Canadian English Speakers’ Choices in Refusing Invitations (Published)
Using data provided by a group of Canadian undergraduate university students, the present study expands research on regional pragmatic variation in English. It focuses on types, frequencies, pragmatic functions, realization forms, and situational distribution of invitation refusals in Canadian English. Results show that the invitation refusals collected appear either as single speech acts or as communicative acts/speech act sets in which refusals are combined with other types of acts. The analysis also reveals the use of direct refusals and/or indirect refusals and/or supportive acts in the production of refusal utterances, with significant differences regarding their frequencies, realisation patterns, pragmatic functions and situational distribution. The use and combinations of these invitation refusal strategies are also examined, from the perspective of politeness and rapport management. Limitations of the study as well as avenues for future research are outlined in the conclusion of the paper.
Keywords: Canadian English, Face, Invitation Refusals, Mitigation, Variation
Politic Impoliteness: The Use of Bald On-Record Politeness Strategy by Hosts of Adversarial Discussions on Radio (Published)
This paper examines the use of bald on-record politeness strategy by four hosts of adversarial panel discussions on radio. Brown and Levinson’s (1978, 1987) influential and diversely discussed Politeness Theory holds that verbal interaction may break down if the participants ignore each other’s face needs. By this argument, the bald on-record strategy would appear to be the least desirable choice among interactants. However, it has long since been shown that focusing on politeness in institutional settings exposes new dimensions of the phenomenon (Grainger, 2005; Mullany, 2005; Harris, 2000; Lakoff, 1989). Drawing on data obtained from seven episodes of confrontational discourse on radio, the paper establishes that this apparently impolite and face-threatening behaviour of the hosts is both common and effective in managing adversarial talk. It also shows, by situating the adversarial radio discussion in its institutional context, how the host’s selection of bald on-record strategy may not be perceived as impolite. The paper concludes by proposing that the host’s interactional behaviour may lead to a breakdown of the interaction only if it is perceived to be ‘impolitely impolite’ in the context of the specific community of practice.
Keywords: Adversarial Panel Discussions on Radio, Bald On-Record Strategy, Face, Managing Adversarial Talk, Politeness Theory