CROSSCULTURAL PRAGMATICS: POLITENESS PHENOMENA IN
ENGLISH AND SPANISH
Dra. Laura Alba Juez
OBJETIVOS GENERALES DEL CURSO:
1) Comparar y contrastar la ocurrencia y la manifestación de fenómenos de índole
pragmática en inglés y en español
2) Comparar y contrastar distintos aspectos de ambas lenguas desde el punto de
vista de la Teoría de la Cortesía utilizando el modelo de Brown & Levinson
(1987) como base, además de otros estudios como los de Lakoff 1973, Leech
1983, Lavandera 1988, Bravo 1999, Fraser 1990 o Watts 2003.
3) Familiarizarse con la investigación basada en el estudio de corpus.
4) Presentar los resultados de estos estudios pragmático-discursivos basados en
corpus en un trabajo final de curso.
CONTENIDOS DEL PROGRAMA:
UNIT 1: CROSS- CULTURAL LINGUISTIC STUDIES
1.1. Introduction to the subject
1.2. The notions of language, culture and communication
1.3. Meaning and context
1.4. General discussion of the most striking cultural differences between speakers of
English and speakers of Spanish
UNIT 2: APPROACHES TO POLITENESS
2.1. Different views on Politeness (Fraser,1990)
2.2. Politeness and its relationship to the Gricean Maxims
2.3. Leech’s (1983) view of Politenesss.
2.4. Lakoff’s rules of Politeness
2.5. Brown & Levinson’s Theory of Politeness (1987):
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What is a Face Threatening Act (FTA)?
On record strategies: Positive and Negative politeness
Off record strategies: When do we go off record and why?
Strategies violating the different Gricean Maxims.
2.6. Watt’s (2003) view of politeness.
2.7. Rules of politeness in English and Spanish: Can we say that the speakers of one
language are more polite than the others? Are the strategies the same in English as
in Spanish?
UNIT 3: CORPUS LINGUISTICS
3.1. Definition of Corpus and Corpus Linguistics
3.2. Goals, methods and characteristics of the corpus-based approach
3.3. Advantages and limitations of using corpora in natural language research and
specifically, in discourse-pragmatic studies
3.4. Online corpora
3.5. A possible classification of corpora: spoken/ written, Diachronic/ synchronic,
dialect/ mixed, adult/ child English, etc.
3.6. Computer corpora and concordance programs
3.7. Ethics of data collection.
3.8. Discourse types: written/ spoken: formal/ informal; medical/ legal/
psychotherapeutic/ family, etc.; public/ private, etc.
UNIT 4: RESEARCH AND CONCLUSIONS :
4.1. Preparing the project
4.1.1.. Data collection: corpora in English and Spanish
4.1.2.. Analysis
4.1.3. Conclusions
4.2. Reporting on project work
4.2.1. Similarities and differences found
4.2.2. Possible areas in which miscommunication might occur between English and
Spanish speakers: pragmatic mismatches.
4.2.3. Application of the findings of these studies to language teaching: How to avoid
misunderstandings and miscommunication between English and Spanish
speakers.