Richard J. Watts

Politeness Theory and Relational Work

Abstract In this paper we briefly revisit politeness research influenced by Brown and Levinsons (1987) politeness theory. We argue that this research tradition does not deal with politeness but with the mitigation of face-threatening acts (FTAs) in general. In our understanding, politeness cannot just be equated with FTA-mitigation because politeness is a discursive concept. This means that what is polite (or impolite) should not be predicted by analysts. Instead, researchers should focus on the discursive struggle in which interactants engage. This reduces politeness to a much smaller part of facework than was assumed until the present, and it allows for interpretations that consider behavior to be merely appropriate and neither polite nor impolite. We propose that relational work, the “work” individuals invest in negotiating relationships with others, which includes impolite as well as polite or merely appropriate behavior, is a useful concept to help investigate the discursive struggle over politeness. We demonstrate this in close readings of five examples from naturally occurring interactions.

Relevance and relational work: linguistic politeness as politic behavior

Using the social activity of a family gathering, from both British and German Swissperspectives, the author arguesfor the notion of politic verbal behavior. In order to account for a marked decrease in overt politeness strategies in closed groups, the notion of polite verbal behavior must be embedded within a more fundamental one of politic verbal behavior. Within this broaderframework, cross-cultural differences may be observed in social activities whose speech events do not necessitate a high level of conventionally polite verbal behavior. The article explores the hypothesis that in such speech events where the fabric of interpersonal relationships is at apremium, and the relationships in the social group need to be maintained äs far äs possible in a state of equilibrium, the participants are continually involved in relational work, which can only be successfully carried out in accordance with the perceived relevance of the individual contribution to the overall interaction.

Taking the pitcher to the ‘well’: Native speakers' perception of their use of discourse markers in conversation

Abstract This article investigates ways in which native speakers perceive the use of discourse markers such as you know, right, well, like, etc. by other speakers. There is evidence from the stretch of verbal interaction analyzed to suggest that discourse markers are evaluated negatively in order to characterize socially validated members of the in-group in a family gathering by stigmatizing outsiders as discourse marker users. This can only be done, however, if the markers themselves are perceptually salient, salience being more easily identified if they are used as righthand rather than lefthand discourse markers. Paradoxically, speakers appear entirely unaware of the fact that and the extent to which they themselves make use of discourse markers.

Acquiring status in conversation: ‘Male’ and ‘female’ discourse strategies

Abstract Distinctions are often made between ‘male’ and ‘female’ discourse strategies, for example, that women use minimal listener responses more frequently than men or that men interrupt more frequently than women. In the present article I outline one way of assessing how and to what degree female and male discourse participants gain status during the discourse. The notion of social network is adapted to allow an assessment of the interpersonal links created as the discourse progresses through time, the revised concept being termed the emergent network. Within each emergent network ‘powerful strategies’ allow the participant to acquire more prestige than neutral strategies. Extracts from three videotaped stretches of discourse involving non-native teachers of English are submitted to a network/status analysis to show that women and men have equal access to both kinds of strategy, but that the women do indeed make greater use of neutral strategies than the men and that their use of the more ‘prestigious’ strategies is more supportive and less competitive than that of the men. The fundamental question that remains is why certain types of discourse strategy should be seen as more prestigious than others.

Language, Dialect and National Identity in Switzerland

This paper deals with language and socio-cultural identity in Switzerland, one country within Europe with an avowed Multilingual policy which, on the surface at least, appears to work. However, ifwego below the surface ofofficial policy making and the apparently harmoniom co-existence of the various ethnic groups, linguistic conflict is in evidence. I maintain that one way of revealing Ms conflict and highlighting possible reasons for it is to study what happens at the micro-level of interpersonal, socio-communicative interaction. It is noticeable that a number of official, semi-official and unofficial pronouncements are made on the macro-level of the mass media in Switzerland on the problems of language conflict, most of which, however, fail to get at the complex relationship between language, ethnic identity and national identity. In order to demonstrate the validity of the hypothesis, certain relevant sections taken from a one-and-a-half hour discussion on Germanspeaking Swiss television between French-speaking and German-speaking Swiss, conducted in Standard German, are commented upon and evaluated. l . Language and nationalism Despite negative assessments of nationalism by sociologists and politologists in the wake of two world wars and a constant train of smaller armed conflicts over the past forty years (see Kedourie 1962, Shafer 1955, Seton-Watson 1981), despite international and supranational organizations devoted — one assumes — to the betterment of the common lot of humanity, and despite the chaotic legacy of geographically and ethnically artificial states left behind by the former European colonial powers, the desire to forge and maintain the Multilingua 7-3 (1988) 313-334 0167-8507/88/0007-0313

Re-Reading and Rehabilitating Basil Bernstein.

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Relevance theory and verbal interruptions: Assessing discourse status

Abstract This article constitutes a re-reading of and an attempt to rehabilitate Basil Bernstein, both of which are important in light of the interpretation of Bernstein as a proponent of the verbal deficit view, and the general discrediting of his work on social class differences in the British educational system, as related to what he later called ‘codes’, by scholars like Jensen (Social class and verbal learning, Holt, 1968) and Labov (The logic of non-standard English, Georgetown University Press, 1970), in particular. Exploring whether the international criticism of Bernstein was justified entails both an analysis of articles written by Jensen (Social class and verbal learning, Holt, 1968) and Labov (The logic of non-standard English, Georgetown University Press, 1970) and by Bernstein, notably ‘Language and social class’ and ‘A critique of the concept of compensatory education’, both published in the first volume of Class, codes and control (Bernstein, Class, codes and control, Volume 1. Theoretical studies towards a sociology of language, Schocken Books, 1971). The article argues for the importance of contextualising Bernsteins thoughts on language and society within the socio-political climate framing his scholarship and the development of his ideas as a whole. We show that much of the interpretation of Bernstein is, in fact, a misinterpretation, for which Bernstein was only partly at fault. By rehabilitating some of Bernsteins ideas, it is possible to argue for their relevance today, especially with reference to salient connections between socio-cultural background and performance at school. Furthermore, Labov and Bernstein may not have been so far apart in their thinking as has previously been assumed.

Using folk songs as a source for dialect change? The pervasive effects of attitudes

The Calvin and Hobbes comic strip illustrates that conversations are not contests, although participants may gain and lose discourse status. This paper first examines the nature of interventions, concluding that most of them are not perceived to be interruptive by participants in real-life conversations. In other words, since conversations generally function in cooperative ways, interventions are usually seen to contribute to the interaction. However, the less relevant the intervention is assessed to be in terms of Sperber and Wilsons relevance theory, the more likely the participants will evaluate it as interruptive. According to the discourse status model outlined in the article, the intervener will increase status if the contribution is high on a scale of relevance and will lose discourse status if the intervention is judged to be not so relevant and is therefore perceived to to be interruptive.

Obituary for Professor Peter H. Nelde

Abstract The present article argues that the social category of ‘standardisation’ has been instrumental in creating a Foucaultian discourse archive governing what may and what may not be stated on the subject of the history of English. It analyses the question of how language attitudes have been instrumental in creating the myths that have driven the discourse of Standard English since the 19th century, but it goes further than this by showing how language performance, in the form of folk songs in England, has also come under this same archive of standardisation. However, in both cases, i.e. language and language performance, it is argued that a below-the-surface alternative discourse has now gained enough force to seriously challenge the doctrine of standardisation and to necessitate the formation of new discursive contents for a social concept that is in serious danger of becoming hollow and outdated.

Male vs female discourse strategies: Tabling conversational topics

Abstract As editor of Multilingua, I wish to convey to our readership the sad news of the death of Prof. Dr. Peter Hans Nelde, Professor of Germanic Linguistics and Director of the Research Center on Multilingualism at the Catholic University of Brussels. I do so with great sorrow as I had known Peter since 1985 when I first met him at the annual meeting of the Societas Linguistica Europæa in Toledo, Spain. Peter died on August 31 this year after a courageous fight against cancer.