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6 - Researching Im/politeness in Face-to-Face Interactions: On Disagreements in Polish Homes

from Part I - Concepts and Cultural Norms Underlying Speech Acts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 June 2019

By
Eva Ogiermann
Edited by
Eva Ogiermann  and
Pilar Garcés-Conejos Blitvich
Eva Ogiermann
Affiliation:
King's College London
Pilar Garcés-Conejos Blitvich
Affiliation:
University of North Carolina, Charlotte
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Summary

Ogiermann’s chapter explores disagreements in naturally occurring conversations taking place between spouses in Polish homes. The disagreements under scrutiny arise while accomplishing everyday tasks and generally aim at achieving the best outcome for all members of the family. Yet the analyses demonstrate that the disagreements are treated as face-threatening. The study is based on video recordings, making it possible to include non-verbal aspects of the interaction in the analysis. Taking these aspects into account sheds new light on the disagreements, showing that they often form a background activity to the tasks being performed, which continue being executed as the disagreements evolve and impact on how they evolve. The analysis of the interactional data is complemented with interviews, which largely confirm the interpretations derived from the recordings, while also providing a broader perspective on how the disagreements and understandings of politeness shape, and are shaped by, the couples’ family lives.

Keywords

Etic
Type
Chapter
Information
From Speech Acts to Lay Understandings of Politeness
Multilingual and Multicultural Perspectives
 , pp. 146 - 174
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

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