This paper investigates the use and function of intertextuality in the television series Suits, and examines the interplay between intertextuality and politeness. Intertextuality allows a text to incorporate other texts and to draw upon connotations that belong to those texts. Politeness theory offers a tool to analyse the pragmatic use of language in social interaction. Analysing occurrences of intertextuality from the first episode of the television series, the paper explores in what ways the fictional characters use intertextuality and for what purposes. It explores if, and how, intertextuality can be used as a politeness strategy. Findings suggest that intertextuality is used for three main purposes, and functions as characterisation and as a means to establish and/or maintain social relations. Detailed analyses of instances of intertextuality propose that intertextuality can be used as a politeness theory, but only in certain ways. The paper discusses these findings and offers a possible explanation for why intertextuality is only used in this restricted way.

I institutionella samtal såsom närståendesamtal mellan en logoped, en närstående till en person med afasi och personen med afasi råder en asymmetri gällande maktförhållandet. Asymmetrin som uppstår i det institutionella samtalet kan innebära att samtalsdeltagaren med minst makt upplever ansiktshot. I samtal ses förståelse som en dynamisk process och när förståelsen innebär ett problem i konversationen störs den pågående aktiviteten. Mottagaren kan lösa problemet som uppstått genom att ge talaren en candidate understanding. Hur kommunikativa strategier används i närståendesamtal är ett relativt obeforskat område och ett viktigt område då närståendesamtal är en vanligt förekommande för logopeder. Syftet med föreliggande studie var därför att undersöka ett antal kommunikativa strategier för att få en gemensam förståelse och minska ansiktshot  vid delgivning av testresultat och rådgivning i närståendesamtal. Tre närståendesamtal mellan logopeder, närstående och i två fall personer med afasi spelades in, transkriberades och analyserades enligt samtalsanalytiska principer (CA). Två logopeder, tre närstående och två personer med afasi medverkade i studien. Totalt omfattade det inspelade materialet en timma och 37 minuter. Deltagande logopeder fick även fylla i ett frågeformulär. Strategier för avdramatisering och förståelse identifierades. Strategierna delades in i två kategorier; avdramatisering av råd och förmedling av testresultat och candidate understandings för att uppnå förståelse. I studien framkom det att candidate understandings ofta initierades av den närstående. Det framkom även att de positiva testresultaten som förmedlades inte avdramatiserades samt att dessa istället ofta framhävdes och att face threatenings acts vid delgivning av negativa testresultat ofta avdramatiserades med hedging. / In institutional interactions such as conversations between a speech and language therapist, a person closely related to a person with aphasia and the individual with aphasia there is an asymmetry considering the power. The asymmetry arising in institutional interactions may mean that the participant with the least power will experience a face threatening act. Understanding is seen as a dynamic process and when understanding is a problem in the conversation the ongoing activity is disturbed. The receiver can solve the problem by giving the speaker a candidate understanding. How these strategies are used in conversations between a speech and language therapist with a person closely related to a person with aphasia is a relatively unexplored field and an important area which is a common for speech therapists. The aim of the present study was to investigate a number of communication strategies in the conversation with a person closely related to a person with aphasia; how understanding was reached and how face threatening acts were reduced when the speech therapists delivered test results and gave counseling. Three conversations between speech and language therapists, persons closely related to a person with aphasia and in two of the recordings the person with aphasia were recorded, transcribed and analyzed according to principles of Conversation Analysis (CA). Two speech and language therapists, three persons closely related to a person with aphasia and two persons with aphasia participated in the study. In total, the recorded material is one hour and 37 minutes. Participating speech and language therapists also filled in a questionnaire. Strategies for mitigation and understanding were identified. The strategies were divided into two categories; strategies to mitigate FTA:s when delivering the test results and counseling, the other categorie was the use of candidate understandings for gaining an mutual understanding. The study revealed that candidate understandings were often initiated by the person closely related to a person with aphasia. The study also revealed that the test results with positive outcome where not mitigated and often emphasized and test results that could be perceived as negative were mitigated with hedging.

De nombreuses recherches empiriques montrent que la façon dont les locuteurs et locutrices parlent peut varier en fonction du contexte, des dispositions mentales des locuteurs·trices, du type de la relation interpersonnelle (horizontale ou verticale) qu’entretiennent interlocuteurs·trices, de l’environnement culturel, etc. Mais en continuant d’exposer le grand public à des données incomplètes s’appuyant sur des stéréotypes de genres, les médias continuent d’entretenir l’idée, que les hommes et les femmes parlent différemment ; il y a donc une discordance entre la réalité des pratiques langagières et la représentation que les individus s’en font (Freed 2014). Notre étude du masculin et du féminin dans quatre séries de BDs de science-fiction franco-belges a pour but de vérifier si les héros et héroïnes de ces quatre séries sont représenté·e·s selon des stéréotypes de genre. Concernant le physique, comment héroïnes et héros sont-ils représentés ? Y a-t-il une frontière nette entre représentation de la féminité et de la masculinité ? Et, concernant la requête du type demande de faire, les héroïnes et héros formulent-ils différemment leurs requêtes ? Ces trois questions nous permettent de savoir si le lectorat des quatre séries de BDs analysées est exposé aux stéréotypes de genre. Les seuls stéréotypes de genre exposés s’appliquent aux corps et au vêtements (sauf dans une série). Pour le reste, attitudes, comportements, façons de parler, les stéréotypes sont globalement évacués. Il en ressort que la féminité et la masculinité s’inscrivent sur un continuum du genre. Pour ce qui est de la requête, dans deux séries les héroïnes se distinguent de leurs partenaires masculins du point de vue du fond de la requête (c.-à-d. de son objet), mais pas du point de vue de la forme et ce schéma est un corrélat de l’absence de leadership des partenaires masculins et révèle l’état mental de ces derniers ou la crainte de la prise de risque. Nous parlons alors de schémas de requêtes différenciées (et non genrées). Dans la troisième BD, le schéma des requêtes est genré dans la forme (et non dans le fond) dans la mesure où l’héroïne emploie davantage de requêtes indirectes que le héros, mais ce schéma n’est aucunement corrélé au manque de pouvoir de l’héroïne, qui, bien au contraire, jouit d’un grand pouvoir symbolique (probablement raison pour laquelle, le fond de ses requêtes est identique à celui du héros). Dans la quatrième série, celle où la représentation corporelle des hommes et des femmes est globalement similaire, on ne trouve ni schéma de requête genré ni schéma de requête différencié. La variation stylistique qui caractérise la nature directe ou indirecte des requêtes des personnages fictifs étudiés est fonction de l’urgence de la situation (contextuel), de leur expertise ou pouvoir (relation verticale) ou de leur état mental. Ils et elles privilégient la sauvegarde des faces à mesure que le caractère anxiogène du contexte de l’énonciation s’éloigne ou s’ils·elles entretiennent une relation interpersonnelle horizontale avec leur(s) allocutaire(s). Nos résultats sur la requête sont ainsi conformes avec les recherches empiriques : dans un cas ils illustrent la manifestation d’un des aspects du style langagier féminin et dans les trois autres, ils invalident l’existence de stéréotypes langagiers féminins dans le sens ou ces derniers sont dépassés par le contexte situationnel ou la relation interpersonnelle. / A significant number of case studies have shown that the way individuals speak, be they men or women, varies according to variables as the kind of relationship (vertical or horizontal) existing between interlocutors, mental state of speakers, context, culture and so forth. However, as Freed (2014) states, the mass media keep exposing their large audience to incomplete or erroneous data and stereotypes concerning the way men and women speak. Thus, individuals keep thinking that there is such a thing as «women and men speak differently». To put it in a nutshell, the way men and women speak is at odds with what occurs in reality. Our study about masculinity and femininity within four series of Franco-Belgian science-fictional comics aims at verifying how masculinity and femininity are represented in the four heroines and their male counterpart or partner(s). On the ground of non-linguistics representation, how are the female and male characters represented ? And does a clear line delineate masculinity and femininity ? Second, on the ground of linguistics, do the heroines phrase their requests differently than do the hero or male partner(s) ? In other words, are female characters more enclined than male characters to formulate indirect requests ? These three questions lead us to determine if the lectorate is exposed to gendered stereotypes. Our results show that stereotypes are only confined into the bodies (and at a certain point, the clothing). Other than that, attitudes and the way the characters speak are not bound to gendered stereotypes. Concerning the analysis of the requests, in two of our series, there is a difference between the requests made by the heroine and the ones made by the male in terms of the content of the requests. Therefore, we say that their request schema is not gendered but differentiated. That is to say, the content of the requests made by the males is correlated to their lack of power and reveal either their mental states or their being concerned with risk taking. In the third comic, we observe indeed a gendered schema of requests between the heroine and her male counterpart, the latter phrasing more direct requests. Conversely to the two previously mentioned comics, here, the stylish gendered request schema is not correlated with the heroine lack of power, that’s probably why both characters’ content of requests is the same. In the fourth series, which is the one where men and women are almost physically alike, we neither observe differentiated pattern of request nor gendered pattern of requests. Globally, in the four series, male and female characters articulate direct requests according to the emergency (contextual), their expertise or power (vertical relationship with interlocutor) or their mental state ; moreover, they indulge themselves into face-saving speech strategies as the emergency diminishes or disappears or if they have an horizontal type of relationship with their interlocutors. Thus, the variation is either stylistic or due to interpersonal relationship. Our results are not at odds with the empirical data : in one case, they illustrate the display of one aspect of the feminine language stereotype, and in the three other ones they invalidate the existence of stereotyped language styles in the sense that the stereotypes are overcome by the context or the interpersonal relationship.