Understanding Historical (Im)Politeness: Relational linguistic practice over time and across cultures(41 Benjamins Current Topics)

Exploring a largely uncharted territory of cultural history and linguistic ethnography, Understanding Historical (Im)Politeness offers in-depth analyses and perceptive interpretations of the conveyance of social-relational meaning in times (long) past and across historical cultures. A collection of essays from the pens of authoritative historical (pragma)-linguistics researchers, the volume examines the forms and functions of historical (im)politeness, varying from single utterances and act sequences to fully-fledged (im)polite speech encounters and genres, with a focus on their period- and culture-bound appraisal. What is more, the book sheds light on what is still very dimly seen: diachronic trends in ‘relational work’ and the cultural-societal factors behind patterns of sociopragmatic change. The volume reviews theoretical concepts, methods and analytical approaches to improve our present-day understanding of the historical understanding of relational practices of the distant as well as the more recent past. Since it includes newly established themes and positions and breaks new ground, this collection furthers considerably the field of historical (im)politeness research. This volume was originally published as a special issue of Journal of Historical Pragmatics 12:1/2 (2011).

Table of Contents:
1. Articles; 2. The historical understanding of historical (im)politeness: Introduction (by Bax, Marcel); 3. 'Face' across historical cultures: A comparative study of Turkish and Chinese (by Ruhi, Sukriye); 4. Nineteenth-century English politeness: Negative politeness, conventional indirect requests and the rise of the individual self (by Culpeper, Jonathan); 5. "[T]his most unnecessary, unjust, and disgraceful war": Attacks on the Madison Administration in Federalist newspapers during the War of 1812 (by Rudanko, Juhani); 6. A socio-cognitive approach to historical politeness (by Watts, Richard J.); 7. From good manners to facework: Politeness variations and constants in France, from the classic age to today (by Kerbrat-Orecchioni, Catherine); 8. "Tumbled into the dirt": Wit and incivility in early modern England (by Withington, Phil); 9. Positive and negative face as descriptive categories in the history of English (by Jucker, Andreas H.); 10. Insults, violence, and the meaning of lytegian in the Old English Battle of Maldon (by Pakis, Valentine A.); 11. Understanding Anglo-Saxon "politeness": Directive constructions with ic wille / ic wolde (by Kohnen, Thomas); 12. An evolutionary take on (im)politeness: Three broad developments in the marking out of socio-proxemic space (by Bax, Marcel); 13. Notes on Contributors; 14. Index

Review :
Politeness research has bloomed recently, not least due to the influx of many non-European oriented studies (compare Sachiko Ide’s or Penny Brown & Steve Levinson’s trailblazing investigations). The crux of the matter is in the nature of (im)politeness, succinctly put in the apparent oxymoron: Politeness is not always polite! The ways (im)politeness has been handled cross-historically can help us understand better why this seemingly universal characteristic of human behavior is so full of mysteries. A superficial, ‘thin’ comparison of politeness behaviors across cultures can give us very few clues; Bax & Kádár’s collection of studies plugs the gap by offering select interpretations of various historic contexts in a ‘thick’ description that takes into account all of the social, cultural and historically relevant aspects of the problem. The collection is a true treasure trove for politeness researchers and linguistic-anthropologically interested readers alike. The edited volume “Understanding Historical (Im)Politeness” is a substantial contribution to the now rapidly growing body of research in the field, exploring the less travelled road of diachronic pragmatic research on (im)politeness. [...] The broad historical range, the various methodological approaches to politeness and impoliteness, the combination of rich historical data and high-level theoretical discussions make this volume appropriate for researchers and advanced students. The book will be of interest to historical linguists, pragmatists, sociolinguists, anthropologists and other professionals interested in the topic of politeness, both as a first-order and second-order term, as well as to those working on impoliteness, ritual insults, and related topics. All this said, “Understanding Historical (Im)Politeness” is certainly a valuable contribution to the field of politeness research and opens new directions for exploration of a vast and fascinating topic. For once a collection of essays fulfills the promise of its title! Collectively, the essays edited by Bax and Kádár make a major contribution to the understanding of a topic in which both linguists and historians have been showing increasing interest in the last few years. Ranging from prehistory to our own time and from England to China, the contributors go beyond the classic study of politeness by Brown and Levinson in their concern with both cultural variation and cultural change.