Requests and Culture: Politeness in British English and Japanese
Saeko Fukushima
Peter Lang
Requests and Culture
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Saeko Fukushima
Requests and Culture Politeness in British English and Japanese
PETER LANG Bern Berlin Bruxelles Frankfurt am Main New York • Oxford • Wien •
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Bibliographic information published by Die Deutsche Bibliothek Die Deutsche Bibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is available on the Internet at ‹http://dnb.ddb.de›. British Library and Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data: A catalogue record for this book is available from The British Library, Great Britain, and from The Library of Congress, USA
Cover design: Thomas Jaberg, Peter Lang AG
ISBN 3-03910-045-9 US-ISBN 0-8204-6851-7
3rd printing, 2003
© Peter Lang AG, European Academic Publishers, Bern 2000, 2002, 2003 Hochfeldstrasse 32, Postfach 746, CH-3000 Bern 9
[email protected], www.peterlang.com, www.peterlang.net All rights reserved. All parts of this publication are protected by copyright. Any utilisation outside the strict limits of the copyright law, without the permission of the publisher, is forbidden and liable to prosecution. This applies in particular to reproductions, translations, microfilming, and storage and processing in electronic retrieval systems. Printed in Germany
To the memory of my father
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Acknowledgements
I would like to thank many people who have supported me, encouraged me and helped me in many ways. First of all, I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to Ronald V. White, my supervisor, since this is based on my Ph.D. thesis. He has shown a deep understanding to my work and has never failed to help me. I was inspired by his stimulating discussion and trained to put my thought into words by his strict attitude on writing style. Similarly, I would like to express my deep appreciation to Kenneth P. Turner, who has been supportive and has encouraged me to publish my work. I also would like to give my special thanks to Hansmartin Zimmermann, who has been always on my side and has helped me to make my work go out into the world. My gratitude from the bottom of my heart also goes to Mami Kasai, who has always guided me with her great love. I also would like to thank all the people who contributed to my work in giving data.
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Table of Contents
List of Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 List of Figures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 CHAPTER 1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 1.1. 1.2. 1.3. 1.4.
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Contextualising This Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Structure of This Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
CHAPTER 2 Politeness Theories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 2.1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 2.2. Definitions of Politeness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 2.3. Four Views of Politeness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .