Contents

Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter I
2. Preface V
3. Contents VII
4. List of Contributors IX
5. Introduction 1
6. Part 1: The Theory and History of Linguistic Politeness
7. 1. Intracultural tact versus intercultural tact 21
8. 2. Linguistic politeness and politic verbal behaviour: Reconsidering claims for universality 43
9. 3. On the historicity of politeness 71
10. 4. Literary texts and diachronic aspects of politeness 109
11. 5. Politeness in linguistic research 131
12. 6. Traditional and modern views: the social constitution and the power of politeness 155
13. Part 2: Empirical Studies in Politeness
14. 7. Secondhand politeness 203
15. 8. Between matter-of-factness and politeness 219
16. 9. Children’s understanding of white lies 231
17. Part 3: Politeness in a Non-Western Cultural Setting
18. 10. The metapragmatics of politeness in Israeli society 255
19. 11. The concept of politeness: An empirical study of American English and Japanese 281
20. 12. Linguistic etiquette in Japanese society 299
21. 13. Politeness in Thai 325
22. References 337
23. Author and subject index 369
24. Backmatter 382