I try to determine the podcasters’ approach to self and otherness in the program. The analysis reveals that the phenomena of Othering and Self-solidifying tend to emerge in the show.E. S. Curtis’s portrait photographs are problematic visual interfaces between the self and the other where the ambiguities of the American imperial psyche at the beginning of the 20th century are crystallised and refracted. Though the visual paradigm may function as an instrument of symbolic and imaginary appropriation, allowing the imperial psyche to satisfy its hegemonic impulses and to confirm its essentialist beliefs, it may also work as a dynamic locus of cultural articulation where the ethnographic gaze may be reversed -not to say reciprocated- and where the otherness of the Other may ultimately emerge.This study examines the campaign websites of presidential candidates during the 2007 election in France and the 2008 presidential campaign in the U.S. Positing the Internet and social networks as a manifestation of popular culture, it examines the reasons for the use of information technology in electoral campaigns. It also attempts to elucidate the reasons for the adoption of the codes of popular culture by exploring the concept of informalization as well as the significance of emotion in online campaign strategies.In this article we analyse intercultural communication management in student interaction in a culturally and linguistically diverse second year primary school classroom. In order to do so, and trying to overcome culturalist reductionism, we explore how three dimensions of interaction, linguistic, psychosocial and social, are linked. So as to observe how this current socio-educational order might be altered, we decided to conduct research in the classroom by introducing changes to attenuate the asymmetries and differences in values in conversational dynamics. The analysis of communicative practices in the classroom, similarly to that of intercultural situations among adults, indicates that from an early age, in situations where there are large social differences, communicative differences can be (re)constructed and used as a tool reinforce asymmetries as well as the status quo, thereby relegating foreing workers and their descendants to an underprivileged social position .In an increasingly globalized market economy advertising by international enterprises acquires alto a global nature in an attempt lo reach a wide multicultural audience from diverse cultural backgrounds. TV advertising resorts to a series of techniques in the depiction of cultural difference, such as simplification, stereotyping and comic effect, among others, with the aim of shocking the target audience into absorbing the commercial messages in question. Even though there seems to have appeared a line of advertising that holds a respectful attitude towards the elements of cultural difference, still there is a general lack of sensibility and concern towards certain cultures or collectives traditionally occupying a subaltern position. In conclusion, the nurturing of the audience’s prejudices is favoured lay multinational firms as the most effective means of selling their products, regardless of the possible distorted images that they may project.This article examines the different ways in which the Latin American soap opera — the telenovela — is represented in Chicano/a literature. The writers Sandra Cisneros, John Rechy and Maria Amparo Escandon portray diverse types of female viewers, refusing to present them as gullible stereotypes. By rejecting a one-dimensional perspective which views the telenovela as simply degrading and manipulative, the writers discussed herein draw attention to its many layers of meaning and to its role in the creation of a transnational Mexican / Chicano identity.El presente estudio de campo aborda los problemas de Comunicacion que pueden surgir en el contexto de la ensenanza y aprendizaje de una lengua extranjera. Especificamente, se analiza la necesidad de introducir el contexto cultural de la lengua de destino para superar las posibles deficiencias comunicativas, en el ambito de la instruccion de la lengua inglesa a estudiantes universitarios lituanos. Tras ponderar las diversas reacciones de los estudiantes muestreados ante la exposicion a la cultura anglosajona, llevada a cabo con la proyeccion y posterior discusion de dos peliculas, Animal Farm (Rebelion en la granja) y Waiting to Exhale (Esperando un respiro), los autores concluyen que el concepto de «conocimiento» o «conciencia cultural» constituye un elemento fundamental en el aprendizaje de una lengua extranjera, cuya ausencia puede provocar el fracaso en la comunicacion. Sin embargo, la ensenanza de tal nocion debe integrarse y complementarse con el espectro cognitivo de la lengua y cultura del hablante nativo si se pretende conseguir una habilidad comunicativa eficaz en la lengua de destino.Abstract: Sherman Alexie’s Reservation Blues , as one of the most important literary works written by a Native American, becomes the space where the White European culture and the stereotypes that the former has created about Native American people coexist and are confronted. Moreover, Alexie transforms the literary space into the frontier where the interchange between these two discourses results in the construction of a new identity, a new Native American who challenges the stereotypes while voicing their silence. All this is symbolized by the reservation as the barrier they have to cross everyday, leading them to the negotiation of two different identities at the same time. ________________________________________________________________________________ Resumen: La novela Reservation Blues de Sherman Alexie, como una de las obras literarias mas importantes escrita por un Nativo Americano, se convierte en el espacio donde la cultura americana europea y los estereotipos que ha creado de los nativos americanos se confrontan y coexisten. Alexie transforma el espacio literario en la frontera donde el intercambio entre estos dos discursos desemboca en la construccion de una nueva identidad, un nuevo Nativo Americano que desafia los estereotipos y le da voz a su silencio. Todo ello simbolizado en la reserva como el obstaculo que deben cruzar todos los dias, y por lo tanto, el salto hacia dos identidades diferentes al mismo tiempo.ABSTRACT: Between December 2005 and March 2007, the Department of Theatre Arts and the Multimedia Program at Bradley University, USA; the University of Waterloo, Canada; and the University of Central Florida, USA developed a unique theatrical enterprise that encompassed four creative artists, over one hundred students from seven academic departments, and an array of sophisticated rendering and communication technology. The fully mediatized production of Elmer Rice’s expressionistic play The Adding Machine integrated virtual scenery, live, real-time telematic performances facilitated via Internet2, recorded composite video, avatar performers, photographs, graphics and sound. This paper reports and analyses some of the artistic, dramaturgical, and technical discoveries made from the production and offers some theoretical insights about convergent telematic performances. ____________________________________________________________________ RESUMEN: Entre diciembre de 2005 y marzo de 2007, el Departamento de Arte Dramatico y el programa Multimedia de la universidad de Bradley, la universidad de Waterloo y la universidad de Central Florida desarrollaron un acontecimiento teatral unico que agrupaba a cuatro artistas, alrededor de cien estudiantes de siete departamentos universitarios y una ingente cantidad de tecnologia de la comunicacion. La version completa de la representacion transducida de la obra expresionista The Adding Machine , de Elmer Rice, integraba decorados virtuales, actuaciones telematicas en vivo y tiempo real a traves de Internet2, grabacion de video analogica, actores digitales, fotografias, graficos y sonido. Este articulo presenta y analiza algunos de los descubrimientos artisticos, dramaturgicos y tecnicos realizados y ofrece una reflexion teorica sobre las representaciones telematicas convergentes.Brines draws on the Classics, Plato and Virgil, in order to provide a contemporary personal statement about homosexual love. The poet rewrites certain passages from Plato’s Republic and Virgil’s Aeneid to claim the true nature of love as opposed to the notions of duty, tradition, and the law with which such love was associated in Ancient Greece and Rome. The articulation of the tension inherent in the Classical works between pare love and the law gives the author an appropriate parallel to express the social barriers that exist when attempting to declare homosexual low openly and passionately. The theme of ephemeral «eros» appears in the poetry of Brines sublimated as the impossibility of fully accomplishing love, especially that of an old-age poetic persona and his admired young men, embodied in the Ancient mature warrior and the Greco-roman youths respectively.This article examines specific aspects of the social / symbolic repression undertaken by the last Argentinian Dictatorship (1976-1983) in the field of education, and how these relate to the dominant discourses and ideologies of their time. In those days, the construct of the «social disabled» was established as part of me wider category of Special Education, equating it to the rest of physical disabilities, in an attempt by the Dictatorship to suppress dissidence. Additionally, a critical analysis of the educational policies dealing with the area of Special Education is outlined in order to show the conniving role of the educational institutions in promoting and reinforcing the oppressive ideological atmosphere imposed by the military dictatorship.ABSTRACT: The article illuminates Goethe’s Faust (1 and 2) by tracing the theoretical conceptualization of an intermedial approach to theatre and performance, and argues for a historical dimension to the medial constitution of perception. While Goethe used the Faust-legend in his play to highlight two competitive orders of knowledge and media by presenting, on the one hand, the romantic, electric, and Mephistotelian ways of seeing and, on the other hand, the classic, literal and scientific order of knowledge; the Catalan theatre group Fura dels Baus transfer this conflict to the digital age in their remediation of the Faustlegend on the contemporary stage. __________________________________________________________________ RESUMEN: Este articulo propone una relectura del Fausto (1 y 2) de Goethe a traves de una conceptualizacion teorica intermedial del teatro y la representacion que defiende la dimension historica de la constitucion intermediada de la percepcion. Mientras que Goethe utiliza la leyenda faustica para subrayar dos ordenes de conocimiento en competencia, por un lado, las maneras romanticas, electricas y mefistofelicas de observar, y por otro, el orden clasico, literal y cientifico del conocimiento, el grupo catalan de teatro La Fura dels Baus traslada el conflicto a la era digital en su transduccion de la leyenda faustica a la escena contemporanea.

Creative linguistic impoliteness as aggression in Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket

Abstract Stanley Kubrick’s anti-war film Full Metal Jacket (1987) dramatically represents US Marine Corps basic training during the Vietnam War as both gruelling and brutalising. The brutal, linguistically aggressive and physically intimidating scenes purport to detail the dehumanising process that Marine Corps recruits were put through in preparation for combat during that period. In the film, the recruits are trained by Gunnery Sergeant Hartman, played by the actor R. Lee Ermey, who is himself an ex-Marine Corps drill instructor (1965–1967) and who also served in Vietnam in 1968. As a result of his experience as an instructor, Ermey was given free rein by Kubrick to write his own dialogue for the abusive barrack room and field training scenes in order to lend the drama an air of authenticity (see Ermey 2017). Within the fictional world of the film, the intense training and disciplinary regime ultimately causes one recruit, Private Leonard Lawrence, to crack psychologically. Private Lawrence is nicknamed ‘Gomer Pyle’ by Hartman upon their first meeting, this name being a direct allusion to the hapless character of the same name who was a US Marine recruit in the sitcom Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C., which ran from 1964–1969 – contemporaneously with the time period in which Full Metal Jacket is set. This insulting allusion is merely the start of a long line of linguistically impolite/aggressive and ultimately physically aggressive interactions which Lawrence/Pyle suffers at the hands of Hartman, both directly and, later in the film as a result of Hartman’s orchestrations, from the other recruits. Under this unrelenting barrage of impoliteness, aggression, and abuse, Lawrence/Pyle eventually shoots Hartman dead before turning his rifle on himself and committing suicide. Thus, the film argues that the dehumanising effect of the basic training, which was ostensibly carried out to toughen up and mentally prepare conscripted recruits for combat in Vietnam, had a profound, brutalising and (potentially) utterly destructive effect on those subjected to it. In this article, we explore the creative linguistic aggression displayed by the character of Hartman. We focus particularly on the reasons underlying the creativity of Hartman’s impoliteness and aggression, and argue that these are essentially to foreground the seriousness of the training regime which the recruits must follow.

Introduction. Politeness research: Retrospect and prospect

The primary concern is to provide an international and multidisciplinary forum for research into linguistic and non-linguistic politeness phenomena, and for research that draws on or develops any model of politeness. The aim is to foster the advancement of theories of politeness; to further the development of methodologies for describing and explaining politeness phenomena; and to broaden our understanding of social and cultural phenomena by publishing reports of empirical studies across cultures, languages, and interactional contexts that are based on rigorous methodologies deriving from sound models of politeness. The journal is aimed primarily at researchers, but it has always been the editorial board’s intention to ensure that the articles that appear in the journal are accessible to both undergraduate and graduate students with an interest in issues around politeness.