Este estudo trata da manifestação da cortesia verbal nas interações feitas por e-mail dentro de ambientes empresariais espanhóis e brasileiros. Buscamos, por meio da análise quantitativa de um corpus composto por correios eletrônicos em Português e em Espanhol, diferenças e/ou semelhanças entre as duas línguas e culturas na forma de comunicar-se por este meio. Em primeiro lugar, discutimos conceitos básicos sobre o gênero discursivo de nosso corpus e, em seguida, passamos às primeiras comparações entre as línguas a este respeito. Com base, principalmente, nos estudos da Pragmática sociocultural, autonomia/afiliação (Bravo, 1999) e atenuação (Briz, 1998), verificamos os pedidos emitidos por brasileiros e espanhóis. Buscamos, em nossas análises, encontrar diferenças e/ou semelhanças linguísticas e socioculturais no que diz respeito a estes atos de fala, traçando uma relação com os estudos da cortesia verbal. Verificamos também a frequência e função dos marcadores de atenuação nessas interações via e-mail. Nossos resultados demonstram algumas diferenças e semelhanças nas formas de interação dessas línguas. Parece haver uma valorização, por parte do Português do Brasil, de uma cortesia atenuadora, que visa a diminuir o grau de imposição de um pedido, evitando, desse modo, um possível desequilíbrio entre os interlocutores. O mesmo não ocorre no grupo de e-mails representantes do Espanhol peninsular. Percebemos que, ainda que sejam línguas semelhantes do ponto de vista estrutural, existem diferenças pragmáticas durante suas interações por e-mail / This study is about the presence of linguistic politeness in Brazilian and Spanish corporate e-mails. Applying a quantitative research technique in a corpus composed by electronic mails in Brazilian Portuguese and Peninsular Spanish, we searched for differences and/or similarities between both languages and cultures in the way of communicating via e-mails. Firstly, we discussed basic concepts about the discursive genre we used as our corpus. Following, we compared both languages regarding those concepts. Based, mainly, on sociocultural pragmatics, autonomy/affiliation (Bravo, 1999), and attenuation (Briz, 1998) studies, we analyzed Brazilian and Spanish requests. We tried to identify linguistic and sociocultural contrasts and similarities in the way of communicating written requests. We also verified the frequency and role of attenuation marks within these e-mails. Our results demonstrated some variation and resemblance in how both languages communicate requests. It seems that there is an over appreciation from the Brazilian Portuguese side, for using attenuators, in order to diminish the degree of imposition of a request, and therefore avoiding a possible instability between the interlocutors. This preference does not occur among the Spanish e-mail group. We found out that, although they are similar languages, their pragmatic choices in e-mail interaction do not seem to coincide

O pedido, no âmbito da Pragmática cross-cultural, tem sido estudado por diversos pesquisadores, tanto por ser um dos exemplos mais claros de que é possível fazer coisas com as palavras, como prevê a Teoria dos Atos de Fala (Austin, 1962), quanto por seu potencial de ameaçar a face positiva de quem o profere e negativa de quem o recebe, conforme postularam Brown e Levinson (1987). Tendo em vista esses pressupostos, a pesquisa aqui apresentada teve o intuito de investigar a percepção que aprendizes brasileiros de italiano e falantes nativos dessa língua têm da cortesia linguística presente em pedidos realizados em italiano, a fim de verificar se há semelhanças ou disparidades nas percepções relatadas pelos diferentes grupos e quais são os elementos que podem motivar essas percepções. Para tal, uma amostra de oito pedidos, gravados em áudio e vídeo, foi apresentada aos informantes brasileiros e italianos, que deveriam indicar, em uma escala de 1 a 5, qual o nível de cortesia neles presente, além de indicar, em um conjunto de 19 variáveis, o quanto elas influenciaram a percepção relatada. O corpus coletado é composto por 40 aprendizes brasileiros e 51 italianos e, a partir da análise dos dados, concluímos que i) quatro dos oito pedidos avaliados pelos informantes suscitaram percepções análogas e, consequentemente, outros quatro pedidos causaram percepções diversas; ii) algumas variáveis (modificadores de força ilocucionária e aspectos como a entoação) tiveram impacto significante sobre a percepção da cortesia em geral e, quanto a cada pedido em específico, que nem sempre a presença de modificadores de força ilocucionária influencia a percepção da cortesia, podendo também a ausência desses elementos ter um impacto positivo ou negativo. Também concluímos que uma grande quantidade de modificadores não necessariamente resulta em uma alta percepção da cortesia. / The request, in the context of cross-cultural Pragmatics, has been studied by several researchers, both for being one of the clearest examples of the possibility of doing things with words, as predicted by the Theory of Speech Acts (Austin, 1962), as well as for its potential to threaten the positive face of the speaker and the negative face of the hearer, as postulated by Brown and Levinson (1987). In view of these presuppositions, the research presented here was intended to investigate how Brazilians learners of Italian and native speakers of this language evaluate the linguistic politeness in requests made in Italian, in order to verify if there are similarities or disparities in the perceptions reported by the different groups and what are the elements that can motivate these perceptions. To do this, a sample of eight requests, recorded in audio and video, was presented to Brazilian and Italian informants, who were asked to indicate, on a scale of 1 to 5, the level of politeness of those speech acts, besides indicating, in a set of 19 variables, how much they influenced the reported perception. The corpus collected is composed of 40 Brazilians and 51 Italians and, based on data analysis, we concluded that i) four out of eight requests evaluated by the informants presented similar perceptions and, consequently, four other requests caused different perceptions; ii) some variables (modifiers and aspects such as intonation) had a significant impact on the perception of politeness in general. For each specific request, we concluded that the presence of modifiers does not always influence the perception of politeness, and that the absence of such elements may also have a positive or negative impact. Finally, it was possible to notice that a large number of modifiers does not necessarily result in a high perception of politeness.

O pedido, no âmbito da Pragmática cross-cultural, tem sido estudado por diversos pesquisadores, tanto por ser um dos exemplos mais claros de que é possível fazer coisas com as palavras, como prevê a Teoria dos Atos de Fala (Austin, 1962), quanto por seu potencial de ameaçar a face positiva de quem o profere e negativa de quem o recebe, conforme postularam Brown e Levinson (1987). Tendo em vista esses pressupostos, a pesquisa aqui apresentada teve o intuito de investigar a percepção que aprendizes brasileiros de italiano e falantes nativos dessa língua têm da cortesia linguística presente em pedidos realizados em italiano, a fim de verificar se há semelhanças ou disparidades nas percepções relatadas pelos diferentes grupos e quais são os elementos que podem motivar essas percepções. Para tal, uma amostra de oito pedidos, gravados em áudio e vídeo, foi apresentada aos informantes brasileiros e italianos, que deveriam indicar, em uma escala de 1 a 5, qual o nível de cortesia neles presente, além de indicar, em um conjunto de 19 variáveis, o quanto elas influenciaram a percepção relatada. O corpus coletado é composto por 40 aprendizes brasileiros e 51 italianos e, a partir da análise dos dados, concluímos que i) quatro dos oito pedidos avaliados pelos informantes suscitaram percepções análogas e, consequentemente, outros quatro pedidos causaram percepções diversas; ii) algumas variáveis (modificadores de força ilocucionária e aspectos como a entoação) tiveram impacto significante sobre a percepção da cortesia em geral e, quanto a cada pedido em específico, que nem sempre a presença de modificadores de força ilocucionária influencia a percepção da cortesia, podendo também a ausência desses elementos ter um impacto positivo ou negativo. Também concluímos que uma grande quantidade de modificadores não necessariamente resulta em uma alta percepção da cortesia. / The request, in the context of cross-cultural Pragmatics, has been studied by several researchers, both for being one of the clearest examples of the possibility of doing things with words, as predicted by the Theory of Speech Acts (Austin, 1962), as well as for its potential to threaten the positive face of the speaker and the negative face of the hearer, as postulated by Brown and Levinson (1987). In view of these presuppositions, the research presented here was intended to investigate how Brazilians learners of Italian and native speakers of this language evaluate the linguistic politeness in requests made in Italian, in order to verify if there are similarities or disparities in the perceptions reported by the different groups and what are the elements that can motivate these perceptions. To do this, a sample of eight requests, recorded in audio and video, was presented to Brazilian and Italian informants, who were asked to indicate, on a scale of 1 to 5, the level of politeness of those speech acts, besides indicating, in a set of 19 variables, how much they influenced the reported perception. The corpus collected is composed of 40 Brazilians and 51 Italians and, based on data analysis, we concluded that i) four out of eight requests evaluated by the informants presented similar perceptions and, consequently, four other requests caused different perceptions; ii) some variables (modifiers and aspects such as intonation) had a significant impact on the perception of politeness in general. For each specific request, we concluded that the presence of modifiers does not always influence the perception of politeness, and that the absence of such elements may also have a positive or negative impact. Finally, it was possible to notice that a large number of modifiers does not necessarily result in a high perception of politeness.

No romance Boquitas Pintadas, de Manuel Puig, encontramos conversações literárias que se aproximam de conversações espontâneas dadas as diversas marcas do registro oral coloquial encontradas. Entre as características de um texto conversacional, notamos que há um jogo de preservação de faces, no qual os participantes fazem usos de estratégias para que não ameacem a liberdade de ação ou a auto-estima de seus interlocutores, para que mantenham o equilíbrio da interação. Estas são as estratégias de cortesia, que serão o foco desta dissertação. Nosso objetivo é analisar as manifestações de cortesia nas conversações literárias selecionadas. Para tanto, apoiando-nos na teoria dos Atos de Fala, em Estudos da Cortesia e em conceitos da Análise da Conversação, buscamos examinar como a distância social entre os participantes, o poder entre eles, e o grau de imposição do ato de fala influencia o uso da cortesia em cada diálogo literário. Os resultados demonstram que nas conversações literárias analisadas a variável que mais motiva o uso de estratégias de cortesia é a relação de poder entre os personagens. / In the Novel wrote by Manuel Puig (1932-1990) firstly published in 1969, we are able to find out literary conversations. These literary conversations are similar to spontaneous conversations in spite of the variety of colloquial oral registers. In their midst characteristics of a conversational text, we are able to figure out that there is a strategic of the face-saving view, in which the speakers exploit strategies that can not be treated their freedom of action or their self-steam, for these reason and with these abilities they can maintain the interaction balance in the conversation. Those are the main strategies of politeness which is the main goal of this dissertation. Our main goal is the analyse of politeness manifestation in the seven literary conversation selected by the novel Boquitas Pintadas. Therefore, based on the Theory of Perlocutionary Acts or Speech acts, in the Politeness studies and in concepts of the Conversation Analysis, we try out to analyze how the social distance between the participants of a conversation (orality), the Power between them, and the level of imposition of the speak acts influence the use of politeness in each of the seven literary dialogue studied. The results developed in this research can demonstrate that in those literary conversation analyzed was found three main varieties: Social Distance, Level of Imposition and Power. And among these varieties, the most important and significant strategy of politeness is the power relation found between the characters inside the conversations.

Esta pesquisa se fundamenta, principalmente, na pragmática sociocultural. Nessa perspectiva, a interpretação da cortesia e da descortesia deve ser realizada a partir de relações entre o linguístico e o sociocultural. Em consonância com essa perspectiva, esta tese objetiva verificar, de modo contrastivo, em corpus do espanhol argentino e do português brasileiro, como está formulado linguisticamente o ato de fala da crítica, quais as possibilidades de respostas a esse ato e quais os efeitos de (des)cortesia presentes nos intercâmbios analisados. Por fim, visa comparar, de modo breve, algumas análises com as percepções dos juízes (informantes) obtidas a partir do método de consulta (BRAVO, 2009). Nosso corpus argentino é formado por 15 cenas do filme FRANCIA (2009) e nosso corpus brasileiro é formado por 14 cenas do filme LINHA DE PASSE (2008). Nesses corpora, selecionamos o ato de fala da crítica em cenas ocorridas em dois âmbitos: o privado e o público. Nossa proposta metodológica é composta, basicamente, por quatro etapas. A primeira e a segunda consistem em analisar linguisticamente em cada corpus o ato de fala da crítica e suas reações a partir do cotexto e do contexto explicitados durante a análise, e a partir dessas trocas interpretar o efeito de (des)cortesia. A terceira etapa consiste em comparar nossa interpretação com a percepção de juízes (informantes) de cada língua, a partir de resultados do método de consulta. A última etapa consiste em tecer comparações entre o âmbito privado e público de cada idioma, para por fim, comentar diferenças e semelhanças entre os dois idiomas. Os resultados da comparação entre os âmbitos em cada idioma demonstram que não há diferenças significativas entre os âmbitos. Quanto aos tipos de críticas, percebemos que, mais do que a influência dos âmbitos, fatores como o grau de compromisso afetivo, a simetria ou assimetria na relação entre os interlocutores, o grau de problematicidade temática da interação, ou seja, da conflituosidade da interação e questões culturais são determinantes nas escolhas linguísticas dos falantes fictícios ao criticar. Acerca das reações, tanto no âmbito privado como no público, predominam as Defesas, dada a natureza ameaçadora do ato de fala da crítica. No que se refere à FRANCIA EA em comparação com LINHA DE PASSE PB, os resultados da análise linguística e sociocultural sinalizam que não há muitas diferenças no modo como argentinos e brasileiros formulam linguisticamente a crítica, mas há diferenças importantes no modo como ambas as nacionalidades reagem a esse ato de fala, diferenças essas, de modo geral, relacionadas às premissas culturais de cada comunidade de fala. / This research is mainly based upon sociocultural pragmatics. In this perspective, the interpretation of politeness and impoliteness has to be done from the relations between linguistic and socialcultural contexts. According to this view, this thesis aims at showing, in a contrastive way, in an Argentinian Spanish corpus and in a Brazilian Portuguese corpus, how speech acts about criticism are linguistically formulated, what the possible responses to these acts are and what (im)politeness effects are present in the analysed exchanges. At last, it focuses on briefly comparing some analyses with judges (informants) perceptions gotten by the consulting method (BRAVO, 2009). Our Argentinian corpus is composed by 15 scenes of the film FRANCIA (2009) and our Brazilian corpus consists of 14 scenes of the film LINHA DE PASSE. In these corpora we have selected speech acts about criticism in scenes that happened in two situations: privately and publicly. Our methodological proposal is basically composed by four phases. The first and the second ones consist of linguistically analysing in each corpus the speech acts about criticism and their reactions established in the co-text and set in the context during the analysis, and interpreting the effect of (im)politeness in these turn exchanges. The third phase consists of comparing our interpretation with judges (informants) perceptions in each language, considering the results from the consulting methods. The last phase consists of making comparisons between the private and the public contexts in each language in order to, at last, comment on differences and similarities between the two languages. The results in the comparison between the contexts in each language show that there are not significant differences in the contexts. As far as the types of criticism are concerned, we see that, more than the influence of the contexts, elements like the degree of affective commitment, the symmetry or asymmetry in the relation among speakers, the degree of theme problems in the interaction, that is, the conflicts in the interaction and the cultural issues are crucial in the linguistic choices the fictional speakers make when criticizing. About reactions, both in the private and in the public contexts, Defenses predominate, due to the threatening nature of the speech act of criticism. Particularly for FRANCIA EA (argentinian spanish) in comparison with LINHA DE PASSE PB (brasilian portuguese), the results of the linguistic and sociocultural analyses show that there are not many differences in the way Argentinians and Brazilians express criticism linguistically, but there are important differences in the way these peoples respond to this type of speech act, which, in general, are concerned with cultural premises specific to each speaking community.

Nossa pesquisa visa a compreender como as relações pessoais se constroem por meio da linguagem. Para isso, consideramos o contexto social, cultural e interacional que, combinados de diferentes maneiras, moldam os pensamentos, as falas e as atitudes de cada indivíduo. Intentamos por meio da análise de interações autênticas explorar e evidenciar aspectos pragmáticos presentes no português brasileiro e no italiano que constituem e influenciam o fazer discursivo dos falantes em sala de aula. A partir da análise dos atos de fala discordância e desaprovação realizados por falantes bilíngues de italiano e português brasileiro em contexto escolar de uma escola bilíngue ítalo-brasileira no Brasil, a pesquisa evidencia (i) os componentes pragmáticos das duas línguas relacionados à cortesia verbal e, mais especificamente, ao uso de estratégias atenuadoras; (ii) se e em que medida foram realizadas estratégias atenuadoras na produção desses atos de fala por crianças bilíngues, em contexto ítalo-brasileiro, durante a interação em sala de aula e quais são os efeitos da sua (não) utilização; (iii) em que medida existem analogias e diferenças na utilização de procedimentos atenuadores em italiano e português. A coleta de dados foi realizada por meio de videogravações das aulas, de uma entrevista preliminar com as professoras e de um questionário para os alunos. A partir da análise dos dados, verificamos que as discordâncias em língua portuguesa apresentavam um número maior de procedimentos atenuadores em relação àquelas em língua italiana. Notamos que a utilização de procedimentos atenuadores nos atos de discordância em português objetivava a prevenção de conflitos interacionais e nas relações pessoais, logo, a atenuação relacionava-se à cortesia verbal em sala de aula. Nas discordâncias em língua italiana, verificamos que o uso de procedimentos atenuadores objetivava, além da prevenção, a reparação da ameaça à imagem do interlocutor e, algumas vezes, exercia a função de auto proteger o falante. Desse modo, a atenuação nem sempre estava relacionada à cortesia verbal. Além disso, nos atos de discordância em língua italiana observamos uma menor utilização de procedimentos atenuadores em relação as discordâncias produzidas em língua portuguesa. A ausência de atenuadores pode estar relacionada a uma tendência da língua italiana em realizar as discordâncias de forma imediata e direta, em sala de aula. A análise dos dados de desaprovação revelou um equilíbrio entre presença e ausência de estratégias atenuadoras nos atos realizados em ambas as línguas. A presença de táticas atenuadoras está relacionada à cortesia verbal, em que o ato intrinsecamente ameaçador da face (intrinsic Face-Threatening Act - intrinsic FTA) da desaprovação era suavizado, tentando evitar conflito na relação. Observou-se assim que, quando a desaprovação era feita de forma atenuada podia ser interpretada com um pedido e, quando era expressa sem o uso de atenuadores, aproximava-se de uma ordem. / Our research aims to understand how personal relationships are constructed through language. Therefore, we consider the social, cultural and interactional context that, combined in different ways, shapes the thoughts, speeches and attitudes of each individual. We have tried to explore and present some pragmatic aspects in the Brazilian Portuguese language and in the Italian language that constitute and influence the discursive making of the speakers in the classroom. Based on the analysis of disagreement and disapproval speech acts performed by bilingual speakers of Italian and Brazilian Portuguese in a school context of an Italian-Brazilian bilingual school in Brazil, the research has shown (i) the pragmatic components of Italian and Brazilian Portuguese related to verbal politeness and, more specifically, the usage of attenuating strategies in speech acts of disagreement and disapproval in the classroom; (ii) If and to which extent there was the use of attenuating strategies in the production of these speech acts by bilingual children, Italian-Portuguese Brazilians, during their interaction in the classroom and which are the effects of their (non) use; (iii) To which extent it was possible to identify analogies and differences in the use of attenuating procedures in Italian and Brazilian language. Data collection was done through video recordings of classes, a preliminary interview with the teachers and a questionnaire for the students. From the analysis of the data, we verified that the disagreements in the Portuguese language have presented more attenuation procedures related to the disagreements in the Italian language. We have observed that the use of attenuating procedures in the acts of disagreements in Brazilian Portuguese aimed at the prevention of interactional conflicts in personal relations, so the attenuation was related to verbal politeness in the classroom. In the disagreements in the Italian language, we have noted that the use of attenuating procedures had not only the intention of prevention, but also to repair the threat to the image of the interlocutor and sometimes exercised the function of self-protecting the speaker. Thus, attenuation was not always related to verbal politeness. In addition, in acts of disagreement in Italian language, we have observed a greater absence of attenuating procedures in relation to the disagreements produced in Brazilian Portuguese. The absence of mitigators may be related to a possible tendency of the Italian language in making disagreements immediately and directly in the classroom. The analysis of the disapproval data has revealed a balance between the presence and the absence of attenuating strategies in the acts performed in both languages. The presence of attenuating tactics was related to verbal courtesy, in which the intrinsic FTA (intrinsic Face-Threatening Act) of disapproval was softened, trying to avoid conflict in the relationship. Thus, it was observed that when the disapproval was attenuated it could have been interpreted as a request, while, when it was expressed without the use of attenuators, it was approaching an order.

Este trabalho sustenta que o processo de cooperação para manutenção das faces é condição principal numa interação não polêmica. Esse processo aparece marcado na materialidade linguística, e, quando um ato que ameaça à face é produzido por um dos participantes da interação, em regra, segue acompanhado por procedimentos atenuadores que visam a minorar a ameaça e minimizar os danos causados à imagem dos participantes. O objetivo geral desta pesquisa é investigar o uso dos procedimentos de atenuação como parte do processo de cooperação para preservação da face em interações não polêmicas. Foram gravadas três entrevistas, no total de cinco horas e cinquenta e um minutos e vinte e sete segundos. Tais entrevistas foram separadas em três modalidades: modalidade 1 subdividida em 1A e 1B; modalidade 2 e modalidade 3 subdividida em 3A, 3B e 3C. Para as análises do corpus, utilizamos a noção de face constantes em Goffman (1980), em Brown e Levinson (1987), bem como os estudos sobre cortesia de Bravo (2005), e as definições de atenuação de Briz Goméz (2004, 2005, 2012) e Albelda Marco (2014). Os resultados mostraram que os procedimentos linguísticos empregados serviram em algumas falas para proteger ou reparar algum dano à imagem do falante e em outras para preservar ou reparar a imagem do ouvinte e também preservar ou reparar a imagem de ambos. Os interlocutores procuraram evitar o conflito e colaborar para que as imagens fossem resguardadas. Concluímos que os procedimentos de atenuação possibilitaram aos falantes afastarem-se do conteúdo dos enunciados, quando esses representaram um ameaça e, ao mesmo tempo, aproximarem-se dos ouvintes, cooperando para a preservação das faces, evitando o conflito na interação. / This study argues that the cooperation process for the maintenance of faces is the main requirement in a non-polemic interaction. This process is marked in linguistic materiality and when an act that threatens the face is produced by one of the participants of the interaction, as a rule, occur a procedure of attenuation that aim to mitigate a threat and minimize the damage caused to the image of the participants. The general objective of this research is to investigate attenuation´s procedure as part of the cooperation process for the preservation of the face in non-controversial interactions. Three interviews were recorded with total amount of time being five hours and fifty-one minutes and twenty-seven seconds. These interviews were divided into three types: category 1 subdivided into 1A and 1B; Category 2 and category 3 subdivided in 3A, 3B and 3C. For the analysis of the corpus we use the Goffman\'s notion of face (1980) Brown and Levinson (1987), as well as the studies on politeness of Bravo (2005), and the definitions of attenuation of Briz Goméz (2004, 2005, 2012) and Albelda Marco (2014). The results showed that linguistic procedures can be used to protect or repair some damage of the speaker´s image, the listener´s image or the image of both. The interlocutors tried to avoid conflict and to collaborate so the images would remain the same. We concluded that attenuation procedure might allow speakers to keep some distance from the discussed topic when it may represent a threat and at the same time approach to listeners, cooperating with them for the preservation of faces, avoiding conflict when interacting.

Until recently, English teaching in Japan focused on giving much grammatical knowledge to students, and paid little attention to communicative competence, 'competence as to when to speak, when not, and as to what to talk about with whom, when, where, in what manner' (Hymes 1971: 277). However, nowadays, the importance of communicating with foreign people for mutual understanding is often pointed out, and communicative competence is gradually receiving more attention in English teaching in Japan. Grammatical knowledge is not sufficient for making students communicate well, and in addition to grammatical knowledge, the knowledge of appropriate use of the language is necessary for effective communication. Furthermore, as a part of communicative competence, 'social competence', the knowledge and ability to create and maintain a harmonious atmosphere in social interaction, should be given more attention in order to allow students to communicate with English speaking people harmoniously and effectively. Although a number of teachers have noticed the importance of communicative and social competence, such competence is not taught sufficiently in Japan. One reason for this is that, with few opportunities to communicate with native speakers of English in Japan, teachers themselves do not know well the communication patterns of English in actual situations. To develop students' communicative competence, Japanese teachers of English need to know the cultural patterns in English, and to see what kind of problems could occur for Japanese students. It is intended that this field study will contribute a small part to the growing understanding of the cultural patterns in English and Japanese. Before considering the possible problems especially for Japanese learners of English, three possible causal factors of communication problems for non-native speakers are discussed: (1) lack of linguistic competence (2) transfer of native cultural patterns (3) false stereotyping. As a basis for considering the problems in terms of politeness strategies, in particular, Brown and Levinson (1978)'s 'face theory' is introduced, and some characteristics of Japanese cultural patterns which may cause some politeness problems are discussed. Based on the discussion, some hypotheses are built up about Australian and Japanese communication patterns, and an investigation has been conducted, focusing on two request situations: (1) asking a lecturer to lend a book (2) asking a friend to lend a book. Four Australian native speakers of English and four native speakers of Japanese were asked to role-play in each situation, and their results were compared with each other. These results were also analyzed in comparison with the results of four Japanese speakers of English and four Australian speakers of Japanese. Although this is a preliminary study and has some limitations in the investigation, the results show that, although politeness is a universal phenomenon, it is expressed differently in English and Japanese, and they indicate some possible problems in politeness strategies for Japanese speakers of English and for Australian speakers of Japanese. As to the implications of the results for English teaching in Japan, three points can be considered: (1) the need to make students aware of the cultural patterns of English (2) the need to teach students sufficient variety of expressions (3) the need to give students enough practice. In terms of these points, some weaknesses in English teaching in Japan are discussed. For example, teachers do not have enough knowledge of communication patterns in English, materials used in class do not give enough information about the target culture and actual use of English by native speakers, and the amount of time spent on English in the school curriculum and the number of students in one class cannot be considered desirable for the purpose of giving enough practice to each student. These problems are not easy to solve, but it is possible to find ways to improve the situation. In the final chapter, some practical, though tentative, suggestions are made in the hope that English teaching in Japan will be improved to help students to communicate well with people in different cultures.

This paper is dedicated to surveying the present situation and the spread of the new Russian politeness phenomenon (NRP), and its evaluation and assessment by Russian native speakers in respect to the inter-cultural aspects of new Russian politeness. In terms of pragmatic change, the question is whether NRP is a short-lived linguistic fad or whether it is a thorough change in Russian pragmatic behaviour we are dealing with. The following paper is intended to show some empirical results of this survey of observations and responses relating to the spread and acceptance of politeness phenomena. Furthermore, the focus is on emotional evaluation, rational interpretation, and the spread of these phenomena into non-commercial communication domains. The informants' assessments prove remarkably heterogeneous and offer a variety of reactions, ranging from rejection and pejorative evaluation as communicative ballast to enthusiastic acceptance. The rational evaluations can be subsumed under westernisation and commercialisation of discourse - two aspects of globalisation which is seen as the implementation of forms of the free market economy. On the other hand, we also find a semantic interpretation as an expression of individualisation of discourse. It can finally be observed that while some respondents even diagnosed a decrease in politeness since its climax in the late 1990s, a possible mixture of genuinely Russian politeness (characterised by warmth, openness, spontaneity, taking an interest in others, etc.; positive politeness, Brown & Levinson 1987) with Western non-intrusive politeness (negative politeness, Brown & Levinson 1987) was also predicted, which I regard as the most optimistic future scenario. (author´s abstract) / Series: WU Online Papers in International Business Communication / Series One: Intercultural Communication and Language Learning

This study investigated how the speech act of refusal is realized in Egyptian Arabic by intermediate and advanced American learners of Arabic as a foreign language. It also compared the performance of the learners to that of native speakers of Egyptian Arabic and native speakers of American English. The study aimed to investigate the relationship between the learners' language proficiency and their pragmatic competence. In addition, it examined the extent of pragmatic transfer from L1 and whether there was a relationship between the degree of pragmatic transfer and the level of L2 proficiency. The study also examined how refusals are structured and organized at the discourse level. Four groups participated in the study: 10 native speakers of Egyptian Arabic, 10 native speakers of American English, 10 American learners of Arabic at the intermediate level, and 10 at the advanced level. Data were collected using enhanced open-ended role plays which consisted of 6 scenarios eliciting refusals of offers and requests in equal and unequal status situations. Both quantitative and qualitative data analytic methods were used for analyzing the interactions. Results show that there were important differences between the two learner groups and the native speakers of Egyptian Arabic with regard to the frequency of direct and indirect strategies and individual strategy use. For example, the learners used a higher percentage of direct strategies and a lower percentage of indirect strategies than the native speakers of Egyptian Arabic, especially in higher status situations. The learners also used a higher percentage of the Statement of Regret and Request for Information/Clarification strategies and a lower percentage of the Postponement and Hedging strategies than the Egyptians. With regard to differences between the two learner groups, the advanced students were able to engage in more negotiation and use an overall lower percentage of direct strategies and a higher percentage of indirect strategies than their intermediate counterparts. Evidence of positive and negative pragmatic transfer was observed in the two learner groups; however a higher degree of transfer was observed in the advanced students. Individual differences among the learners were found to play a major role in how refusals were realized.