(Im)politeness: Language Socialization

要旨

This chapter discusses (Im)politeness from the perspective of language socialization theory and research where politeness is considered as a kind of affective stance associated with displaying respect, modesty, kindness, good manners, and empathy. Following a summary of key concepts including face, indexicality and participation frameworks, the authors examine two case studies that shed light on socialization to displaying polite affective stances at different stages of the lifespan. The first study examines two-year-old Japanese children’s socialization in relation to politeness formulas, indirectness, and honorifics. The second study examines Japanese adults’ (recent college graduates’) socialization into using honorifics and related practices towards customers in the business world. The final section proposes directions for future research on (Im)politeness from the perspective of language socialization. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

主題