Journal of Pragmatics Research
Vol 4, No 1 (2022): Journal of Pragmatics Research

Impoliteness in Power-imbalance and Power-neutral Relational Contexts: Evidence from a Persian TV Drama

Keshavarz, Mohammad Hossein (Unknown)



Article Info

Publish Date
07 Feb 2022

Abstract

 This study investigated impoliteness in relational contexts. Interlocutors analyzed the data from a Persian TV drama from two perspectives: intentionality and perception of impoliteness. Two relational contexts were identified: power-imbalance and power-neutral, each comprising two types of impoliteness: reciprocal and non-reciprocal. Reciprocal impoliteness occurred in hostile and conflictual situations where impoliteness was both intended by the speaker and perceived by the recipient as a direct face-attack. In non-reciprocal impoliteness, however, when power imbalance was due to family hierarchy, the recipient of impoliteness remained silent; in other situations, the intentional face-attack was tolerated, unless the recipient’s social identity face was directly attacked. In power-neutral situations, impoliteness was not reciprocated when intimacy existed between the interactants. It was neither intended nor perceived as face-threatening; however, direct face-attack was reciprocal in hostile situations. The findings of the present study point to the significant role of the relational context in the interpretation of impoliteness.

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Journal Info

Abbrev

jopr

Publisher

Subject

Languange, Linguistic, Communication & Media

Description

Journal of Pragmatics Research is published by State Insitute of Islamic Studies Salatiga, Indonesia. it is a forum for bringing together a wide range of research in pragmatics, including cognitive pragmatics, corpus pragmatics, historical pragmatics, interpersonal pragmatics, socio-pragmatics, ...