Chapter 8. Indirect ritual offence
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Dániel Z. Kádár
Abstract
The present chapter examines the phenomenon of indirect ritual offence, which includes cases of recurrent offences that are indirect and as such make it difficult for the targeted person to respond to them. Manifestations of indirect ritual offence include a series of indirect attacks that recurrently target a person, and cases in which the targeted person is recurrently ostracised. While this behaviour has received significant attention is social psychology, it has not been studied in pragmatics and (im)politeness research, in spite of the fact that it is one of the most widely discussed forms of impoliteness behaviour in public discourses. The examination of this phenomenon also contributes to the pragmatic examination of the difference between indirectness and implicitness; as I point out in this chapter, indirect ritual offence becomes implicit from both academic and lay points of view if the frequency of such attacks decreases but the attacks nevertheless continue. In such cases, the targeted person may reinterpret previous attacks as “harmless” and speculate about the nature of new attacks, and even more importantly the abuser can easily claim that they have not intended to offend the other at all – thus, in such cases indirect ritual offence gains an implicit nature. In order to illustrate this point, I examine ways in which “implicit” as an evaluator tends to be metapragmatically used in accounts on indirect ritual offence.
Abstract
The present chapter examines the phenomenon of indirect ritual offence, which includes cases of recurrent offences that are indirect and as such make it difficult for the targeted person to respond to them. Manifestations of indirect ritual offence include a series of indirect attacks that recurrently target a person, and cases in which the targeted person is recurrently ostracised. While this behaviour has received significant attention is social psychology, it has not been studied in pragmatics and (im)politeness research, in spite of the fact that it is one of the most widely discussed forms of impoliteness behaviour in public discourses. The examination of this phenomenon also contributes to the pragmatic examination of the difference between indirectness and implicitness; as I point out in this chapter, indirect ritual offence becomes implicit from both academic and lay points of view if the frequency of such attacks decreases but the attacks nevertheless continue. In such cases, the targeted person may reinterpret previous attacks as “harmless” and speculate about the nature of new attacks, and even more importantly the abuser can easily claim that they have not intended to offend the other at all – thus, in such cases indirect ritual offence gains an implicit nature. In order to illustrate this point, I examine ways in which “implicit” as an evaluator tends to be metapragmatically used in accounts on indirect ritual offence.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Chapter 1. Implicitness 1
-
Part I. Word and phrase
- Chapter 2. What’s a reading? 15
- Chapter 3. Pronouns and implicature 37
- Chapter 4. Implicitness in the lexis 67
- Chapter 5. Zero subject anaphors and extralinguistically motivated subject pro -drop in Hungarian language use 95
-
Part II. Sentence and utterance
- Chapter 6. Implicitness via overt untruthfulness 121
- Chapter 7. Lexical pragmatics and implicit communication 147
- Chapter 8. Indirect ritual offence 177
- Chapter 9. Implicitness in the use of situation-bound utterances 201
- Chapter 10. Thematic silence as a speech act 217
-
Part III. Text and discourse
- Chapter 11. The dynamics of discourse 235
- Chapter 12. Why don’t you tell it explicitly? 259
- Chapter 13. Implicature and the inferential substrate 281
- Index 305
- Index 305
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Chapter 1. Implicitness 1
-
Part I. Word and phrase
- Chapter 2. What’s a reading? 15
- Chapter 3. Pronouns and implicature 37
- Chapter 4. Implicitness in the lexis 67
- Chapter 5. Zero subject anaphors and extralinguistically motivated subject pro -drop in Hungarian language use 95
-
Part II. Sentence and utterance
- Chapter 6. Implicitness via overt untruthfulness 121
- Chapter 7. Lexical pragmatics and implicit communication 147
- Chapter 8. Indirect ritual offence 177
- Chapter 9. Implicitness in the use of situation-bound utterances 201
- Chapter 10. Thematic silence as a speech act 217
-
Part III. Text and discourse
- Chapter 11. The dynamics of discourse 235
- Chapter 12. Why don’t you tell it explicitly? 259
- Chapter 13. Implicature and the inferential substrate 281
- Index 305
- Index 305
