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Article published In: Pragmatics and Society
Vol. 8:1 (2017) ► pp.61–84

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The impact of face systems on the pragmalinguistic features of academic e-mail requests

 | University of Reading, UK
Published online: 25 April 2017
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https://doi.org/10.1075/ps.8.1.04asl
Abstract
This study investigates the impact of power/distance (PD) variables operationalized as face systems on the pragmalinguistic features of academic e-mail requests. A corpus of 90 academic e-mails was classified into four face system groups: hierarchical (sender +P), hierarchical (recipient +P), deference, and solidarity. Request perspectives, strategies, and mitigating supportive moves were analyzed. The analysis revealed that the speaker and hearer dominance were the most frequent request perspectives in the hierarchical (recipient+P) and deference groups. The impersonal perspective was more common in the hierarchical (sender+P) group. The preparatory was the dominant request strategy in all groups, relatively more frequent in the hierarchical (recipient+P) and deference groups. The most common supportive move was the grounder, which occurred more frequently than other supportive moves. The findings of the study indicate that face systems influence the request patterns in academic e-mail communication. The study has implications for future research on pragmatics of computer-mediated communication (CMC).
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Review of literature
  • 3.Theoretical framework
    • 3.1Face systems
    • 3.2The CCSARP project and the speech act of request
  • 4.Methodology
    • 4.1E-mail corpus
    • 4.2Data analysis
  • 5.Results
    • 5.1Request perspectives
    • 5.2Request strategies
    • 5.3Request mitigating supportive moves
  • 6.Discussion
  • 7.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
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