A discursive approach to the analysis of politeness data
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Isabelle van der Bom
and
Sara Mills
Abstract
This paper aims to provide an exemplification of the way that the discursive approach can work in relation to the analysis of data. As such, it argues for the validity of the discursive approach to politeness. Because the discursive approach has been seen as difficult to employ in the analysis of data, in recent years, there has been a proliferation of research returning to Brown and Levinson’s approach. Although discursive approaches to politeness have functioned successfully as a critique of Brown and Levinson’s work, they are not seen as a means of analyzing politeness and impoliteness in their own right. By tracing the development of the discursive approach to politeness, and by addressing the critiques that there have been, we argue that although the critical role of the discursive approach is paramount to the development of the field, discursive approaches are more than just a critique, and should be seen as constituting an approach to the analysis of politeness as well. As a case in point, we illustrate what a discursive approach consists of through analyzing an intercultural interaction between a group of close friends of Dutch and Italian origin.
©2015 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- Journal of Politeness Research: Introduction
- A discursive approach to the analysis of politeness data
- Agency, accountability and evaluations of impoliteness
- (Im)politeness and (im)morality: Insights from intervention
- In search of another understanding of politeness: From the perspective of attentiveness
- Jocular mockery in computer-mediated communication: A contrastive study of a Spanish and English Facebook community
- The landscape of impoliteness research
- Epilogue. Politeness research: Sociolinguistics as applied pragmatics
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- Journal of Politeness Research: Introduction
- A discursive approach to the analysis of politeness data
- Agency, accountability and evaluations of impoliteness
- (Im)politeness and (im)morality: Insights from intervention
- In search of another understanding of politeness: From the perspective of attentiveness
- Jocular mockery in computer-mediated communication: A contrastive study of a Spanish and English Facebook community
- The landscape of impoliteness research
- Epilogue. Politeness research: Sociolinguistics as applied pragmatics
