Alle Publikationen
2018
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(2018): Affect-Aware Adaptive Tutoring Based on Human-Automation Etiquette Strategies. In: Human factors. DOI: 10.1177/0018720818765266
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0018720818765266 Abstract: OBJECTIVE We investigated adapting the interaction style of intelligent tutoring system (ITS) feedback based on human-automation etiquette strategies. BACKGROUND Most ITSs adapt the content difficulty level, adapt the feedback timing, or provide extra content when they detect cognitive or affective decrements. Our previous work demonstrated that changing the interaction style via different feedback etiquette strategies has differential effects on students' motivation, confidence, satisfaction, and performance. The best etiquette strategy was also determined by user frustration. METHOD Based on these findings, a rule set was developed that systemically selected the proper etiquette strategy to address one of four learning factors (motivation, confidence, satisfaction, and performance) under two different levels of user frustration. We explored whether etiquette strategy selection based on this rule set (systematic) or random changes in etiquette strategy for a given level of frustration affected the four learning factors. Participants solved mathematics problems under different frustration conditions with feedback that adapted dynamic changes in etiquette strategies either systematically or randomly. RESULTS The results demonstrated that feedback with etiquette strategies chosen systematically via the rule set could selectively target and improve motivation, confidence, satisfaction, and performance more than changing etiquette strategies randomly. The systematic adaptation was effective no matter the level of frustration for the participant. CONCLUSION If computer tutors can vary the interaction style to effectively mitigate negative emotions, then ITS designers would have one more mechanism in which to design affect-aware adaptations that provide the proper responses in situations where human emotions affect the ability to learn.
2017
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(2017): Tatsuhiko Yoshida. 2016. Höflichkeit als Ressource zur interkulturellen Kommunikation. Theorie und Praxis zur gesprächsanalytischen Höflichkeitsforschung. München. Iudicium. 289 S. In: Zeitschrift für Rezensionen zur germanistischen Sprachwissenschaft 9 (1-2), S. 72-77. DOI: 10.1515/zrs-2017-0012
Abstract: Die vorliegende Monografie präsentiert sich als Beitrag zur Erforschung von sprachlicher Höflichkeit und schreibt sich damit in eine Tradition ein, die mit der wegweisenden Arbeit von Brown & Levinson (1987) beginnt. Seitdem sind zahlreiche Monografien, Sammelbände und Zeitschriftenaufsätze erschienen, die dazu beigetragen haben, dass das Forschungsgebiet, ausgehend von einer kritischen Würdigung der Pioniere, sich weiterentwickelt und differenziert hat. In den meisten Fällen wird dabei auf die Grundbegriffe der Pragmatik und der Soziolinguistik bzw. der Interaktionslinguistik rekurriert. In der Forschung hat sich weitgehend die Auffassung durchgesetzt, dass Höflichkeit im Rahmen von sprachwissenschaftlichen Ansätzen von der Etikette unterschieden werden muss und dass die Höflichkeit einer Äußerung nicht in einem direkten Abhängigkeitsverhältnis zu den verwendeten Wörtern oder Konstruktionen steht. Höflichkeit wird von vielen Forschern als Teil der sozialen Praxis und als Gegenstand von interaktionalen Aushandlungsprozessen verstanden: Sprecher und Hörer beurteilen im Gespräch wechselseitig ihre Verhalten unter dem Gesichtspunkt der Höflichkeit und passen sowohl ihre eigenen Beiträge als auch die Höflichkeitsurteile an ihr Verständnis des Gesprächsverlaufs an. Höflichkeit wird also ko-konstruiert und kann nicht als a priori gegebener und in der Sprachgemeinschaft allgemein geteilter Verhaltensmaßstab angesehen werden. Die Prozesse des Aushandelns lassen sich natürlich am besten an authentischen Gesprächsdaten untersuchen. Aus diesem Grund ist die Auseinandersetzung mit der real existierenden Kommunikation zu einem immer wieder angemahnten Bestandteil der Diskussion geworden. Neuere Arbeiten (etwa Watts 2003 oder Kádár & Haugh 2013) enthalten denn auch regelmäßig Auszüge aus transkribierten Gesprächen und diskutieren diese im Hinblick auf die Höflichkeitstheorie. Bisher wurde aber von Seiten der Höflichkeitsforschung kaum an die Arbeit der Gesprächsanalyse angeknüpft – eine Tradition, die im Umgang mit Daten geschult und empirisch versiert ist. Tatsuhiko Yoshida nimmt sich für sein Buch genau das vor und stößt damit in eine Forschungslücke. Schon im Untertitel wird deutlich, dass es dem Autor darum geht, die Höflichkeitsforschung mit der gesprächsanalytischen Praxis zu verbinden. Davon sind zweifellos interessante Einsichten über die Natur und den Stellenwert von Höflichkeit zu erwarten.
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Ehrhardt, Claus; Neuland, Eva (Hg.) (2017): Sprachliche Höflichkeit. Historische, aktuelle und künftige Perspektiven. Tübingen, Germany: Narr Francke Attempto
Abstract: Sprachliche Höflichkeit ist ein breit diskutiertes Thema in Wissenschaft und Öffentlichkeit. Oft wird ein Mangel an Höflichkeit oder gar deren Verfall beklagt. Neue Medien und die zunehmende Interkulturalität scheinen das Problem zu verschärfen. In der Sprachwissenschaft greifen zahlreiche Ansätze solche Fragen auf und versuchen eine wissenschaftliche Klärung und Einordnung in neuere theoretische und methodische Entwicklungen. Der Band dokumentiert ausgewählte Beiträge einer internationalen Fachkonferenz. Er präsentiert aktuelle Entwicklungen in der deutschen Sprache und neue Ansätze in der Höflichkeitsforschung, auch in kontrastiver Perspektive und in verschiedenen Anwendungsfeldern. Kulturhistorische Einschätzungen über Ursprung und Entwicklung von Höflichkeitskonventionen sowie Ausblicke auf künftige Herausforderungen runden den Band ab.
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(2017): Conceptualizing politeness in Japanese and Greek. In: Intercultural Pragmatics 14 (4), S. 525-555. DOI: 10.1515/ip-2017-0024
Abstract: The main aim of this paper is to investigate how Japanese and Greek female students conceptualize politeness and then compare the findings in order to tease out any cross-cultural similarities and differences. The data is drawn from a questionnaire filled in by two hundred female undergraduates (one hundred from each group). The results show that there are significant similarities as well as some differences. Although research on im/politeness has concentrated almost exclusively on linguistic performance, a significant similarity between the two groups is that politeness is conceptualized as primarily non-linguistic action. Another major similarity is that both groups conceptualize politeness mainly as "consideration to others" and "appropriate behavior," the former expressed mostly non-linguistically and the latter involving both linguistic and non-linguistic manifestations. Most participants view politeness as conveyed through attentiveness/helping others, respect and empathy. Differences were located mostly in the numbers of participants who mentioned the various subcategories. For example, more Greek participants related a broad sense of "respect" to politeness, whereas more Japanese participants related it to "empathy" and only Japanese participants mentioned "honorifics." Our participants' understandings of politeness appear to be in contrast to earlier politeness theories which view politeness as strategic concern for conflict avoidance and closer to current approaches which view it as relational, expressing concern for the needs and feelings of others.
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(2017) : Der face-Begriff im Schnittpunkt zwischen politeness und facework. Paradigmatische Überlegungen In: Ehrhardt, Claus; Neuland, Eva (Hg.): Sprachliche Höflichkeit: Historische, aktuelle und künftige Perspektiven: Tübingen, Germany: Narr Francke Attempto, S. 57-76
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(2017): Competition and conflict between communicative norms. In: Journal of Argumentation in Context 6 (2), S. 220-246. DOI: 10.1075/jaic.6.2.05hop
Abstract: When engaging with each other, discussants navigate a complex set of communicative norms that aim at very different goals. Within argumentation theory naturally the most studied set of norms are those aiming at reasonableness, of which I take the pragma-dialectical rule set to be a representative example. They are however far from the only norms that guide communicative behavior. This paper offers an analysis of the areas of intersection and potential conflict of reasonableness (as understood by pragma-dialectics) with other communicative norms in general and rules of politeness (as presented by Geoffrey Leech) in particular.
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(2017): Conventionalized Politeness Structures. Empirical Evidence from Hindi/Urdu. In: Journal of Politeness Research 13 (2), S. 243-279. DOI: 10.1515/pr-2015-0001
Abstract: This paper discusses the results of a survey undertaken to investigate conventionalized politeness structures in Hindi\Urdu, with specific focus on the ability of native speakers to view politeness as a scalar phenomenon across different utterances vis-a-vis each other. The speakers were provided with utterances that encoded systematic differences in lexical choice (High Perso Arabic\High Sanskritic\neutral native) and construction choice (suggestion\request\ subjunctives, etc.), but nevertheless performed the same act so as to be possible to rank on a politeness scale as realizations of the same speech act. The paper focusses on the correlation between High\formal registers and politeness as well as the correlation between different grammatical structures and politeness to argue that linguistic structures are conventionalized for possible politeness effects.
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(2017): The Influence of Politeness Behavior on User Compliance with Social Robots in a Healthcare Service Setting. In: International Journal of Social Robotics 9 (5), S. 727-743. DOI: 10.1007/s12369-017-0420-0
Abstract: Particularly in the healthcare service domain, social robots are expected to be good assistants, advisers, or practitioners. To increase the effectiveness of healthcare services provided by social robots, patients must comply with their requests. Research is plentiful on what makes patients comply with healthcare advice. In this paper, which is based on Bulgurcu's study of rationality-based beliefs, command-compliance theory, and social exchange theory, we propose a research model of compliance during interaction with social robots, examining beliefs about and overall assessments of the consequences of complying with robot requests and extending the findings of previous studies to the setting of healthcare services. We specifically investigate the perceived level of politeness in robots' speech and gestures as a determinant of compliance intention. Using a social robot, NAO, as a provider of healthcare services, we conducted an experiment. The results suggest that the aforementioned theories are useful in understanding user behaviors toward social robots in a healthcare service setting. Interestingly, and unlike in other settings, the perceived level of politeness of a social robot in a healthcare service setting negatively affects the perceived benefit of compliance, and, hence, intention to comply. A lower politeness level is closer to a command or strong recommendation than a suggestion or causal recommendation, which is common in shopping, tourism, or convention settings. The findings of this study imply that polite behavior from a social robot is an important factor in the compliance of healthcare service users. Direct speech with polite gestures is the most effective way to increase patient compliance in with healthcare advice provided by social robots in healthcare settings. However, higher levels of politeness do not always increase patients' intention to comply.
Keywords: Assistenztechnik, Befehle/eindringliche Empfehlung als Marker für Unhöflichkeit, Compliance, Disziplin, doppelter Treffer, Höflichkeit, Höflichkeitsforschung, human-robot interaction, Ingenieurswissenschaft, Interaktionspartner, Medizin, Mensch oder Maschine, Mensch-Technik-Relationen (MTR), polite social interaction, Politeness, Politeness Theory, Realtechnik, Robotics, Serviceroboter, Social exchange theory, Social robot, Soziale Angemessenheit, Soziale Robotik, Technik, Technikbezug -
(2017) : Interpersonale Pragmatik und (Un)Höflichkeitsforschung In: Ehrhardt, Claus; Neuland, Eva (Hg.): Sprachliche Höflichkeit: Historische, aktuelle und künftige Perspektiven: Tübingen, Germany: Narr Francke Attempto, S. 77-88
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(2017): Perception of (im)politeness and the underlying cultural conceptualisations. In: Pragmatics and Society 8 (2). DOI: 10.1075/ps.8.2.04sha
Abstract: The present study sets out to investigate the role of 'culture' as one of the many important factors that influence the evaluation of (im)politeness in Persian from a Cultural Linguistics perspective. The paper argues that Cultural Linguistics, and in particular the notion of cultural schema, has the potential to offer a robust analytical framework for the exploration of (im)polite use of language. We elaborate on this proposal by presenting examples of data from Persian in which speakers interpret impolite behaviour in light of a number of Persian cultural schemas. The study also offers a novel three-layered approach for the analysis of (im)politeness data that combines metadiscourse analysis with the ethnography of cultural conceptualisations, while highlighting the importance of the notion of 'heterogeneous distribution' of cultural conceptualisations, a pivotal theoretical concept in Cultural Linguistics which accounts for the variations in speakers' evaluation of (im)politeness.
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(2017): The Brown and Levinson theory revisited. A statistical analysis. In: Language Sciences 62, S. 66-75. DOI: 10.1016/j.langsci.2017.03.006
Abstract: The Brown and Levinson (1987) theory posits that the combination of social distance, power ratio, and task imposition determine politeness weightiness perception regardless of the culture. In order to test the effects of culture, I conducted statistical analyses using subjects with American, East Asian, and Latin American cultural backgrounds. The results reveal that task imposition does not have a statistically significant impact on the speaker's determination of politeness weightiness in East Asia while it does in the US and Latin America. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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(2017): Politeness and Compassion Differentially Predict Adherence to Fairness Norms and Interventions to Norm Violations in Economic Games. In: Scientific reports 7 (1). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-02952-1
DOI: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28611410 Abstract: Adherence to norms and interventions to norm violations are two important forms of social behaviour modelled in economic games. While both appear to serve a prosocial function, they may represent separate mechanisms corresponding with distinct emotional and psychological antecedents, and thus may be predicted by different personality traits. In this study, we compared adherence to fairness norms in the dictator game with responses to violations of the same norms in third-party punishment and recompensation games with respect to prosocial traits from the Big Five and HEXACO models of personality. The results revealed a pattern of differential relations between prosocial traits and game behaviours. While norm adherence in the dictator game was driven by traits reflecting good manners and non-aggression (the politeness aspect of Big Five agreeableness and HEXACO honesty-humility), third-party recompensation of victims-and to a lesser extent, punishment of offenders-was uniquely driven by traits reflecting emotional concern for others (the compassion aspect of Big Five agreeableness). These findings demonstrate the discriminant validity between similar prosocial constructs and highlight the different prosocial motivations underlying economic game behaviours.
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(2017): When Fair Is Not Equal. In: Social Psychological and Personality Science 8 (8), S. 847-857. DOI: 10.1177/1948550616683018
Abstract: Growing evidence has highlighted the importance of social norms in promoting prosocial behaviors in economic games. Specifically, individual differences in norm adherence—captured by the politeness aspect of Big Five agreeableness—have been found to predict fair allocations of wealth to one’s partner in the dictator game. Yet, most studies have used neutrally framed paradigms, where players may default to norms of equality in the absence of contextual cues. In this study (N = 707), we examined prosocial personality traits and dictator allocations under salient real-world norms of equity and need. Extending on the previous research, we found that—in addition to politeness—the compassion aspect of agreeableness predicted greater allocations of wealth when they were embedded in real-world norms. These results represent an important step in understanding the real-world implications of laboratory-based research, demonstrating the importance of both normative context and prosocial traits.
2016
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(2016): Address practices in academic interactions in a pluricentric language. In: Pragmatics 26 (4), S. 631-652. DOI: 10.1075/prag.26.4.05for
Abstract: Following the recent development of address research in pluricentric languages (Clyne et al. 2006), the present study describes address practices in English-speaking academic settings and pursues two main objectives: (a) to provide a profile of address patterns in academic interactions in Australian English; and (b) to compare address practices in higher education across the three dominant varieties of English, namely American English, Australian English, and British English. The data on Australian English are drawn from 235 questionnaires completed by students, who reported on the address strategies adopted by students and teaching staff in classroom interactions in an Australian university. Data on American and British academic settings were retrieved from the research literature on the topic. The findings show a high degree of informality and familiarity in student-teacher relations in Australia, where reciprocal first names are the default pattern of address at all levels. By contrast, in American academia the hierarchical organization of roles and the different professional positions are foregrounded and reinforced through an asymmetrical use of titles, honorifics and first names. Finally, the British university setting displays a non-reciprocal usage of first names and titles between lecturer and students, which gradually evolves into a more generalised reciprocal use of first names, usually after extended contact and collaboration. We argue that the distinctive patterns of address observed in the three varieties of English reflect diverse social and cultural values systems at work in different speech communities.
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(2016): Politeness and the communication of uncertainty. In: Cognition 154, S. 1-10. DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2016.05.005
DOI: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27232520 Abstract: Ambiguity in language derives, in part, from the multiple motivations that underlie the choice to use any particular expression. The use of some lexical items, such as probability expressions and scalar terms, can be motivated by a desire to communicate uncertainty as well as a desire to be polite (i.e., manage face). Research has demonstrated that the interpretation of these items can be influenced by the existence of a potential politeness motive. In general, communications about negative events, relative to positive events, result in higher likelihood estimates whenever politeness can be discerned as a potential motive. With few exceptions, however, this research has focused only on the hearer. In the present research we focused on the dyad and examined whether speakers vary their messages as a function of politeness, and the effect that this has on subsequent judgments made by a recipient. In two experiments we presented participants with situations that varied in terms of face-threat and asked them how they would communicate potentially threatening information. Both experiments included a second set of participants who read these utterances and provided judgments as to the degree of uncertainty conveyed by the utterance. In both experiments, messages in the face-threatening condition conveyed greater uncertainty than messages in the non-face-threatening condition, and the probability estimates made by the second set of participants varied as a function of conveyed uncertainty. This research demonstrates that when examining speakers and hearers together, severe events may be judged less likely (rather than more likely), because speakers tend to hedge the certainty with which they communicate the information.
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(2016): Manifestation of Malay Politeness in Asking and Giving Advice. Manifestasi Kesantunan Melayu dalam Ujaran Memberi dan Meminta Nasihat. In: GEMA Online® Journal of Language Studies 16 (2), S. 73-94. DOI: 10.17576/gema-2016-1602-05
Abstract: The acts of asking and giving advice are linguistically complex and require observations of politeness norms that exist across cultures. Lack of understanding on this aspect of communication often leads to conflicts or resistance to the advice given. This can be especially so in motivational radio phone-in shows where the politeness strategies of the callers can be numerous. Hence, an analysis was done to identify the patterns of politeness employed in a talk show entitled "Celik Mata Reset Minda Orang Yang Tenang" aired on Radio IKIMfm. Brown and Levinson's (1987) Politeness Model, and Grice's (1975) Maxims of Cooperative Principles were combined to form a model called "Model Pola Kombinasi Strategi dan Maksim" (MPKSM) to analyse the 33 dialogues in the body structure of a conversational context. MPKSM forms four patterns of combined strategies which are Patterns A, B, C and D with the main patterns of P2 and P3. P2 consists of both positive and negative politeness strategies while P3 consists of off-record strategies. Both P2 and P3 are related to the maxims of Cooperative Principles. The speech acts of asking and giving advice from those who took part in the body structure of the radio talk show were analysed using five methods which are downloading of texts, text analysis, transcription, labelling and coding as well as through quantitative approach. The findings indicate that the participants in the talk show have applied the MPKSM in their utterances by minimizing Face Threatening Acts (FTA) while planning the acts to avoid conflicts, with pattern B being dominantly used. The study also shows that time constraint and the presence of overhearer audience were significant factors in influencing the selection of politeness strategies among participants.
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(2016): The Ethics and Etiquette of Research Collaboration. In: Academic medicine : journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges 91 (12). DOI: 10.1097/ACM.0000000000001439
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(2016): Mitigation of Interpersonal Conflicts. Politeness and Time Pressure. In: Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 22 (10), S. 1035-1042. DOI: 10.1177/01461672962210007
Abstract: The prediction that behavioral politeness would evoke mitigating responses and compliance by the other participants was examined in a role-playing experiment. Seventy-three mala Japanese students verbally interacted with a confederate opponent, who expressed her unreasonable requests politely or impolitely. Participants were pressed to respond to the request either impolitely or after a 30-s delay. The effects of politeness were observed on compliance and on tactical dimensions; that is, participants more frequently complied with and gave more integrative and appeasing responses to the polite confederate than the impolite one. Time pressure was found to limit the effects of politeness only regarding the hostile-appeasing dimension of response.
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(2016): Democracy online. Civility, politeness, and the democratic potential of online political discussion groups. In: New Media & Society 6 (2), S. 259-283. DOI: 10.1177/1461444804041444
Abstract: The proponents of cyberspace promise that online discourse will increase political participation and pave the road for a democratic utopia. This article explores the potential for civil discourse in cyberspace by examining the level of civility in 287 discussion threads in political newsgroups. While scholars often use civility and politeness interchangeably, this study argues that this conflation ignores the democratic merit of robust and heated discussion. Therefore, civility was defined in a broader sense, by identifying as civil behaviors that enhance democratic conversation. In support of this distinction, the study results revealed that most messages posted on political newsgroups were civil, and further suggested that because the absence of face-to-face communication fostered more heated discussion, cyberspace might actually promote Lyotard's vision of democratic emancipation through disagreement and anarchy (Lyotard, 1984). Thus, this study supported the internet's potential to revive the public sphere, provided that greater diversity and volume of discussion is present.
Keywords: civility im Kontrast zu politeness, cyberspace, Debattierhaftigkeit, Digitalisierung, Diskurs, doppelter Treffer, Good manners, Höflichkeit, Informations- & Kommunikationstechnik, Internetportale/Blogs, Mensch-Technik-Relationen (MTR), Politische Sphäre, Realtechnik, Situationsbedingter Kontext, social media, Soziale Angemessenheit, soziale Medien, Sprachgebrauch, Technik -
(2016): Polite like an Egyptian?. Case Studies of Politeness in the Late Ramesside Letters. In: Journal of Politeness Research 12 (2), S. 149-153. DOI: 10.1515/pr-2016-0007
Abstract: The Late Ramesside Letters, a corpus of over 70 personal communications written in Late Egyptian, form one of the most complete letter collections from ancient Egypt (c. 1099-1069 BCE). A key feature of ancient Egyptian letter writing is the adherence to the social positions of, and relationships between, the interlocutors, allowing scholars to reconstruct the hierarchical network of individuals directly and indirectly included in the corpus. From this understanding, how can modern scholars discern what was considered to be 'polite' communicative behaviour within these relationships and how can developments in historical politeness help us do this? This article will explore three case studies surrounding different aspects of politeness research: first-order politeness, facework, and discernment politeness in order to explore the phenomenon of 'politeness' in Late Egyptian and reflect on the suitability of current politeness frameworks for the analysis of the Late Ramesside Letters.
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(2016): Special Issue: Case studies in historical politeness (ancient languages): Introduction. In: Journal of Politeness Research 12 (2), S. 149-153. DOI: 10.1515/pr-2016-0020
Abstract: The collection of papers included in this Special Issue represents the first contribution of its kind to the study of politeness, bringing together studies from across many different historical disciplines to collectively assess and challenge the concept of ‘politeness’ in the ancient world. Here, the authors of the papers experiment with modern politeness frameworks, assessing the different ways in which historical politeness can be understood and pursued. What becomes clear in these studies is that the modern concept of ‘politeness’ needs to be better defined when it is applied to the ancient world, especially if the culture or language system under study has no direct terminology or understanding of ‘politeness’ as it is defined today.
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(2016): The Effects of (Un-)Fairness and (Im-)Politeness on the Evaluation of Argumentative Communication. In: Journal of Language and Social Psychology 14 (3), S. 260-288. DOI: 10.1177/0261927X95143002
Abstract: The studies reported here were carried out in order to test whether people in everyday argumentative interactions evaluate contributions according to the fairness criterion of argumentational integrity The hypotheses were (a) that violations of the fairness criterion are conspicuous, Ib) that such violations are negatively evaluated, and (c) that in the case of specific violations (Standards 1 to 5), people distinguish between impolite and unfair utterances. Ib test these hypotheses, an incompletely crossed two-factorial design with the factors (un;)fairness and (im-)politeness (unfair/impolite, unfair/polite, fair/impolite) was used, employing the scenario approach; its suitability was confirmed in the first (preliminary) study (N = 54). In the main study, all three hypotheses were largely confirmed (N = 119); the study also yielded information on additional factors influencing diagnosis and evaluation, such as type of unfairness or the participants' age and level of schooling.
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(2016): Digital technologies in the research process: Lessons from the digital research community in the UK. In: Computers in Human Behavior 61, S. 597-608. DOI: 10.1016/j.chb.2016.03.053
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2016.03.053 Abstract: This paper reports on a qualitative study of the employment of digital tools, resources and services by social researchers in the UK and has a twofold aim. First, it presents the employment of digital means of research work from the stage of designing the research through to data collection and dissemination of the research results. Second, it assesses the complexity and multiplicity of digital tools, resources and services used in research as well as the complexity and range of such usage, also providing explanations as to why researchers in different disciplines use in different ways and for different purposes digital technologies of various ranges and degrees of complexity. The paper concludes that there are certain commonalities and differences in researchers' practices with digital technologies and that such practices are largely driven by researchers' expertise combined with associated disciplinary traditions and etiquette. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)
2015
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(2015): Variational pragmatics and responding to thanks – revisited. In: Multilingua 34 (4), S. 527-546. DOI: 10.1515/multi-2014-0106
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/multi-2014-0106 Abstract: In 2005, Klaus P. Schneider published a fascinating article with the title “‘No problem, you’re welcome, anytime’: Responding to thanks in Ireland, England, and the U.S.A.”. Adopting the then emerging and now established framework of variational pragmatics, Schneider’s pioneering paper presents the results of a study on differences between responses to thanks across different varieties of English using experimental discourse completion tasks (DCTs). The paper at hand revisits this cross-varietal analysis and presents the results of an empirical investigation of this same speech act based on natural data collected with the help of Labovian-style fieldwork methodology common in variationist sociolinguistics. The results reveal fundamental differences between the two data types and underline the fact that these different datasets address different research questions. The findings also highlight the existence of regional variation in the use of this speech act in spontaneous real-life interaction. Finally, the paper also puts forward the term imbalance reducer after thanks (IRAT) as a more appropriate term for the speech act of responding to thanks.
Keywords: Danksagung, Disziplin, Höflichkeit, IRAT, Kultur, Kulturdifferenz, Kulturelle Normen, Kultursensibilität, Kulturspezifizität, Kulturtheorie, Linguistik, Pragmatics, Pragmatik, Real-Life Interaction, Regionale Varianz, Soziale Angemessenheit, Soziolinguistik, Sprachgebrauch, Sprechakt, Thanks -
(2015): Der „kommunikative Raum“ in der kulturologischen (Un)Höflichkeitsforschung. In: Glottodidactica. An International Journal of Applied Linguistics 40 (1). DOI: 10.14746/gl.2013.40.1.3
Abstract: The paper attempts to define the term "communicative space” for (im)politeness research. “Communicative space” is a crucial notion for the definition of concepts such as “ritual balance”, “discursive rule”, “discursive position”, “territoriality”, “field of action” and “co-construction of communicative interaction” (Jacoby, Ochs 1995). “Communicative space” cannot be reduced to the mere physical space in which an (im)polite communicative interaction takes place (“transactional space” according to Kendon 1990). It is a mental space, which is “co-constructed” in so far as it is the result of the convergence of the mental worlds of interactants mediated by utterences. In this sense it can be defined as a “phenomenal space” which is ruled by structuring principles and field laws. The capacity of creating convergent communicative spaces is a key competence which lays the foundations for dialogue capacity and permits successful communicative interactions; therefore it is defined as a very important educational goal in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (2001).