Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal

The aim of this study is to investigate politeness phenomena within the Hindu sector of the South African Indian English speaking community. The study focuses on the understanding of politeness within the target community and whether this understanding has changed over the past generation. It also examines if males and females exhibit and value politeness differently. Finally the study investigates which of the existing Western/non-Western models of politeness are relevant for describing the politeness phenomena in the target community. This study is conducted through the realizations of the speech acts of requests and apologies, focusing on the variables of age, status and social distance. In order to achieve triangulation, qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection were used. These comprised interviews with cultural/religious leaders, discourse completion tasks, interviews with families and a ranking scale. My findings reveal that the understanding of politeness phenomena within the target community is more in keeping with that in other non-Western cultures than in Western cultures. Females are found to exhibit more polite behaviours than males. Further, in general the understanding of politeness over the past generation has remained more or less constant. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2001.

El objetivo del presente estudio es comparar diferencias y similitudes entre dos culturas distintas, enconcreto la peruana y la sueca, con respecto a los cumplidos y en relación a la cortesía. Partimos de lapremisa generalizada de que los cumplidos pueden diferenciarse interculturalmente y planteamos lahipótesis, basada en esta premisa y en nuestra propia percepción como hablante de sueco y de español,de que hay una diferencia intercultural entre los peruanos y suecos en cuanto a la realización delcumplido. En concreto, pensamos que los dos grupos bajo estudio se diferencian, en primer lugar, encuanto a quién es el destinatario del cumplido, y en segundo lugar en cuanto a la persona, cosa ocomportamiento que son objeto de cumplido. Se ha elaborado una encuesta para cada grupo nacional(10 en cada uno) en su idioma materno con situaciones en donde hay alta probabilidad de queaparezcan cumplidos. Las situaciones descritas en la encuesta las elegimos porque pensamos que sonfáciles de reconocer como parte de la vida diaria para la mayoría de las personas y porque nos puedandar respuestas apropiadas para responder a las preguntas de investigación. Las encuestas se handistribuido en su mayoría de forma personal, aunque en algunos casos han sido distribuidas por mediode internet. Los resultados nos revelan que el grupo de peruanos prefiere no usar tanto el cumplidocomo el grupo de suecos cuando la distancia social es más alta, como entre empleado y jefe, yprefieren en su lugar, como una forma de marcar distancia, realizar felicitaciones. Por otro lado, elgrupo de suecos prefieren hacer cumplidos de modo más impersonal, con una preferencia por referirsea los objetos (bonito carro) en lugar de introducir su persona en el enunciado (me gusta el carro). Deesta forma, en cuanto a la primera hipótesis, observamos que los dos grupos hacen en general uso delcumplido a la mayoría de los destinatarios en todas las situaciones de la encuesta, y por lo tanto no seaprecia una variación significativa. En cambio, con respecto a la segunda hipótesis, sí observamos unavariación cultural en cuanto a la forma de enfocar el cumplido. / The aim of the present study is to compare differences and similarities between two different cultures,namely the Peruvian and the Swedish, in terms of compliments in relation to politeness. The studyparts from the generalized premise that compliments can differ interculturally. The hypothesis, basedon that premise and also in the perception of the author of this study, as a Swedish and Spanishspeaking person, is that there is an intercultural difference among Peruvians and Swedes regarding thedelivery of compliments. Specifically we believe that both groups under study differ in two ways. Atfirst they differ regarding whom is the addressee of the compliment and then they differ regarding theperson, thing or behavior that is object of the compliment. A questionnaire was elaborated for bothgroups (10 in each group) in their respective modern tongue with situations where there is a highprobability that compliments may occur. The situations in the survey were chosen because they werebelieved to be easily recognized in the everyday life of most people. They were also believed toprovide us with the answers that were needed in this study to be able to answer the research questions.The survey was foremost distributed personally and in some cases they were distributed through theinternet. The results reveal that the Peruvian group prefers to do fewer compliments than the Swedishgroup when the social distance is bigger, like between employee and chief. They prefer to enouncemore congratulations than the Swedish group as a distance marker. On the other hand the Swedesprefer to compliment in a more impersonal manner because of their preference to refer to the object(nice car) rather than to introduce their person in the enunciation (I like the car). What regards the firsthypothesis it is observed that both groups compliment the majority of the addressees in every situationof the survey, and therefore there´s no significant variation to be observed. On the other hand, thesecond hypotheses can confirm a cultural variation regarding the way to direct the compliment

This thesis investigates verbal insults recorded in judicial protocols in the Swedish university townUppsaladuring the 1630s. The aim of the study is to analyze insults as linguistic formulations and social acts in Early Modern Swedish society. The methodology of the study is guided by speech act theory and ethnography of communication in order to examine the lexical realizations of insults and verbal action in different speech communities. From a total of 652 protocols in two series of records from the city court and the university council inUppsalain the 1630s, sections of text were excerpted that registered insults. The material under investigation comprises 179 cases that contained 276 insults. The descriptive meta-linguistic expressions for insults are rich as well as varied, and the performed insults are reported with or without invectives and as direct or indirect speech. Clear patterns emerged in the investigation by performing various semantic-, pragmatic-, and discourse-level analyses of the judicial records. Insults among city people were commonly interpreted as truth-conditional representative speech acts and thereby were viewed as false accusations of various kinds. In the academic world, however, the truth value of the insult was of minor importance. The speech act was regarded mainly as an expressive utterance of anger and frustration. Through a comparison of the city and university judicial records, it is shown that the patterns of insults reveal a general semantic process in which primarily concrete, objective meanings come to fulfill increasingly interpersonal and pragmatic speech functions.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Sydney, 2004. / Title from title screen (viewed 5 May 2008). Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy to the Faculty of Law. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print form.

Thesis (M.A.)--Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 76-78).

Zugl.: Salzburg, Univ., Diss., 2008

Thesis (M.A.)--Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 76-78).

Στη μελέτη αυτή εκδίδονται τα κείμενα των γραμμάτων που απηύθυνε το Πατριαρχείο Κωνσταντινουπόλεως προς τη μονή Γηρομερίου από το 1533 ώς το 1863. Στη μεγάλη πλειοψηφία τους τα γράμματα αυτά εκδόθηκαν προκειμένου να επιλυθούν ζητήματα που κατά καιρούς απασχόλησαν τους χριστιανούς, ζητήματα τα οποία είχαν προηγουμένως γνωστοποιήσει στο Πατριαρχείο οι ενδιαφερόμενοι με γραπτές αναφορές τους. Από άποψη γλωσσική, τα πατριαρχικά αυτά γράμματα εντάσσονται σε δύο ομάδες. Η πρώτη περιλαμβάνει κείμενα τα οποία ανήκουν σε διάφορους τύπους επίσημων γραμμάτων (κυρίως σιγίλλια) και στα οποία χρησιμοποιείται η αρχαιοπρεπής λόγια γλώσσα, η επίσημη γραπτή γλώσσα του Πατριαρχείου Κωνσταντινουπόλεως. Η δεύτερη ομάδα περιλαμβάνει κείμενα που ανήκουν σε λιγότερο επίσημους τύπους γραμμάτων (κυρίως πιττάκια). Η γλώσσα των κειμένων τους χαρακτηρίζεται από την αυξημένη διείσδυση απλούστερων εκφραστικών μέσων. Το φαινόμενο αυτό, που ανιχνεύεται ήδη από την πρώτη μεταβυζαντινή περίοδο και εντείνεται στο πέρασμα του χρόνου, οφείλεται στην επίδραση της απλοελληνικής, διέπεται από την αρχή της προσαρμογής στο είδος ―δηλαδή τον βαθμό επισημότητας― της επικοινωνίας και στο γλωσσικό επίπεδο του αποδέκτη, και εξυπηρετεί την αμεσότητα της επικοινωνίας, απαραίτητη προϋπόθεση για την αποτελεσματική άσκηση της εκκλησιαστικής διοίκησης. Από άποψη ιστορική, τα εκδιδόμενα έγγραφα συνιστούν την κατεξοχήν πηγή για την ιστορία της μονής Γηρομερίου κατά τους μεταβυζαντινούς και νεότερους χρόνους. Πρόκειται για το μοναστήρι που ίδρυσε στις πρώτες δεκαετίες του 14ου αιώνα ο όσιος Νείλος ο Εριχιώτης ή Ιεριχιώτης στην Ήπειρο, στην περιοχή της Βαγενιτίας, κοντά στο χωριό Γηρομέρι. Η τύχη του μοναστηριού μεταξύ των ετών 1336-1533 παραμένει άγνωστη. Αντίθετα, τα σωζόμενα πατριαρχικά γράμματα της περιόδου 1533-1863 περιέχουν πλούσιες μαρτυρίες σχετικά με ζητήματα εκκλησιαστικής διοίκησης, κοινωνικά, οικονομικά, ιδεολογικά κ.ά., μαρτυρίες που προάγουν τη γνώση μας γύρω από την ιστορία της μονής και της εξαρχίας Γηρομερίου, την τοπική ιστορία και την ιστορία του θεσμού του Πατριαρχείου Κωνσταντινουπόλεως στο πλαίσιο της Οθωμανικής Αυτοκρατορίας. / The Correspondence between the Patriarchate of Constantinople and the Monastery of Giromeri in Thesprotia during the Post-Byzantine and Modern Era A Contribution to the Philological Research of the Patriarchal Acts The thesis presents the philological edition of the acts which the Patriarchate of Constantinople addressed to the monastery of Giromeri from 1533 to 1863. The majority of these acts aims at settling issues faced by Christians under the Patriarchate’s jurisdiction. The interested parts usually informed the Patriarchate about their demands by written reports. From the philological point of view, the Patriarchal acts in question can be classified in two groups. The first group includes texts belonging to various types of official acts (mainly sigillia), written in the learned language which constituted the formal written language of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. The second group includes texts belonging to less official types of acts (mainly pittakia). Those texts are characterized by infiltration of a more simple language. This phenomenon, which can be detected since the early post-Byzantine era and is intensified through the forthcoming years, is due to the influence of the spoken language; it is also determined by the principle of linguistic adaptation to the type of communication –namely the rate of formality– as well as the linguistic level of the receiver, and it serves the directness of the communication, which is an indispensable prerequisite for the effective exercise of ecclesiastical administration. From the historical point of view, the Patriarchal acts under discussion constitute in fact the main source for the history of the monastery of Giromeri during the post-Byzantine era. The monastery was founded in the first decades of 14th century by Neilos Erichiotes in Epirus, in the region of Vagenitia, close to the village of Giromeri. From 1336 to 1533, the fate of the monastery remains unknown. On the contrary, the Patriarchal acts of the period 1533-1863 contain a lot of information on matters of ecclesiastical administration, as well as social, financial, ideological issues etc., information which advance our knowledge on the history of the monastery and the exarchy of Giromeri, the local history and the history of the institution of the Patriarchate of Constantinople within the political framework of the Ottoman Empire.

Thesis (MPhil (General Linguistics))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The broad topic of this study is the nature and the effects of making and interpreting complaints in intercultural interactions involving international students and South African administrative staff in two Stellenbosch University residences. It appears that during these interactions, the international students are often frustrated by the way their complaints are handled. As a speech act, the effectiveness of a complaint depends on the way it is expressed and understood and also on the social context in which it is performed. In this regard, the study examines the influence of cultural differences on the way complaints are made and responded to in the above-mentioned intercultural interactions. The study aims to analyse intercultural situations involving the making and understanding of complaints that may result in misunderstandings. The complaints data were collected through a discourse completion task, performed by 24 international students belonging to six cultural groups, namely American, Chinese, Dutch, Gabonese, German and Libyan. All the students were residents in one of two student residences of Stellenbosch University. The social acceptability judgments data were elicited from three Afrikaans-speaking South African staff members of these residences, and from an additional six Afrikaans-speaking South African students who served as informants. All the data were analyzed within the pragmatic framework of the CCSARP (Cross-Cultural Speech Act Realization Project), as developed by Blum-Kulka, House and Kasper (1989). The main findings of the analysis indicate that the six cultural groups differed in the way they made their complaints. Moreover, these differences influenced the manner in which some complaints were understood by the staff members. It was also found that the staff members’ responses to the complaints were influenced by their social acceptability judgments of the international students’ utterances. These findings lead to three main conclusions: (i) the way in which complaints are made and understood is influenced by factors that relate to cultural differences; (ii) such cultural differences may lead to misunderstandings; and (iii) conscious efforts to create greater awareness of cultural differences will lead to a better understanding of the way in which people of different cultural groups make and respond to complaints. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie handel breedweg oor die aard en effek van klagtes, soos uitgedruk en geïnterpreteer tydens interkulturele interaksies tussen internasionele studente en Suid-Afrikaanse administratiewe personeel in twee koshuise van die Universiteit Stellenbosch. Dit blyk dat die studente dikwels gefrustreerd voel oor die manier waarop hulle klagtes in sulke interaksies gehanteer word. Die effektiwiteit van ’n klagte, as ’n taalhandeling, word bepaal deur die manier waarop dit uitgedruk en verstaan word, asook deur die sosiale konteks waarbinne dit uitgevoer word. Die studie ondersoek in dié verband die invloed van kulturele verskille op die manier waarop klagtes uitgedruk en op gereageer word in die bogenoemde interaksies. Die doel van die studie is om ’n analise te maak van interkulturele situasies waar misverstande kan ontstaan by die uitdruk en interpretasie van klagtes. Die klagte-data is ingesamel deur die voltooiing van ’n diskoers-taak waarby 24 studente van ses verskillende kultuurgroepe betrek is: Amerikaans, Chinees, Duits, Gabonees, Libies en Nederlands. Al die studente was inwoners van een van twee koshuise van Stellenbosch Universiteit. Die data oor sosiale aanvaarbaarheidsoordele is verkry van drie Afrikaanssprekende Suid-Afrikaanse personeellede, en van ’n verdere ses Afrikaanssprekende Suid-Afrikaanse studente wat opgetree het as informante. Al die data is ontleed binne die pragmatiekraamwerk van die CCSARP (“Cross-Cultural Speech Act Realization Project”), soos ontwikkel deur Blum- Kulka, House en Kasper (1989). Die hoofbevindings van die analise dui daarop dat die ses kultuurgroepe van mekaar verskil wat betref die manier waarop hulle hul klagtes uitgedruk het, en dat hierdie verskille ’n invloed het op die manier waarop sommige klagtes geïnterpreteer is deur die personeellede. ’n Verdere bevinding is dat die personeellede se reaksies op die klagtes beïnvloed is deur hulle beoordeling van die sosiale aanvaarbaarheid van die internasionale studente se uitings. Drie hoofgevolgtrekkings kan op basis van dié bevindings gemaak word: (i) die manier waarop klagtes uitgedruk en geïnterpreteer word, word beïnvloed deur faktore wat verband hou met kulturele verskille; (ii) sulke kulturele verskille kan lei tot misverstande; en (iii) daadwerklike pogings om ’n groter bewussyn van kulturele verskille te skep, sal lei tot ’n beter begrip van die manier waarop klagtes uitgedruk en op gereageer word deur mense van verskillende kultuurgroepe.