Directness and Indirectness Across Cultures

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-ix

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2. Introduction: Language, Culture, (Im)politeness and (In)directness

   • Karen Grainger, Sara Mills

   Pages 1-33

3. Theoretical Perspectives on Indirectness

   • Karen Grainger, Sara Mills

   Pages 34-50

4. Theoretical Perspectives on Directness

   • Karen Grainger, Sara Mills

   Pages 51-73

5. Zimbabwean English and British English: A Case Study of Directness and Indirectness Across Cultures

   • Karen Grainger, Sara Mills

   Pages 74-101

6. Situated Directness and Indirectness: Monolingual English Speakers

   • Karen Grainger, Sara Mills

   Pages 102-121

7. Linguistic Ideologies: Bilingual Speakers’ Evaluations of Indirectness and Directness

   • Karen Grainger, Sara Mills

   Pages 122-148

8. Conclusions

   • Karen Grainger, Sara Mills

   Pages 149-158

9. Back Matter

   Pages 159-177

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This book analyses the complex relationship between directness, indirectness, politeness and impoliteness. Definitions of directness and indirectness are discussed and problematised from a discursive theoretical perspective.

• Directness
• indirectness
• discursive theoretical approach
• interactional sociolinguistics
• politeness
• impoliteness
• intercultural communication
• communication
• interaction
• sociolinguistics
• discourse analysis

“This book provides a deeper analysis of the existence of ‘variability within cultures’ … . It adds both to the understanding of politeness and its relationship with directness and indirectness, such that each ‘linguistic community decides what they see as sophisticated’ and which politeness strategies they interpret as polite or impolite … .” (Silvia Pisabarro Sarrió, Language in Society, Vol. 46 (4), September, 2017)

• Sheffield Hallam University, UK

  Karen Grainger, Sara Mills

Karen Grainger is a Principal Lecturer in English Language and Linguistics at Sheffield Hallam University, UK. She researches language use and interaction in institutional, intercultural and electronic contexts. She has published in the areas of health care, intercultural communication and educational sociolinguistics. She is editor-in-chief of the Journal of Politeness Research.

Sara Mills is Research Professor in Linguistics at Sheffield Hallam University, UK. She has published in the areas of feminist linguistics and politeness theory. Her publications include Gender and Politeness (2003), Politeness in East Asia (co-authored, 2011), Language and Sexism (2008), Language Gender and Feminism (co-authored, 2012), and Gender Representation in an International Context (co-authored, 2015).

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