“Girls on tour”: Politeness, small talk, and gender in managerial business meetings
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Louise Mullany
Louise Mullany is Lecturer in Applied Linguistics in the School of English Studies at the University of Nottingham, UK. Her research interests are in the fields of sociolinguistics and pragmatics, primarily focusing on language and gender in business, media and medical settings. She is coeditor of the forthcoming (2006)Routledge Companion to Sociolinguistics , and is currently finalizing a monograph,Gendered Discourse in Professional Communication , to be published by Palgrave in 2007.
Abstract
Politeness at work is examined in this paper by focusing on small talk as a form of linguistic politeness in relation to gender in business meetings. The paper embarks on a theoretical discussion of politeness and small talk, and also critically examines recent theoretical developments in the area of language, gender and politeness. Politeness is conceptualized from a communities of practice (CofP) perspective (Mills 2002, 2003). Butler's (1990) model of performativity, along with the CofP approach and the notion of gendered discourses are integrated to form an overall framework for the data analysis.
Small talk is analyzed in managerial meetings, drawing on data taken from two ethnographic studies of UK businesses. Small talk is highlighted as a multifunctional device and the importance of power when analyzing politeness in the workplace is emphasized. The analysis indicates that, despite being stereotypically associated with unimportant, trivial feminine discourse, small talk is utilized in powerful ways in the public context of workplace meetings. Women managers use small talk strategically to create solidarity/collegiality, as an in-group identity marker, and also as a device to place social distance between themselves and men within their CofPs.
About the author
Louise Mullany is Lecturer in Applied Linguistics in the School of English Studies at the University of Nottingham, UK. Her research interests are in the fields of sociolinguistics and pragmatics, primarily focusing on language and gender in business, media and medical settings. She is coeditor of the forthcoming (2006) Routledge Companion to Sociolinguistics, and is currently finalizing a monograph, Gendered Discourse in Professional Communication, to be published by Palgrave in 2007.
© Walter de Gruyter
Articles in the same Issue
- Special issue of the Journal of Politeness
- Politeness at work: Issues and challenges
- Power distance at work: The cases of Turkey, successor states of the former Soviet Union and Western Europe.
- “Girls on tour”: Politeness, small talk, and gender in managerial business meetings
- Politeness in small shops in France
- Aspects of polite behaviour in French and Syrian service encounters: A data-based comparative study
- Politeness in the portrayal of workplace relationships: Second person address forms in Peninsular Spanish and the translation of humour.
- Politeness markers in French: post-posed quoi in the Tourist Office
- Book reviews
Articles in the same Issue
- Special issue of the Journal of Politeness
- Politeness at work: Issues and challenges
- Power distance at work: The cases of Turkey, successor states of the former Soviet Union and Western Europe.
- “Girls on tour”: Politeness, small talk, and gender in managerial business meetings
- Politeness in small shops in France
- Aspects of polite behaviour in French and Syrian service encounters: A data-based comparative study
- Politeness in the portrayal of workplace relationships: Second person address forms in Peninsular Spanish and the translation of humour.
- Politeness markers in French: post-posed quoi in the Tourist Office
- Book reviews
