Social deixis in motion
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Tatiana Luchkina
Abstract
The address term COMRADE in the 20th century Russian and Mandarin Chinese presents an attempt to neutralize and compress the category of formal address by collapsing in a single lexeme the dimensions of power, social distance, age, and gender differentials. This situation-dependent variability of politeness-import proved to be of limited efficacy on the more global, paradigmatic scale. With COMRADE falling out of use in the late 20th century, the current tendency in Russian and Mandarin is to reinforce novel forms of address and/or recover select obsolescent ATs. Both strategies suggest the contemporary address systems of these languages show a trend against reduction and towards populating the paradigm of generic address with ATs whose politeness import is specific and stable.
Abstract
The address term COMRADE in the 20th century Russian and Mandarin Chinese presents an attempt to neutralize and compress the category of formal address by collapsing in a single lexeme the dimensions of power, social distance, age, and gender differentials. This situation-dependent variability of politeness-import proved to be of limited efficacy on the more global, paradigmatic scale. With COMRADE falling out of use in the late 20th century, the current tendency in Russian and Mandarin is to reinforce novel forms of address and/or recover select obsolescent ATs. Both strategies suggest the contemporary address systems of these languages show a trend against reduction and towards populating the paradigm of generic address with ATs whose politeness import is specific and stable.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
-
Introduction
- Introduction vii
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Self-reporting Studies
- Introduction to Part I 3
- Social deixis in motion 7
- The M-word 41
- “There’s not a lot of negotiation” 71
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Observational Studies
- Introduction to Part II 93
- Korean honorifics beyond politeness markers 97
- Goading as a social action 121
- Shaming, group face, and identity construction in a Russian virtual community for women 149
-
Experimental Studies
- Introduction to Part III 183
- Interactional competence and politeness 187
- Using eye-tracking to examine the reading of texts containing taboo words 213
- Impoliteness electrified 239
-
Epilogue
- Epilogue 267
- Index 277
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
-
Introduction
- Introduction vii
-
Self-reporting Studies
- Introduction to Part I 3
- Social deixis in motion 7
- The M-word 41
- “There’s not a lot of negotiation” 71
-
Observational Studies
- Introduction to Part II 93
- Korean honorifics beyond politeness markers 97
- Goading as a social action 121
- Shaming, group face, and identity construction in a Russian virtual community for women 149
-
Experimental Studies
- Introduction to Part III 183
- Interactional competence and politeness 187
- Using eye-tracking to examine the reading of texts containing taboo words 213
- Impoliteness electrified 239
-
Epilogue
- Epilogue 267
- Index 277
