(Im)politeness in email communication : how English speakers and Chinese speakers negotiate meanings and develop intercultural (mis)understandings
This thesis looks at the way in which Chinese and English speakers employ (im)politeness strategies in their emails to develop intercultural understanding. From a theoretical perspective, this thesis contributes to the discussions of intercultural communication in relation to the negotiation of (im)politeness meaning. From a pedagogic perspective, the thesis reveals the potential for using email to experience culture as a process of meaning negotiation and construction and has relevance to teachers of EFL. Ethnographically-informed discourse analysis is employed to investigate discursively the negotiation of meaning in email interaction. The interplay between the computer-mediated communication, speech acts and (im)politeness are explored by using the analytical frameworks of Hymesâ ethnography of communication, Searleâs speech act theory (1969) and Brown and Levinsonâs politeness theory (1987). This research shows that â(im)politenessâ is not a stable construct. Rather, it is constantly (re)negotiated by the interactants, who take into account the relevant contextualisation cues. It finds that the functions and (im)politeness meanings of speech acts can vary from situations to situations. In addition,
Hsieh, Shin-Chieh
P Philology. Linguistics
(Im)politeness in email communication : how English speakers and Chinese speakers negotiate meanings and develop intercultural (mis)understandings. This thesis looks at the way in which Chinese and English speakers employ (im)politeness strategies in their emails to develop intercultural understanding. From a theoretical perspective, this thesis contributes to the discussions of intercultural communication in relation to the negotiation of (im)politeness meaning. From a pedagogic perspective, the thesis reveals the potential for using email to experience culture as a process of meaning negotiation and construction and has relevance to teachers of EFL. Ethnographically-informed discourse analysis is employed to investigate discursively the negotiation of meaning in email interaction. The interplay between the computer-mediated communication, speech acts and (im)politeness are explored by using the analytical frameworks of Hymesâ ethnography of communication, Searleâs speech act theory (1969) and Brown and Levinsonâs politeness theory (1987). This research shows that â(im)politenessâ is not a stable construct. Rather, it is constantly (re)negotiated by the interactants, who take into account the relevant contextualisation cues. It finds that the functions and (im)politeness meanings of speech acts can vary from situations to situations. In addition,
politeness communication english_speaker chinese speaker negotiate meaning develop intercultural understanding look_way chinese_english speaker employ politeness_strategy develop intercultural understanding theoretical_perspective contribute discussion intercultural_communication relation negotiation politeness meaning pedagogic perspective reveal potential use experience culture process meaning negotiation construction relevance teacher efl ethnographically informed discourse_analysis employ_investigate discursively negotiation mean interaction interplay computer_mediated communication speech_act politeness explore use analytical_framework ethnography communication searle speech_act_theory brown_levinson_politeness theory show politeness stable construct rather constantly negotiate interactants take_account relevant contextualisation cue find function politeness meaning speech_act vary situation situation addition