Alle Publikationen
2018
-
(2018) : Exploring the Effect of Politeness on User Contribution in Q&A sites: A Case Study of Stack Overflow In: Shen, Weiming; Luo, Junzhou; Barthès, Jean-Paul; Dong, Fang; Zhang, Jinghui; Zhu, Haibin (Hg.): Proceedings of the 2018 IEEE 22nd International Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work in Design (CSCWD): May 9-11, 2018, Nanjing, China: 2018 IEEE 22nd International Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work in Design (CSCWD): Nanjing, China: 5/9/2018 - 5/11/2018. IEEE International Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work in Design; Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers; Dongnan-Daxue; IEEE Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society; Cscwd: Piscataway, NJ: IEEE, S. 713-718
Abstract: Online question and answer (Q&A) sites are platforms allowing users to seek information or social support, which is sometimes socially uncomfortable. A major challenge in Q&A sites is how to encourage user contribution. Theory of linguistic politeness informs us that politeness is able to ease the tension resulting from face-threatening acts (FTA), and it is applicable to Q&A sites. However, Stack Overflow (SO), one of the most popular Q&A site for programmers, denies the use of linguistic politeness (e.g., greetings, salutations, and gratitude expressions), aiming at building a nonsocial platform. This paper focuses on a specific politeness strategy-expressing gratitude-in Q&A sites, and examines its effect on answerers' future contributions from the aspects of quality. Results indicate that gratitude expressions in comments can motivate answerers to generate higher quality content.
-
(2018) : From social interaction to ethical AI: a developmental roadmap: 2018 Joint IEEE 8th International Conference on Development and Learning and Epigenetic Robotics (ICDL-EpiRob): Tokyo, Japan: IEEE, S. 204-211
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/DEVLRN.2018.8761023 Abstract: AI and robot ethics have recently gained a lot of attention because adaptive machines are increasingly involved in ethically sensitive scenarios and cause incidents of public outcry. Much of the debate has been focused on achieving highest moral standards in handling ethical dilemmas on which not even humans can agree, which indicates that the wrong questions are being asked. We suggest to address this ethics debate strictly through the lens of what behavior seems socially acceptable, rather than idealistically ethical. Learning such behavior puts the debate into the very heart of developmental robotics. This paper poses a roadmap of computational and experimental questions to address the development of socially acceptable machines. We emphasize the need for social reward mechanisms and learning architectures that integrate these while reaching beyond limitations of plain reinforcement-learning agents. We suggest to use the metaphor of “needs” to bridge rewards and higher level abstractions such as goals for both communication and action generation in a social context. We then suggest a series of experimental questions and possible platforms and paradigms to guide future research in the area.
Keywords: adaptive machines, Artificial intelligence, control engineering computing, Decision Making, developmental roadmap, developmental robotics, ethical AI, ethical aspects, ethically sensitive scenarios, Ethics, Face, ieee xplore, Künstliche Intelligenz, learning (artificial intelligence), plain reinforcement-learning agents, Robot Ethics, robot programming, Robot sensing systems, social interaction, social reward mechanisms, socially acceptable machines, standards 2017
-
(2017): Fight and flight. A multilevel analysis of facework strategies in intercultural face-threatening acts. In: INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INTERCULTURAL RELATIONS 58, S. 69-81. DOI: 10.1016/j.ijintrel.2017.04.008
Abstract: This study investigates facework strategies of managing face-threatening acts in intercultural interactions where communicators' cultural backgrounds are different from each other. Based on a pre-study with U.S. (n = 89) and Chinese (n = 76) college students, four scenarios featuring intercultural face-threatening acts were developed, where a Chinese student communicated politely and appropriately according to the Chinese culture, but the exact same act was considered otherwise in U.S. culture. In the main study, U.S. college students (N = 217) were given these scenarios and asked to report the general level of face needs, perceived face threats, and facework strategies in each scenario. Multilevel analyses (i.e., Hierarchical Linear Modeling) were employed to parse out the different levels of influence in order to understand both separate and joint impacts of situational face threats and individual face needs on facework strategies. Results showed that: 1) intercultural communicators use both mitigating (i.e., fleeing) and aggravating (i.e., fighting) facework strategies, and a slight preference is given to mitigating strategies; 2) facework strategies are more sensitive to particular situational conditions than to individual dispositions; and 3) individuals' value for others' face moderates the relationship between situational conditions and facework strategies. The current study provides empirical evidence of challenges in establishing meaningful intercultural relationships by identifying the multiple levels of impact on facework strategies in intercultural communication. Further discussion and implications of the findings are also included.
-
(2017): Culture-generality and culture-specificity of face. In: Pragmatics and Society 8 (2). DOI: 10.1075/ps.8.2.03iza
Abstract: In theorizing face as relational and interactional, Arundale (2010) argues that face encompasses a dialectic of relational connection and separation, which is culture-general, but can be voiced differently in different cultures. This paper examines how Arundale’s Face Constituting Theory (FCT) relates to the culture-specific emic understanding of face in Persian culture in talk in dissertation defense sessions. The data are two argumentative excerpts of natural interaction from a corpus of 12 PhD defense sessions in Iran. It is first argued that relational connection and separation is voiced as bonding and differentiation. Second, it is shown how the Persian emic concept of aberu can be accommodated in FCT. The analyses, grounded in CA and FCT, show how the dialectic of bonding and differentiation is interactionally achieved in the practices of aberu.
2015
-
(2015): Baby, Where Did You Get Those Eyes?. IEEE Pulse talks with Mark Sagar about the new face of artificial intelligence. In: IEEE pulse 6 (6), S. 4-8. DOI: 10.1109/MPUL.2015.2476763
DOI: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26583883 Abstract: Mark Sagar is changing the way we look at computers by giving them faces?disconcertingly realistic human faces. Sagar first gained widespread recognition for his pioneering work in rendering faces for Hollywood movies, including Avatar and King Kong. With a Ph.D. degree in bioengineering and two Academy Awards under his belt, Sagar now directs a research lab at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, a combinatorial hub where artificial intelligence (AI), neuroscience, computer science, philosophy, and cognitive psychology intersect in creating interactive, intelligent technologies.
Keywords: Artificial intelligence, Augen, Face, Female, Humans, Male, Motion Pictures, Status / biologische Marker -
(2015): Designing Robot Embodiments for Social Interaction. Affordances Topple Realism and Aesthetics. In: International Journal of Social Robotics 7 (5), S. 697-708. DOI: 10.1007/s12369-015-0301-3
Abstract: In the near future, human-like social robots will become indispensable for providing support in various social tasks, in particular for healthcare (e.g., assistance, coaching). The perception of realism, in particular human-like features, can help facilitate mediated social interaction. The current study investigated the effects of form realism on engagement with and use intentions of social robot embodiments. We have defined (perceived) form realism as the result of the appraisal of features that are perceived as realistic contrasted with those appraised as unrealistic. To test the effects of form realism, we applied the model of interactively perceiving and experiencing fictional characters (I-PEFiC). I-PEFiC explains how users respond to interactive, fictional, humanoid characters, on social robots. In a within-subjects design, participants (N = 29; M-age = 28.8 years, age range 18-56 years) interacted with three different robots built from LEGO Mindstorms, which differed in their degree of designed form realism. Each robot presented itself as a physiotherapy assistant and requested the participant to do several exercises. Results of a structured questionnaire indicated that form realism only played a modest role in the perception of electro-mechanical robots. Instead, the perception of affordances appeared to be crucial for determining engagement and intentions to use social robots.
-
(2015) : Perception of Affective Body Movements in HRI across Age Groups: Comparison between Results from Denmark and Japan: 2015 International Conference on Culture and Computing (Culture Computing): Kyoto, Japan: IEEE, S. 25-32
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/Culture.and.Computing.2015.14 Abstract: Social robots are envisioned to move into unrestricted environments where they will be interacting with naive users (in terms of their experience as robot operators). Thus, these robots are also envisioned to exploit interaction channels that are natural to humans like speech, gestures, or body movements. A specificity of these interaction channels is that humans do not only convey task-related information but also more subtle information like e.g. Emotions or personal stance through these channels. Thus, to be successful and not accidentally jeopardizing an interaction, robots need to be able to understand these implicit connotations of the signals (often called social signal processing) in order to generate appropriate signals in a given interaction context. One main application area that is envisioned for social robots is related to elder care, but little is known on how seniors will perceive robots and the signals they produce. In this paper we focus on affective connotations of body movements and investigate how the perception of body movements of robots is related to age. Inspired by a study from Japan, we introduce culture as a variable in the experiment and discuss the difficulties of cross-cultural comparisons. The results show that there are certain age-related differences in the perception of affective body movements, but not as strong as in the original study. A follow up experiment puts the affective body movements into context and shows that recognition rates deteriorate for older participants.
Keywords: affective body movement perception, affective body movements, age groups, age-related differences, Angemessen(heit) (von Technik), assisted living, Context, cross-cultural analysis, Cultural differences, culturally aware technology, Denmark, elder care, emotion information, Face, HRI, Human Factors, Human robot interaction, Humanoid Robots, human-robot interaction, ieee xplore, implicit connotation, interaction channels, Japan, Legged locomotion, Observers, personal stance information, robot operators, Robots, service robot, social robots, social signal processing, task-related information, TV, unrestricted environments, Videos 2014
-
(2014) : Personalizing robot behavior for interruption in social human-robot interaction: 2014 IEEE International Workshop on Advanced Robotics and its Social Impacts: Evanston, IL: IEEE, S. 44-49
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/ARSO.2014.7020978 Abstract: People engaging in an activity usually has individual tolerance to be interrupted [1], [2]. Humans subconsciously adapt their behaviors to draw other one’s attention and to get into a conversation based on their historical experiences, but robots often fail to be aware of humans’ feeling and thus interrupt their users repeatedly. To endow service robots with such socially acceptable ability, we propose an online human-aware interactive learning framework in this paper, under which the robot personalizes its behaviors according to both observed user’s attention and its conjecture about user’s awareness of itself. To this purpose, the correlation between the robot’s theory of awareness, user’s attention and robot behavior are explored through reinforcement learning techniques. The conducted experiment shows that the robot can personalize its interruption strategy, and the optimal policies converged for at least 26 episodes.
Keywords: Face, Hidden Markov models, human-robot interaction, ieee xplore, Interrupters, interruption strategy, Künstliche Intelligenz, learning (artificial intelligence), Markov processes, online human-aware interactive learning framework, reinforcement learning techniques, robot behavior personalization, Robot sensing systems, robot theory of awareness, service robot, social human-robot interaction, social sciences, user attention, user awareness 2012
-
(2012): The self-promoting playful pen in graphic and literary rhino-caricatures. In: HUMOR-INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HUMOR RESEARCH 25 (2), S. 179-198
Abstract: From ancient times to the present, artists’ and authors’ creative, critical, and diverting pens have caricatured the human nose. Their amusing games express the power of the artistic imagination to turn their subjects into game pieces by (1) poking fun at their sociopolitical status through exaggerating or diminishing the size and shape of their noses; (2) playing upon hilarious, multifaceted links between their noses, phalluses, and the mocking pen; and (3) building canonical play frames that expand the artists’ and authors’ ability to mock the sociopolitical competition for power and influence. Though these games at times transgress the boundaries of decorum, they also underscore graphic and verbal caricaturists’ self-promotional creativity, as they address the many inequalities in actual and fictive worlds.
-
(2012) : Vision-based attention control system for socially interactive robots: 2012 IEEE RO-MAN: The 21st IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication: Paris, France: IEEE, S. 496-502
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/ROMAN.2012.6343800 Abstract: A social robot needs to attract the attention of a target human and shift it from his/her current focus to what is sought by the robot. The robot should recognize the current target’s attention level to smoothly perform this attention control. In this paper, we propose a vision-based system to detect the level of attention or willingness of the target person towards the robot and to control his/her attention. The system estimates the attention level from rich visual cues of human’s face and head. Then, by timing target’s attention to determine the appropriate attention level, it generates aware signals and makes eye contact with the target. Finally, the robot shifts the target’s attention to an intended direction. The experimental results reveal that the proposed system is effective in controlling the target’s attention.
-
(2012): Infants prefer the faces of strangers or mothers to morphed faces. An uncanny valley between social novelty and familiarity. In: Biology letters 8 (5), S. 725-728. DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2012.0346
DOI: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22696289 Abstract: The 'uncanny valley' response is a phenomenon involving the elicitation of a negative feeling and subsequent avoidant behaviour in human adults and infants as a result of viewing very realistic human-like robots or computer avatars. It is hypothesized that this uncanny feeling occurs because the realistic synthetic characters elicit the concept of 'human' but fail to satisfy it. Such violations of our normal expectations regarding social signals generate a feeling of unease. This conflict-induced uncanny valley between mutually exclusive categories (human and synthetic agent) raises a new question: could an uncanny feeling be elicited by other mutually exclusive categories, such as familiarity and novelty? Given that infants prefer both familiarity and novelty in social objects, we address this question as well as the associated developmental profile. Using the morphing technique and a preferential-looking paradigm, we demonstrated uncanny valley responses of infants to faces of mothers (i.e. familiarity) and strangers (i.e. novelty). Furthermore, this effect strengthened with the infant's age. We excluded the possibility that infants detect and avoid traces of morphing. This conclusion follows from our finding that the infants equally preferred strangers' faces and the morphed faces of two strangers. These results indicate that an uncanny valley between familiarity and novelty may accentuate the categorical perception of familiar and novel objects.
Keywords: Adult, Bekanntheitsgrad, Biologie, Emotions, Entwicklungspsychologie, Erwartungen, erwartungen und Erwartungserwartungen, Eye Movements, Face, familiarity, Female, Humans, Infant, Learning, Male, Mothers, Pattern Recognition, Visual, PERCEPTION, Psychologie, p-zombies, Recognition (Psychology)/physiology, Uncanny Valley Effekt, Visual Perception/physiology -
(2012): Disagreements, face and politeness. In: Journal of Pragmatics 44 (12), S. 1554-1564. DOI: 10.1016/j.pragma.2012.03.009
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2012.03.009 Abstract: Disagreement can be defined as the expression of a view that differs from that expressed by another speaker. Yet, in the relevant literature, disagreement is mostly seen as confrontational and should thus be mitigated or avoided. In CA terms, it is a “dispreferred” second. Similarly, in earlier politeness theories, disagreement is seen to verge on impoliteness. In contrast, recent research has shown that disagreement need not be seen only in negative terms, that is, it may not necessarily result in conflict and impoliteness, but can be a sign of intimacy and sociability and may not destroy but rather strengthen interlocutors’ relationships.This paper suggests that disagreements are complex, multidirectional and multifunctional acts, which prevent straightforward labelling such as face-threatening/enhancing, (dis)preferred or (im)polite acts. There is inter- and intra-cultural variation depending on various contextual parameters. Significantly, interlocutors have personal traits and relational histories that predispose them to particular strategies and specific evaluations. The claim being disputed in any current interaction may have roots not just in previous turns of the same interaction but also in previous interactions and this should be taken into account when analysing discourse.
Keywords: (Dis)agreement, disagreement, Face, Freundschaftlichkeit versus Freundlichkeit, Höflichkeit, Höflichkeitsforschung, Interaktion, Konfrontation, Kultur, Linguistik, Nahbeziehung, Politeness, Preferred/dispreferred action, Relational history, Soziale Angemessenheit, Sprachliche Konfrontation -
(2012): Effects of etiquette strategy on human–robot interaction in a simulated medicine delivery task. In: Intelligent Service Robotics 5 (3), S. 199-210. DOI: 10.1007/s11370-012-0113-3
Abstract: The objective of this study was to examine the extent to which a model of linguistic etiquette in human–human interaction could be applied to human–robot interaction (HRI) domain, and how different etiquette strategies proposed through the model might influence performance of humans and robots as mediated by manipulations of robot physical features, in a simulated medicine delivery task. A “wizard of Oz” experiment was conducted in which either a humanoid robot or a mechanical-looking robot was used to present medicine reminding utterances (following different etiquette strategies) to participants, who were engaged in a primary cognitive task (a Sudoku puzzle). Results revealed the etiquette model to partially extend to the HRI domain. Participants were not sensitive to positive language from robots (e.g., appreciation of human values/wants) and such a strategy did not succeed in supporting or enhancing the “positive face” of human users. Both “bald” (no linguistic courtesy) and mixed strategies (positive and “negative face” (minimizing user imposition) saving) resulted in moderate user perceived etiquette scores (PE). However, individual differences suggested such robot linguistic strategies should be applied with caution. Opposite to this, a negative face saving strategy (supporting user freedom of choice) promoted user task and robot performance (in terms of user response time to robot requests), and resulted in the highest PE score. There was also evidence that humanoid robot features provide additional social cues that may be used by patients and support human and robot performance, but not PE. These results provide a basis for determining appropriate etiquette strategies and robot appearance to promote better collaborative task performances for future health care delivery applications of service robots.
Keywords: Anerkennung von Werten/Bedürfnissen, appropriate social interaction, Disziplin, doppelter Treffer, Etikette, Face, Face-Saving, Favoriten, Höflichkeit, Höflichkeitsforschung, Human-robot etiquette, Ingenieurswissenschaft, Interaktionspartner, Linguistik, Medicine delivery, Medizin, Mensch oder Maschine, Mensch-Technik-Relationen (MTR), Mensch-Technische Systeme, Negative face saving, Patient compliance, Patient-robot interaction, Realtechnik, Serviceroboter, Soziale Angemessenheit, Soziale Robotik, Technik, Technikbezug, Volltreffer, Wahlfreiheit (eines Nutzers/Interaktionspartners), Wertendes Sprachverhalten 2011
-
(2011): What Korean apologies require of politeness theory. In: Journal of Pragmatics 43 (5), S. 1303-1317. DOI: 10.1016/j.pragma.2010.10.028
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2010.10.028 Abstract: This paper examines a corpus of Korean apologies to discover why a person apologizes and why they choose the form of apology that they do. It argues for an abstracted, generalized politeness1 model (Locher and Watts, 2005; Watts, 2003) in which politeness work in Korean is primarily concerned with relationship construction (Arundale, 2006; Haugh, 2007c; Matsumoto, 1988). This will involve both a notion of face, conceived as a psychological, acquired construct, and a set of frames (Terkourafi, 2005) that do not directly reference face. To arrive at this theoretical point, the paper begins by examining the social factors that influence choices in apology forms as predicted by Brown and Levinson (1987). Brown and Levinson’s model accurately predicts the relevance of many factors in form selection in Korean, such as relative power, social distance, and the severity of the act. However, the model itself is not an accurate model for Korean even in high abstraction. Instead of choosing a strategy based upon the weight of a face-threatening act, Koreans actively manage and create expectations for behavior in a relationship. Some expectations will resemble classic positive and negative face issues, while others will more directly reference culture-specific roles or common events.
Keywords: Angesicht, Apologies, Brown and Levinson's model, Distanz, Disziplin, Entschuldigung, Entschuldigungsforschung, Ernsthaftigkeit einer Situation, Erwartungen, Face, frames, Gesichtswahrung, Höflichkeit, Höflichkeitsforschung, Interaktionspartner, Korean, Kultur, Kulturelle Normen, Kulturspezifizität, Kulturtheorie, Linguistik, Macht, Politeness, Situationsbedingter Kontext, Sociolinguistics, Soziale Angemessenheit, Soziale Distanz, Soziale Hierarchie, Sozialer Abstand, Sprachgebrauch -
(2011): Im/polite reader responses on British online news sites. In: Journal of Politeness Research. Language, Behaviour, Culture 7 (2), S. 187-214. DOI: 10.1515/jplr.2011.010
Abstract: Impolite and aggressive behaviour of anonymous users appears to be an important feature of online newspaper comments. This paper identifies and investigates how impoliteness is utilized strategically by newspaper readers to attack the author of an article. Empirical data is drawn from "Have-your-say" sections of the Guardian Online, Times Online and Telegraph Online. Results illustrate that impolite moves frequently involve face-threats that question the jourbalists' authority, credibility and trustworthiness. In the main part of the paper a categorization scheme for different types of impolite moves is introduced and a working definition of impoliteness in the context of "Have-your-say" sections presented. After having sketched a number of fundamental methodological and theoretical challenges in impoliteness research, the paper also demonstrates how the communicative setting and medium influence the realization and interpretation of impolite behaviour in those forms of public debates. Given the challenge of identifying and conceptualizing impoliteness in general and more specifically in a computer-mediated environment, etiquette rules prove especially useful for norms of appropriateness. It is also argued that the strength of those face-threats may be boosted by the fact that they are uttered in front of large audience and more specifically the journalist's readership.
Keywords: Art des Kommunikationsmediums, Diskurse in Anwesenheit von Zuhörerschaft/Leserschaft/Audience, Face, Face-threatening acts, Have-your-say sections for readers, Impolite Talk, Infragestellen von Autorität, Infragestellen von Glaubwürdigkeit, Infragestellen von Vertrauenswürdigkeit, Medien, Öffentlicher vs. privater Raum, Online-Journalismus, Rolle (Beruf), Situationsbedingter Kontext, Sozialer Raum / Kultureller Kontext, time 2010
-
(2010): Constituting face in conversation. Face, facework, and interactional achievement. In: Journal of Pragmatics 42 (8), S. 2078-2105. DOI: 10.1016/j.pragma.2009.12.021
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2009.12.021 Abstract: Face Constituting Theory addresses the question “How do participants achieve face in everyday talk?” explaining face and facework as achieved by participants engaged in face-to-face communication in situated relationships. Outlining the theory involves first sketching the Conjoint Co-constituting Model of Communication as a conceptualization of the achieving of meaning and action in interaction, and second conceptualizing face as a relational phenomenon at both culture-general and culture-specific levels. Using these conceptualizations, Face Constituting Theory explains face as participants’ interpretings of relational connectedness and separateness, conjointly co-constituted in talk/conduct-in-interaction. Face Constituting Theory adds to this explanation a new conceptualization of how of face interpretings are evaluated as threatening to, in stasis, or supportive of relationships, drawing into a single explanation the full range of observations on facework from outright face threat, through face maintenance, to outright face support. Consistent with ethnomethodology and conversation analysis, Face Constituting Theory is framed from the participant's perspective, and applying the theory in examining the achievement of face in an instance of everyday interaction both illustrates the application of the new theory in research, and indicates how it is distinct from the approaches existing theories employ in studying face and facework.
Keywords: Angesicht, Communication, Conversation, Disziplin, Dritte Welle, Face, Face-Constituting View, Facework, Favoriten, Gesichtswahrung, Höflichkeit, Höflichkeitsforschung, Höflichkeitsforschung der dritten Welle, (Im)Politeness Research, Interaction, Kultur, Kulturdifferenz, Kulturelle Normen, Kulturspezifizität, Kulturtheorie, Linguistik, Modelle/Theorien, Observablen/Kriterien für sozial angemessenes Verhalten und dessen Bewertung, Relationship, Soziale Angemessenheit, Sprachgebrauch, Status / biologische Marker -
Barron, Anne; Schneider, Klaus P. (Hg.) (2010): The pragmatics of Irish English. Berlin; New York: Mouton de Gruyter (Trends in linguistics. Studies and monographs). Online verfügbar unter http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=558056
Abstract: Irish English, while having been the focus of investigations on a variety of linguistic levels, reveals a dearth of research on the pragmatic level. In the present volume, this imbalance is addressed by providing much-needed empirical data on language use in Ireland in the private, official and public spheres and also by examining the use of Irish English as a reflection of socio-cultural norms of interaction. The contributions cover a wide range of pragmatic phenomena and draw on a number of frameworks of analysis. Despite the wide scope of topics and methodologies, a relatively coherent picture of conventions of language use in Ireland emerges. Indirectness and heterogeneity on the formal level are, for instance, shown to be features of Irish English. This volume is the first book-length treatment of the pragmatics of a national variety of English, or any other language. Indeed, it could be considered a first step towards a new discipline, variational pragmatics, at the interface of pragmatics and dialectology. This book is of primary interest to researchers and students in pragmatics, variational linguistics, Irish English, English as Foreign Language (EFL), cross-cultural communication and discourse analysis. Furthermore, the pragmatic descriptions provided will be of practical use in the increasingly important English as Second Language (ESL) context in Ireland. Finally, it is also of relevance to professionals dealing with Ireland and, indeed, to anyone interested in a deeper understanding of Irish culture.
Keywords: Angesicht, Dialekt, Discourse analysis, Electronic books, English language, Face, Familie, Familiendiskurs, Heterogenität, Höflichkeit, Höflichkeitsforschung, Indirektheit, In-Group, Intimität, Ireland, Linguistik, Nahbeziehung, Negative and positive Politeness, Politeness, Pragmatics, Social aspects, Soziale Angemessenheit, Sprachgebrauch, Variation -
(2010): Cross-cultural variation in the perception of impoliteness. A study of impoliteness events reported by students in England, China, Finland, Germany and Turkey. In: Intercultural Pragmatics 7 (4). DOI: 10.1515/iprg.2010.027
Abstract: This paper investigates cross-cultural variation in the perception of impoliteness. It is based on 500 impoliteness events reported by students in England, China, Finland, Germany, and Turkey. The main analytical framework adopted is Spencer-Oatey's (e.g. 2000) "rapport management," covering various types of face as well as sociality rights. We offer some clarifications of this framework, and explain and demonstrate how it can be operationalized for quantitative analysis. In general, it offers a good account of our data, though accommodating ambiguous cases proved to be a major challenge. Our quantitative analysis suggests that three of the five categories of Spencer-Oatey's framework are key ones, namely, quality face, equity rights, and association rights. Furthermore, differences between our geographically separated datasets emerge. For example, the England-based data has a preponderance of impoliteness events in which quality face is violated, whereas the China-based data has a preponderance where equity rights are violated. We offer some explanations for these differences, relating them where possible to broader cultural issues.
-
(2010): “Just tell us what to do”. Southern African face and its relevance to intercultural communication. In: Journal of Pragmatics 42 (8), S. 2158-2171. DOI: 10.1016/j.pragma.2009.12.017
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2009.12.017 Abstract: This paper contributes to the debate on the precise nature of face as a universal phenomenon, and the cultural variability within it. Specifically, we bring the 'Southern' perspective to the debate by discussing the previously neglected African dimension. Recent scholarship suggests that the concept of face and the notion of self in traditional African culture may have more in common with Eastern collectivist cultures than with Anglo-American culture. We examine the interactional management of an encounter between a Zimbabwean English speaker and British English speakers in a community singing group. We argue that, while face needs may be universally relevant in such a situation, the way in which they are oriented to in interaction depends on cultural understandings of which aspects of face are paramount in particular circumstances. Since these assumptions are deep-seated and invisible they are not easily open to explicit negotiation and hence can lead to misinterpretation. By conducting an ethnographic study of the communicative event and combining it with a detailed examination of the co-construction of meaning in this interaction, we show how the participants' contributions can be related to differing - and potentially conflicting - interpretation frameworks. These frameworks are informed by culture-specific notions of appropriate self-presentation.
-
(2010): Face in interaction. In: Journal of Pragmatics 42 (8), S. 2073-2077. DOI: 10.1016/j.pragma.2009.12.013
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2009.12.013 Abstract: Face has become firmly established as a key concept not only in pragmatics but also in anthropology, sociolinguistics, communication studies, sociology, psychology, and other related fields. Yet while it was Goffman (1955) who first introduced the notion, it has been Brown and Levinson’s (1987) application of face in the context of politeness theory that has dominated much of the debate thus far. Such discussions have often centred on the validity of Brown and Levinson’s notion of face for explicating politeness across various cultural contexts (Gu, 1990; Ide, 1989; Matsumoto, 1988; Nwoye, 1992; Pizziconi, 2003). The continuing controversy as to whether or not honorifics in Modern Standard Japanese are indeed examples of a failure of Brown and Levinson’s theory is a case in point. On the one hand, there is the often cited argument by Matsumoto (1988) that ‘‘what is of paramount importance to a Japanese is not his/her territory [negative face], but the position in relation to others in the group and his/her acceptance by others’’ (p. 405). On the other hand, other scholars have argued that Brown and Levinson’s notion of face can in fact be applied to the study of honorifics, and thus politeness, in Modern Standard Japanese (Fukada and Asato, 2004; Fukushima, 2000; Ishiyama, 2009; Usami, 2002). In these latter approaches, however, Brown and Levinson’s notions of positive and negative face are reduced to an undifferentiated notion that can be ‘‘lost’’ or ‘‘saved’’ (Haugh, 2005:44). It appears that what may actually be fuelling such (endless) controversies is the continued conflation of politeness with face. In this special issue, then, while acknowledging the important role face plays in politeness and impoliteness research, it is suggested that the time has come for face to be theorized on its own terms. In this way, echoing Bargiela-Chiappini’s (2003) re-opening of discussion about face, (new) insights may be gained into these (old) debates.
Keywords: Angesicht, Brown, Brown and Levinson's model, Face, Face (general), Gesichtswahrung, Goffman, Höflichkeit, Höflichkeitsforschung, Honorifics, (Im)Politeness Research, Levinson, Linguistik, Politeness, Politeness Theory, Soziale Angemessenheit, Sprachgebrauch, Überblick, Übersicht zu Politeness Theory -
(2010): Face as an indexical category in interaction. In: Journal of Pragmatics 42 (8), S. 2131-2146. DOI: 10.1016/j.pragma.2009.12.020
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2009.12.020 Abstract: Informed by the understanding of indexicality and membership categorization in ethnomethodology (Garfinkel, 1967; Sacks, 1986, 1989), the paper proposes that face is a Janus-like indexical concept which categorizes the self-in-interaction, as it indexes and is indexed by (linguistic) acts, and features of underlying conceptualizations of social practices relevant to the interaction. According to this understanding of face, affective responses, such as pride, liking, solidarity, dissociation, embarrassment or resentment, and other orientations to face derive from (perceived) categorizations emerging in the unfolding interaction. To examine the indexicality of face, membership categorization analysis (Sacks, 1986) is adopted as an analytic tool, and applied to a sequence of interactions in a ceremonial event. The paper further demonstrates that face may be made accountable by employing ‘parallel documents’ in research, defined in the study as data that stand in indexical relations to the situated interaction.
Keywords: Affective responses, Angesicht, Ausdruck von Affekten, Ethnologie, Ethnomethodology, Face, Face (general), Gesichtswahrung, Höflichkeit, Höflichkeitsforschung, Indexicality, Indexikalität, Linguistik, Membership categorization analysis, Parallel documents, Soziale Angemessenheit, Sprachgebrauch, Sprachverhalten / sprachliches, zu Emotionen korreliertes Feedback, Übermitteln von Gefühlen/Emotionen 2009
-
(2009) : Face as emergent in interpersonal communication: An alternative to Goffman In: Bargiela-Chiappini, Francesca; Haugh, Michael (Hg.): Face, communication and social interaction: First published 2009: Sheffield, United Kingdom: Equinox Publishing Ltd, S. 33-54Keywords: Angesicht, Communication, Conversation, Disziplin, Dritte Welle, Face, Face-Constituting View, Facework, Favoriten, Gesichtswahrung, Höflichkeit, Höflichkeitsforschung, Höflichkeitsforschung der dritten Welle, (Im)Politeness Research, Interaction, Kultur, Kulturtheorie, Linguistik, Modelle/Theorien, Observablen/Kriterien für sozial angemessenes Verhalten und dessen Bewertung, Soziale Angemessenheit, Sprachgebrauch, Status / biologische Marker
-
(2009): Is family special to the brain? An event-related fMRI study of familiar, familial, and self-face recognition. In: Neuropsychologia 47 (3), S. 849-858. DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2008.12.027
DOI: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19159636 Abstract: The face-processing network has evolved to respond differentially to different classes of faces depending on their relevance to the perceiver. For example, self-, familiar, and unknown faces are associated with activation in different neural substrates. Family should represent a special class of face stimuli that is of high relevance to individuals, because incorrect assignment of kinship can have dire consequences (e.g., incest, cuckoldry). Therefore evolution should have favored redundant mechanisms for detection of kin. We used fMRI to investigate the neural substrates associated with viewing faces of kin compared to other classes of faces (e.g., self-face, familiar face, and unknown face), and to examine the degree to which self-facial resemblance activated similar neural substrates. Contrasting kin faces with unknown faces activated substrates associated with self-face recognition, while comparing kin faces to friend faces activated posterior cingulate and cuneus. Similar posterior medial substrates were recruited when contrasting self-resembling faces with morphed faces of kin, suggesting these regions potentially represent computational processing about facial familiarity and identity. On the other hand, discrimination of self-resembling faces from familiar morphs activated anterior medial substrates (anterior cingulate cortex, ACC, medial prefrontal cortex, MPFC). These findings, and a region of interest (ROI) analysis, highlight the role of the extended face-processing network for discrimination of kin from familiar non-kin members of one's social group based on self-referent phenotypic cues.
Keywords: Adult, Bekanntheitsgrad, Brain/anatomy & histology/physiology, Discrimination (Psychology)/physiology, Face, familiarity, Female, Gesichtserkennung, Gesichtszüge, Gyrus Cinguli/physiology, Humans, Image Processing, Computer-Assisted, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Middle Aged, Neurowissenschaften, Pattern Recognition, Visual/physiology, Prefrontal Cortex/physiology, Visual Perception/physiology, Young Adult 2007
-
(2007): Should we reject the expertise hypothesis?. In: Cognition 103 (2), S. 322-330. DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2006.05.003
DOI: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16780825 Abstract: On the basis of a review of the literature and the results of three experiments with dog experts, Robbins and McKone [Robbins, R. A., & McKone, E. (2006). No face-like processing for objects-of-expertise in three behavioural tasks, Cognition] argue that there is little or no evidence supporting an expertise account of the differences in configural processing that are typically observed between faces and non-face objects. In the spirit of a debate that has become overly polarized, we believe that R&M often emphasized relatively unimportant controversial issues at the expense of bigger, more important questions. We also feel that some of R&M's arguments are rooted in methodological confusions that should be clarified because they have implications beyond this specific debate. In this commentary, we first clarify issues surrounding the proper statistical analysis of the composite paradigm, a methodology that is commonly used to assess configural and holistic effects in both face and non-face objects. We then discuss several theoretical issues that we feel are central to the debate regarding accounts of face-specificity. We also briefly review positive evidence for the correlation between measures of behavioral expertise and neural markers of face-selectivity. Unlike R&M, we believe the positive evidence for expertise effects, both behavioral and neural, greatly outweighs evidence stemming from null results and that it clearly motivates the importance of future work on the role of experience in the specialization of visual cortex.
-
(2007): Conceptualizing face and relational work in (im)politeness. Revelations from politeness lexemes and idioms in Turkish. In: Journal of Pragmatics 39 (4), S. 681-711. DOI: 10.1016/j.pragma.2006.11.013
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2006.11.013 Abstract: This article addresses two issues: the conceptualization of face and related aspects of self in Turkish, and the implications of the conceptualization of face and the self in interaction in Turkish for understanding relational work at the emic and the etic levels. The paper analyses two root lexemes and idioms derived from the lexemes in Turkish, which are posited as being crucial to understanding (im)politeness and relational work in Turkish culture, and discusses the implications of the analysis for conceptualizing relational work. It maintains that cultures may foreground different aspects of self toward which people show sensitivity in relational work, and that concerns over transactional issues are a major component of relational work.