Redressive actions following commiserations in online discussions/ MU Language Centre 1 Redressive actions following commiserations in online discussions Petra Trávníková LEIC Research 2017 12th October 2017 Introduction §“the electronic age changed our lives as communicating human beings” (Crystal 1995) §“abundance of data on human behaviour and language use” (Herring 2007) §language as a social process: socio-pragmatic analysis §human interaction: formation of online communities § §“where there is communication, there is politeness studies” (Xie 2003) § § § § Online discussion boards- asynchronous CMC •one-to-many conversation (online polylogue) taking place via computers: delayed answer and public nature of messages •a hybrid form of written communication (Marcoccia 2004) •interactive written discourse (Ferrara 1996) • •mostly text-based • •participants do not share the same physical space but their environment is shaped around a shared topic instead (e.g. dieting, mothering, religion) • • Posted message 1 Politeness: avoiding conflict … •1) Brown and Levinson: politeness as “strategic conflict avoidance” •face: “the public self-image that every member wants to claim for himself” •negative face: everybody can as they wish • •vs. positive face: everybody wants to be appreciated and approved of • •social function: •fundamental to the very structure of social life •provides a verbal way to relieve the interpersonal tension arising from communicative intentions that conflict with social needs and statuses”. • • • … or building rapport and promoting solidarity? §2) Leech: face-mitigation only one side of the coin §x face-enhancement, e.g. compliments, invitations, i.e. attending to the positive face; § §politeness contributes to cohesion and stability of human societies § §3) Spencer-Oatey: rapport bulding, solidarity § § Definujte zápatí - název prezentace / pracoviště 7 Material analysed §Authentic, self-compiled corpus; 170,000 words, 1,750 messages § Corpus Thread Message board C1 Slimming_world_support Three Fat Chicks C2 30_Somethings_chat Three Fat Chicks C3 Infertility_forum Mothering C4 Due_date_October2008 Health & Fitness C5 Catholic_mammas Mothering Topics and face threats Name Topic Threats 1 Slimming_world_chick dieting, special diet weight, failure to lose weight, not following the diet, “weigh-in” 2 30_Somethings_chat dieting, everyday small talk- chat failure to lose weight/gaining weight 3 Infertility_forum infertility, trying to conceive infertility, inability to conceive, failed attempt. miscarriage 4 Due_date_October2008 pregnancy unsuccessful pregnancy/ miscarriage, fear of genetic tests 5 Catholic_mammas parenting, religion being a bad mother, religion, pregnancy Commiserations- theoretical background § §Commiserations: “utterances that politely express the speaker’s sympathy for the hearer when the hearer has suffered some misfortune” (Leech 2014) §“I am sad because you are sad.” § §Sympathy Maxim- congratulations and well-wishes § §Brown and Levinson (1978): positive politeness (giving gifts to the hearer) § § Definujte zápatí - název prezentace / pracoviště 10 Commiserations: analysis Definujte zápatí - název prezentace / pracoviště 12 Definujte zápatí - název prezentace / pracoviště 13 Textové pole: Other strategies: hugging §1. performed verbally §Keep your head up through out this. Sending you a huge hug. §Silver, I'm so sorry that you're not feeling well. I'm happy that you got your surgery done and hopefully, recovery is fast but I wish that I could give you a hug in real life because I know that sometimes, when you're feeling lousy, you just need a hug. §2. via emoticons § § Definujte zápatí - název prezentace / pracoviště 14 Definujte zápatí - název prezentace / pracoviště 15 > Redressive actions §Redress (def.)- ‘giving face’ to the addressee attempting to counteract potential face damage of the FTA> to overcome the misfortune § §(1) I am so sorry about the panic attack. You have been through so much. I am glad that you are feeling a little better. Hang in there! Definujte zápatí - název prezentace / pracoviště 16 Types of redress occurring in the corpora 1.shared personal experience 2.stressing common ground 3.expressing sympathy 4.giving encouragement 5.asking a follow-up question 6.giving advice 7.wishing well 8. 8. Definujte zápatí - název prezentace / pracoviště 17 1. Shared personal experience §2 functions (Eisenchlas 2012) § to promote solidarity §to substantiate the speaker’s authority for e.g. giving advice §self-mockery §(2) Ugh Helen poor you with the mice! I was massively freaked out last November when I had one. I called my boyfriend immediately and said "Oh my god I just saw a mouse!" He was like, "Uh... OK. It's a mouse. You'll be fine." Then I just kinda sat on the bed thinking I saw mr. mousey again and googling ways to get rid of them! § Definujte zápatí - název prezentace / pracoviště 18 2. Stressing common ground §inclusive we, in-group values, generalisations, sharing responsibility §people “in the same boat” §(3) We all have these glitches when we slip up, but you can lose it again :D § §in-group x out-group §(4) I find men are blunt and to the point when we get the coruage to stay anything when it comes to feelings it just sorta comes out and we say what goin through our heads at that moment… Definujte zápatí - název prezentace / pracoviště 19 3. Expressing sympathy §solidarity, sameness > offering comfort §2 strategies in the material: §showing understanding (“I’m suffering too”) §stressing the graveness of the addressee’s misfortune § §(5) Aura, I know how you feel about being here many seasons, Fall was my fourth this time around...it can be sad to think about the time lost, but I can't imagine meeting a better group of ladies. § §(6) HUGE hug to you... None of us have any idea what you're going thru right now § Definujte zápatí - název prezentace / pracoviště 20 4. Giving encouragement §giving gifts §often via an imperative (don’t be, keep, don’t let, jump back on) § §(7) Don't be disheartened hon, keep with the programme and I'm sure you'll have a good loss next week. love ff x § Definujte zápatí - název prezentace / pracoviště 21 5. Asking a follow-up question §showing interest §springboard for giving advice §coherence- first part of the question-answer adjacency pair § §(8) 8 hours of sleep in the past 4 days... you poor kid:-(. Does the doctor say how long it should take for this new dosage to kick in? § Definujte zápatí - název prezentace / pracoviště 22 6. Giving advice §FTA, neg. politeness §mitigated by humour (euphemism) to make it sound less direct and superior § §(9) Man, getting sick daily would suck. Have you tried ginger pops or ginger tea? I made myself a cup of ginger tea every morning when I was pregnant. Helped me avoid the "porcelain queen;-)" Definujte zápatí - název prezentace / pracoviště 23 7. Well wishes §Sympathy Maxim- towards the future § §(9) sorry to hear you have had some darker days lately! I hope the sun starts to shine on your life more and more everyday!!!! § Definujte zápatí - název prezentace / pracoviště 24 Conclusions §other frequent positive politeness strategies in the material: §compliments, agreeing, congratulations and well wishes, claiming in-group membership and others § §Women’s way of speaking §associated with positive politeness §in CMC seen as more polite, supportive, emotionally expressive (Holmes 1993, Androutsopoulos 2006, Herring and Paolillo 2006) § §women take into consideration hearers’ face and try to make them feel appreciated §x men, “confront and threaten the addressee’s face in the process of engaging with him in agonistic debate”. (Herring1994) §x majority gender effect § Definujte zápatí - název prezentace / pracoviště 25 References • •Brown P. and Stephen C. Levinson (1978). Politeness: Some universals in language use. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. • •Herring, Susan C, Dieter Stein and Tuija VIRTANEN (2013). Pragmatics of computer-mediated communication. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton • •Leech, Geoffrey (2014). The Pragmatics of Politeness. Oxford Studies in Sociolinguistics. • • • •