What are culture-specific ways of communication and why? - Directness or indirectness: face, politeness and rapport

18 important questions on What are culture-specific ways of communication and why? - Directness or indirectness: face, politeness and rapport

What do speakers intend in indirect speech acts?

The speaker intends the other party to infer an additional meaning as well as the meaning conveyed by the words themselves.

What are Lakoff's (1973) rules of politeness?

  • Don't impose
  • Give options
  • Make addressee feel good - be friendly

What is Brown and Levinson's (1978) politeness theory?

Every 'model person' is assumed to possess a self-image, i.e. face.
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What is without redressive action, baldly?

The most direct, unambiguous and concise way of putting one's intention across. It usually occurs in cases of urgency or when the degree of face-threatening is minimally small.

What is positive politeness?

A set of strategies aimed to reduce the threat to positive face of the hearer. These include claiming common ground, conveying that speakers and hearers are cooperators and fulfilling hearers' wants.

What is negative politeness?

A set of strategies aimed at reducing the threat to negative face of the hearer. These include being direct; do not presume/assume; do not coerce; communicate speakers' wish to not impinge on hearers; and redress hearers' other wants.

What is the face-threatening act?

The speaker gives up her communicative intention when the face threat is too great.

How is the weightiness of an FTA decided?

By the distance between the speaker and hearer, the hearer's power over the speaker and the degree of imposition.

What is the deference politeness system?

Two travelers talk to each other while waiting at the train station.

What is the solidarity politeness system?

Two close friends have a chat.

What is the hierarchical politeness system?

A senior manager talks to his PA in the office.

What is quality face (Spencer-Oatey, 2002)?

The desire to be evaluated positively.

What is social identity face (Spencer-Oatey, 2002)?

The desire for others to acknowledge and uphold their social identities or roles.

What is polite behaviour (Watts, 2003)?

Both linguistic and non-linguistic behaviours which the participants construct as being appropriate to the ongoing social interaction.

What is the dugri talk?

A speech activity in which face work is temporarily suspended in order to allow the speaker to be direct in his way of speaking. It is an Israeli style of directness. It gives the speaker an opportunity to confront the hearer explicitly and directly.

How does gift offering and accepting work in China?

Pre-offer, offer, decline, re-offer, decline, re-offer, acceptance. The offer can also be accepted after the first or second offer.

What strategies can be used to enact a speech act of declination?

  • complaining about the gift being too much or too expensive
  • questioning the reason for the offer
  • highlighting the already existing close relationship
  • insisting that they do not need the gift

What is the goal of the Quranic verse Insha' Allah?

It serves to mitigate one's commitment, to indirectly refuse or reject a request or invitation, to avoid undesirable consequences and to protect one's self-image, as a rhetorical strategy of indirect persuasion to lend credibility to the speaker's claim.

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