Im/politeness research – what it says on the tin? (Not quite)

Pizziconi, Barbara

Abstract

Several decades of analytical inquiry into linguistic im/politeness have produced a substantial body of research shedding light on its linguistic and social dimensions, but also distinct discursive conventions and terminology. This study turns the spotlight on im/politeness as the term of choice for researchers to think and talk about a rather broad range of social meanings and considers the pros and cons of this preferred denotation. I argue that while the term has undoubtedly scaffolded the development of a coherent field of enquiry, its continued use as a moniker, despite shifting concerns and broadening perspectives, may becloud our views too. The field’s trajectory of development is revisited by likening it to a process of register formation, in which the term im/politeness has accrued differential (and stereotypical) indexicalities for different groups, in a diverse, multicultural community of scholars with different research agendas. Our differential allegiances to a particular taxonomy arguably engender different ways of seeing, and the increasing complexity of the field demands that we continue to interrogate and justify the labels we use.

Citation

Pizziconi, B. (2024). Im/politeness research – what it says on the tin? (Not quite). Journal of Politeness Research: Language, Behaviour, Culture, 20(1), 135-156. https://doi.org/10.1515/pr-2023-0066

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Nov 23, 2023
• Online Publication Date: Jan 1, 2024
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2024
• Deposit Date: Jan 30, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 7, 2024
• Journal: Journal of Politeness Research: Language Behaviour Culture
• Print ISSN: 1612-5681
• Electronic ISSN: 1613-4877
• Publisher: De Gruyter
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 20
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 135-156
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/pr-2023-0066
• Keywords: im/politeness terminology; enregisterment; relational language; proto-type; stereotypes