Cover not available

In:Current Issues in Intercultural Pragmatics
Edited by István Kecskés and Stavros Assimakopoulos
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 274] 2017
► pp. 207–227

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload Book PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload Book EPUB
authorization required

Chapter 9
“It’s really insulting to say something like that to anyone”

An investigation of English and German native speakers’ impoliteness perceptions

 | Universität Erfurt
Published online: 14 June 2017
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.274.10sch
Abstract
This study investigates the (in)appropriateness and (im)politeness perceptions of young British and German adults. Data were collected with a questionnaire and individual post-hoc interviews. The questionnaire consisted of 20 authentic events that had been reported by informants of the cross-cultural impoliteness project (CCIP) by Culpeper et al. (2010, 2014) and 2 authentic events that had been witnessed by the researcher and included as neutral distractor items. The findings revealed differences and similarities in the perceptions and evaluations of the English and German native speakers: while their evaluation of whether an utterance was appropriate and/or polite or not tended to be rather similar, differences were found with regard to the severity ratings for inappropriateness scores and reasons given for the scoring.
Article outline
  • 1.Background
  • 2.Methodology
    • 2.1Participants
    • 2.2Instruments
    • 2.3Procedure
  • 3.Results and discussion
    • 3.1(In)appropriateness and (im)politeness perception: Responses to type A questions
    • 3.2Average severity rating: Responses to type B questions
    • 3.3Severity ratings of individual scenario: Responses to type B questions
  • 4.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
References (24)
References
Bardovi-Harlig, Kathleen, and Zoltan Dörnyei. 1998. “Do Language Learners Recognize Pragmatic Violations? Pragmatic vs. Grammatical Awareness in Instructed L2 Learning.” TESOL Quarterly 3: 233–259. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bargiela-Chiappini, Francesca. 2003. “Face and Politeness: New Insights for Old Concepts.” Journal of Pragmatics 35: 1453–1469. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brown, Penelope, and Stephen C. Levinson. 1987. Politeness: Some Universals in Language Use. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Culpeper, Jonathan. 2010. Impoliteness: Using Language to Cause Offence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Culpeper, Jonathan, Leyla Marti, Meilian Mei, Minna Nevala, and Gila A. Schauer. 2010. “Cross-cultural Variation in the Perception of Impoliteness: A Study of Impoliteness Events Reported by Students in England, China, Finland, Germany and Turkey.” Intercultural Pragmatics 7: 597–624. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Culpeper, Jonathan, Gila A. Schauer, Leyla Marti, Meilian Mei, and Minna Nevala. 2014. “Impoliteness and Emotions in a Cross-cultural Perspective.” SPELL Swiss Papers in English Language and Literature 30: 67–88.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Eelen, Gino. 2001. A Critique of Politeness Theory. Manchester: St Jerome Publishing.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fraser, Bruce. 1990. “Perspectives on Politeness.” Journal of Pragmatics 14: 219–236. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Golato, Andrea. 2002. “German Compliment Responses.” Journal of Pragmatics 34: 547–571. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Haugh, Michael. 2013. “Im/politeness, Social Practice and the Participation Order.” Journal of Pragmatics 58: 52–72. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
House, Juliane. 2005. “Politeness in Germany: Politeness in Germany?” In Politeness in Europe, ed. by Leo Hickey, and Miranda Steward, 13–28. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2006. “Communicative Styles in English and German.” European Journal of English Studies 10: 249–267. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2010. “Impoliteness in Germany: Intercultural Encounters in Everyday and Institutional Talk.” Intercultural Pragmatics 7: 561–595. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Leech, Geoffrey. 2014. The Pragmatics of Politeness. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Locher, Miriam A., and Derek Bousfield. 2008. “Introduction: Impoliteness and Power in Language.” In Impoliteness in Language: Studies on its Interplay with Power in Theory and in Practice, ed. by Derek Bousfield, and Miriam Locher, 1–13. Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mills, Sara. 2009. “Impoliteness in a Cultural Context.” Journal of Pragmatics 41: 1047–1060. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schauer, Gila A. 2006. “Pragmatic Awareness in ESL and EFL Contexts: Contrast and Development.” Language Learning 56: 269–318. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2009. Interlanguage Pragmatics: The Study Abroad Context. London: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schleef, Erik. 2009. “A cross-cultural investigation of German and American academic style.” Journal of Pragmatics 41: 1104–1124. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Spencer-Oatey, Helen. 2000. “Rapport Management: A Framework for Analysis.” In Culturally Speaking: Managing Rapport through Talk across Cultures, ed. by Helen Spencer-Oatey, 11–46. London: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2002. “Managing Rapport in Talk: Using Rapport Sensitive Incidents to Explore the Motivational Concerns underlying the Management of Relations.” Journal of Pragmatics 34: 529–545. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2005. “(Im)Politeness, Face and Perceptions of Rapport: Unpackaging their Bases and Interrelationships.” Journal of Politeness Research 1: 95–119. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2008. “Face, Impoliteness and Rapport.” In Culturally Speaking: Managing Rapport through Talk across Cultures (2nd edition), ed. by Helen Spencer-Oatey, 11–47. London: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Thomas, Alexander. 2011. “Das Kulturstandardkonzept.” In Perspektiven Interkultureller Kompetenz, ed. by Wilfried Dreyer, and Ulrich Hößler, 97–124. Göttingen: Vandenhoek & Rupprecht. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (7)

Cited by seven other publications

Schauer, Gila A.
2024. Background. In Intercultural Competence and Pragmatics, ► pp. 7 ff. DOI logo
Schauer, Gila A.
2024. Results: Intercultural Competence and Gender-Neutral Language. In Intercultural Competence and Pragmatics, ► pp. 105 ff. DOI logo
Gesuato, Sara & Victoriya Trubnikova
2022. Assessing Pragmatic Skills in Speech Act Production and Perception. In Handbook of Research on Policies and Practices for Assessing Inclusive Teaching and Learning [Advances in Educational Marketing, Administration, and Leadership, ], ► pp. 211 ff. DOI logo
Cohen, Andrew D.
2020. Considerations in assessing pragmatic appropriateness in spoken language. Language Teaching 53:2 ► pp. 183 ff. DOI logo
Cohen, Andrew D.
2020. Issues in the assessment of L2 pragmatics. Lodz Papers in Pragmatics 16:1 ► pp. 15 ff. DOI logo
Gesuato, Sara & Erik Castello
2020. Assessing pragmatic aspects of L2 communication: Why, how and what for. Lodz Papers in Pragmatics 16:1 ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Kecskes, Istvan
2018. Intercultural Pragmatics. In Handbuch Pragmatik, ► pp. 140 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 28 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue