With the improvement of computer technology and the prevalence of the Internet, learning activities taking place in cyberspace by means of computer-mediated communication have become more common and accessible than even a decade ago. Being interested in how politeness phenomena as universal principles in human interaction played a role in the process of online collaborative learning in a graduate-level course, I conducted a naturalistic inquiry to explore students’ interaction through the lens of Brown and Levinson’s politeness theory (1987). I analyzed the exchanges of 18 students divided into four teams with a consideration for such contextual factors as concerns about netiquette, time, modes of online communication, discourse functions, and sense of community. Influenced by the tradition of interpretivist/constructivist research paradigm, I adopted diverse data collection methods and discourse analytical techniques. Data are reported as a case study of a purposefully selected focal team of five students with supporting evidence interweaving multiple data sources (online discussion, self-reflective blog entries, self-report portfolios, peer/self assessments, field notes, videotapes of voice chat sessions, audiotapes of interviews, and online survey responses). Given the context of students being required to work collaboratively as a team throughout the semester, the findings of this study suggested that the focal team used a variety of politeness strategies to establish cohesion among members and to moderate the force imposed by presupposing too much underlying solidarity. Five contextual factors also emerged as influencing the focal team’s use of politeness strategies: norms/convention, online communication medium, topics and content of discussion, social distance, and personal differences. Instructional technology is subject to innovation and is meant to facilitate learning. Incorporating new technology (e.g., Second Life) into instructional settings can create new opportunities for learning on which learners’ use of politeness strategies depends. Thus, this study about politeness in an online collaborative learning context not only contributes to enriching views of politeness theory, but also in being able to help prepare learners to collaborate effectively in new immersive learning environments with comfort in the ways of fostering awareness of face-saving concerns to avoid or redress face threat situations that may damage team collaboration and lead to a negative learning experience. / text

The following study deals with politeness and the degree to which it is employed by Swedes and native Spanish speakers, or Hispanos, when speaking Spanish. Also dealt with are the perceptions these speakers have regarding their personal proficiencies in Spanish as well as others’ and the extent to which politeness is utilised during discourse in Spanish between the people claiming these ethnic identities. The ethnic identities studied are Swedes and Hispanos living in Sweden, speaking both Spanish and Swedish fluently. The study serves to investigate the probability of one ethnic group being more polite than the other and seeks to determine which one it is. The use of a questionnaire was made to gather information to be used to resolve the research questions in addition to proving the various hypotheses. A total of 60 questionnaires were handed out, with each one containing 54 questions encompassing a number of subjects. Out of these 60 questionnaires, 45 were returned. Additionally, the respondents were grouped into two sets. The first included persons perceived by the author to be Hispanos, the second included persons perceived to be Swedish. The questionnaires were divided equally among these two groups. The resulting information was then applied to the hypotheses and used to respond to the research questions. The results of this investigation showed that both Swedes and Hispanos were more polite when speaking Spanish with Swedes, although the Hispanos are shown to generally be more polite. Although answering every research question, the results proved only the final hipothesis, effectively rendering the first two hypotheses incorrect.

Speakers of Persian, like speakers of other languages, utilise Routine Politeness Formulae (RPF) to negotiate central interpersonal interactions. RPF in Persian have not received any systematic description as to their forms, their functions, their typical conditions of use and their discourse structure rules. Bridging this gap, for the first time, RPF from five frequently-used speech acts – namely, greeting, leave-taking, apologizing, thanking and requesting – are documented in this thesis. Data were derived from Persian soap operas and from role-plays with native speakers, and were entered into a database for further analysis. The analysis is qualitative and the data are conceived of as phraseological units to be represented as dictionary entries. The study of the aforementioned speech acts and their related array of RPF reveals the dynamics of interpersonal polite behaviour among Persians, reflecting the following socio-cultural values prevalent in Iranian society: (i) its group-oriented nature, (ii) a tendency towards positive (solidarity) politeness, (iii) sensitivity to remaining in people’s debt, (iv) sensitivity to giving trouble to others, (v) a high premium on reciprocity in interpersonal communications, (vi) the importance of seniority in terms of age and social status, and (vii) differentiation between members of the ‘inner circle’ and the ‘outer circle’. This thesis also reveals the dominance of the strategy of self-lowering and other-elevating. Almost all RPF in Persian allow for the use of this pervasive strategy, which is also manifested by two further sub-strategies: (i) a propensity to exaggerate favours received from others, and (ii) giving precedence to others over oneself. Finally, it is suggested that Islamic teachings have significantly influenced the formation and use of certain RPF. The dictionary resulting from this work can serve as a resource for researchers in sociolinguistics and pragmatics, and for the teaching of Persian to non-Persian speakers.

The present study investigates pragmatic transfer by Chinese learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) at low and high proficiency levels in email requests. Data was elicited using an email production questionnaire consisting of four email situations, which vary along two social dimensions: relative power, either equal or higher, and size of imposition, either big or small. Four groups of participants, who were all university students, took part in the study. Thirty-seven Chinese native speakers of Mandarin and 35 Australian native speakers of English provided the baseline data. Thirty-five Chinese EFL learners at low proficiency level and 38 Chinese EFL learners at high proficiency level provided the target data. Altogether 580 emails were collected. Data was classified according to an adapted version of the coding scheme developed by Blum-Kulka et al. (1989). Email requests were analyzed at both the utterance and discourse levels. At the utterance level, directness level, strategy types and internal modifiers were examined. At the discourse level, external modifiers, including all the supportive moves in the opening, body, and closing of an email request were analyzed. Following Beebe et al. (1990), data was looked at in terms of the frequency, content and average number of pragmatic features. Both qualitative and quantitative analysis methods were adopted. To determine evidence of pragmatic transfer, first, the Chinese baseline data and the English baseline data were compared. The EFL data was then compared with that of the two baseline groups. Pragmatic transfer was confirmed if the EFL data resembled the Chinese baseline data but differed from the English baseline data. In addition, the instances of pragmatic transfer displayed by the EFL groups at low and high proficiency levels were compared to examine the correlation between pragmatic transfer and language proficiency, that is, whether pragmatic transfer increases or decreases as learners’ language proficiency increases. Pragmatic transfer was investigated on both pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic levels. Findings of the present study show that pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic transfer occurred at the utterance and the discourse levels in all three areas: the frequency, content and average number of pragmatic features, by both the low and high proficiency EFL learners. Moreover, a comparison of the performance of requests by the two learner groups indicates that the high proficiency learners had a greater amount of pragmatic transfer than the low proficiency learners. The findings of this study lend strong support to the positive correlation hypothesis proposed by T. Takahashi and Beebe (1987). The findings of the present study highlight the importance of the inclusion of pragmatic components in foreign language teaching. Pedagogical implications of the findings are discussed. Possible suggestions regarding how to improve the EFL learners’ pragmatic competence are provided.

The present study investigates pragmatic transfer by Chinese learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) at low and high proficiency levels in email requests. Data was elicited using an email production questionnaire consisting of four email situations, which vary along two social dimensions: relative power, either equal or higher, and size of imposition, either big or small. Four groups of participants, who were all university students, took part in the study. Thirty-seven Chinese native speakers of Mandarin and 35 Australian native speakers of English provided the baseline data. Thirty-five Chinese EFL learners at low proficiency level and 38 Chinese EFL learners at high proficiency level provided the target data. Altogether 580 emails were collected. Data was classified according to an adapted version of the coding scheme developed by Blum-Kulka et al. (1989). Email requests were analyzed at both the utterance and discourse levels. At the utterance level, directness level, strategy types and internal modifiers were examined. At the discourse level, external modifiers, including all the supportive moves in the opening, body, and closing of an email request were analyzed. Following Beebe et al. (1990), data was looked at in terms of the frequency, content and average number of pragmatic features. Both qualitative and quantitative analysis methods were adopted. To determine evidence of pragmatic transfer, first, the Chinese baseline data and the English baseline data were compared. The EFL data was then compared with that of the two baseline groups. Pragmatic transfer was confirmed if the EFL data resembled the Chinese baseline data but differed from the English baseline data. In addition, the instances of pragmatic transfer displayed by the EFL groups at low and high proficiency levels were compared to examine the correlation between pragmatic transfer and language proficiency, that is, whether pragmatic transfer increases or decreases as learners’ language proficiency increases. Pragmatic transfer was investigated on both pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic levels. Findings of the present study show that pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic transfer occurred at the utterance and the discourse levels in all three areas: the frequency, content and average number of pragmatic features, by both the low and high proficiency EFL learners. Moreover, a comparison of the performance of requests by the two learner groups indicates that the high proficiency learners had a greater amount of pragmatic transfer than the low proficiency learners. The findings of this study lend strong support to the positive correlation hypothesis proposed by T. Takahashi and Beebe (1987). The findings of the present study highlight the importance of the inclusion of pragmatic components in foreign language teaching. Pedagogical implications of the findings are discussed. Possible suggestions regarding how to improve the EFL learners’ pragmatic competence are provided.

The present study investigates pragmatic transfer by Chinese learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) at low and high proficiency levels in email requests. Data was elicited using an email production questionnaire consisting of four email situations, which vary along two social dimensions: relative power, either equal or higher, and size of imposition, either big or small. Four groups of participants, who were all university students, took part in the study. Thirty-seven Chinese native speakers of Mandarin and 35 Australian native speakers of English provided the baseline data. Thirty-five Chinese EFL learners at low proficiency level and 38 Chinese EFL learners at high proficiency level provided the target data. Altogether 580 emails were collected. Data was classified according to an adapted version of the coding scheme developed by Blum-Kulka et al. (1989). Email requests were analyzed at both the utterance and discourse levels. At the utterance level, directness level, strategy types and internal modifiers were examined. At the discourse level, external modifiers, including all the supportive moves in the opening, body, and closing of an email request were analyzed. Following Beebe et al. (1990), data was looked at in terms of the frequency, content and average number of pragmatic features. Both qualitative and quantitative analysis methods were adopted. To determine evidence of pragmatic transfer, first, the Chinese baseline data and the English baseline data were compared. The EFL data was then compared with that of the two baseline groups. Pragmatic transfer was confirmed if the EFL data resembled the Chinese baseline data but differed from the English baseline data. In addition, the instances of pragmatic transfer displayed by the EFL groups at low and high proficiency levels were compared to examine the correlation between pragmatic transfer and language proficiency, that is, whether pragmatic transfer increases or decreases as learners’ language proficiency increases. Pragmatic transfer was investigated on both pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic levels. Findings of the present study show that pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic transfer occurred at the utterance and the discourse levels in all three areas: the frequency, content and average number of pragmatic features, by both the low and high proficiency EFL learners. Moreover, a comparison of the performance of requests by the two learner groups indicates that the high proficiency learners had a greater amount of pragmatic transfer than the low proficiency learners. The findings of this study lend strong support to the positive correlation hypothesis proposed by T. Takahashi and Beebe (1987). The findings of the present study highlight the importance of the inclusion of pragmatic components in foreign language teaching. Pedagogical implications of the findings are discussed. Possible suggestions regarding how to improve the EFL learners’ pragmatic competence are provided.

The present study investigates pragmatic transfer by Chinese learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) at low and high proficiency levels in email requests. Data was elicited using an email production questionnaire consisting of four email situations, which vary along two social dimensions: relative power, either equal or higher, and size of imposition, either big or small. Four groups of participants, who were all university students, took part in the study. Thirty-seven Chinese native speakers of Mandarin and 35 Australian native speakers of English provided the baseline data. Thirty-five Chinese EFL learners at low proficiency level and 38 Chinese EFL learners at high proficiency level provided the target data. Altogether 580 emails were collected. Data was classified according to an adapted version of the coding scheme developed by Blum-Kulka et al. (1989). Email requests were analyzed at both the utterance and discourse levels. At the utterance level, directness level, strategy types and internal modifiers were examined. At the discourse level, external modifiers, including all the supportive moves in the opening, body, and closing of an email request were analyzed. Following Beebe et al. (1990), data was looked at in terms of the frequency, content and average number of pragmatic features. Both qualitative and quantitative analysis methods were adopted. To determine evidence of pragmatic transfer, first, the Chinese baseline data and the English baseline data were compared. The EFL data was then compared with that of the two baseline groups. Pragmatic transfer was confirmed if the EFL data resembled the Chinese baseline data but differed from the English baseline data. In addition, the instances of pragmatic transfer displayed by the EFL groups at low and high proficiency levels were compared to examine the correlation between pragmatic transfer and language proficiency, that is, whether pragmatic transfer increases or decreases as learners’ language proficiency increases. Pragmatic transfer was investigated on both pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic levels. Findings of the present study show that pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic transfer occurred at the utterance and the discourse levels in all three areas: the frequency, content and average number of pragmatic features, by both the low and high proficiency EFL learners. Moreover, a comparison of the performance of requests by the two learner groups indicates that the high proficiency learners had a greater amount of pragmatic transfer than the low proficiency learners. The findings of this study lend strong support to the positive correlation hypothesis proposed by T. Takahashi and Beebe (1987). The findings of the present study highlight the importance of the inclusion of pragmatic components in foreign language teaching. Pedagogical implications of the findings are discussed. Possible suggestions regarding how to improve the EFL learners’ pragmatic competence are provided.

abstract: In the study of politeness in Spanish there are some speech acts that have received more attention, such as requests, apologies, invitations and negotiations. In the case of the of congratulation, there is only one published work by García about congratulation by Peruvian Spanish-speakers. This thesis is a first approximation to the study of realization of the speech act of congratulation in Colombian Spanish. The Brown and Levinson model is used for the study of preferences in the strategies of politeness, and the Scollon and Scollon model for the notion of deferential and solidarity politeness. The Blum Kulka et al. model is used for the classification of the categories of principal head acts and supportive moves in the speech acts of congratulation. The following results were found in answer to the basic hypothesis of the research: The Colombians in this sample have positive politeness when giving congratulations and manifest it with such solidarity strategies as pride and approval, expressions of gratitude and support, and they also give the congratulation in an explicit manner. To a lesser degree they request information and make direct criticism. The data analysis shows a 95% certainty in the differences found between men and women. Nevertheless, the differences between younger and older people or between young women and young men are not statistically significant and only show tendencies. In order to corroborate the finding of this research, it is necessary to have a larger sample in terms of the educational level of the participants. Also, the sample should be broader in terms of gender and age, so as to verify if the difference between younger and older people continues being a tendency or if there is a statistically significant difference. To generalize the term Colombian, other regions of the country should be included, especially the contrast between the Andean, Coastal, and Plains regions which are culturally different within the country. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.A. Spanish 2011

Dyslexia is primarily a neurobiological disorder and much research has been conducted on this (see for example Coltheart 1996; Shaywitz and Shaywitz 2000 and 2004). However, little has been done which investigates the social construction of dyslexia. Because dyslexia affects reading, writing and spelling to varying degrees, although it may originate from genetic inheritance, it manifests itself in social spheres. Brown and Levinson‟s (1987) Face Theory states that people use strategies to minimise the damage to the positive face of others. My research focuses on how dyslexic individuals use linguistic strategies to minimise potential face-threatening acts or FTAs against themselves and in so doing preserve their own positive face. Using elements of Face Theory and APPRAISAL I constructed a typology reflecting these linguistic face management devices of adults with dyslexia. With this research I hope to contribute to the field in an innovative and meaningful manner through an exploration of the linguistic face management strategies used in the management of positive face.

ANDRADE, Richarson Lobo de. A personalização em e-mails promocionais. 2008. 104f. – Dissertação (Mestrado) – Universidade Federal do Ceará, Departamento de Letras Vernáculas, Programa de Pós-graduação em Linguística, Fortaleza (CE), 2008. / Submitted by Márcia Araújo (marcia_m_bezerra@yahoo.com.br) on 2014-08-20T15:00:18Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2008_dis_rlandrade.pdf: 873853 bytes, checksum: 68cce29c3ff2e4182990cb3b275c38f5 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Márcia Araújo(marcia_m_bezerra@yahoo.com.br) on 2014-08-20T17:15:05Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 2008_dis_rlandrade.pdf: 873853 bytes, checksum: 68cce29c3ff2e4182990cb3b275c38f5 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2014-08-20T17:15:05Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2008_dis_rlandrade.pdf: 873853 bytes, checksum: 68cce29c3ff2e4182990cb3b275c38f5 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008 / The present study has as a goal, taking as the basis the Politeness Theory, developed by Brown and Levinson (1987), to show how certain strategies of politeness can contribute to personalize the reader/client of promotional e-mails. We analyze some positive politeness strategies, used by opt-in promotional e-mails, that is, the ones sent with the addressee’s permission, and opt-out, that is, the ones sent with no permission. From the presuppose that the politeness strategies, essential in the face-to-face interaction, are used with the objective of client’s personalization. The methodology used is from interpretative and qualitative basis, in that the object of this study is focused through observation and data analysis. The corpus is formed of 30 promotional e-mails (15 opt-in and 15 opt-out). We observed that the major part shoed the politeness strategies, presenting that way, personalization’s mechanisms; differently from the opt-out e-mails, which show few or no personalization’s strategy. The research is situated, then, in a interdisciplinary perspective between Interactional Sociolinguistics and Marketing, contributing for a reflexion about the various strategies used in the publicitary language, a phenomenon so actualt in our lives / O presente trabalho tem como objetivo, tomando por base a Teoria da Polidez, desenvolvida por Brown e Levinson (1987), mostrar como certas estratégias de polidez podem contribuir para personalizar o leitor/cliente de e-mails promocionais. Analisam-se algumas estratégias de polidez positiva, utilizadas em e-mails promocionais opt-in, ou seja, aqueles enviados com consentimento do destinatário, e opt-out, ou seja, aqueles enviados sem consentimento do destinatário. Parte-se do pressuposto, que as estratégias de polidez, essenciais na interação face-a-face, são utilizadas com o objetivo de personalização do cliente. A metodologia empregada é de base interpretativa e qualitativa, em que o objeto de estudo é focalizado através de observações e de análises de dados. O corpus analisado constitui-se 30 e-mails promocionais (sendo 15 do tipo opt-in e 15 do tipo opt-out). Constatou-se que a maioria dos e-mails opt-in apresentou as estratégias de polidez, demonstrando, assim, mecanismos de personalização; diferentemente dos e-mails opt-out, que apresentaram poucas ou nenhuma estratégia de personalização. A pesquisa situa-se, portanto, numa perspectiva interdisciplinar entre a sociolingüística interacional e o marketing, contribuindo para uma reflexão sobre as várias estratégias utilizadas na linguagem publicitária, fenômeno tão presente em nossa vida.