CONSIDERING (IM)POLITENESS STRATEGIES IN INTERNET RELAY CHAT OPENING SEQUENCES Cover Image

CONSIDERING (IM)POLITENESS STRATEGIES IN INTERNET RELAY CHAT OPENING SEQUENCES
CONSIDERING (IM)POLITENESS STRATEGIES IN INTERNET RELAY CHAT OPENING SEQUENCES

Author(s): Šárka Hastrdlová
Subject(s): Pragmatics, Sociolinguistics, Theory of Communication, ICT Information and Communications Technologies
Published by: Masarykova univerzita nakladatelství
Keywords: opening strategies; politeness theory of Watts; politeness; impoliteness; appropriateness; efficiency;

Summary/Abstract: Certain rules are observed taking place during conversation openings in a synchronous Internet Relay Chat (IRC) interaction. It is recognized that through openings a chat participant gives the main impression and positive or negative signal to other participants in a chatroom. However, it is assumed that opening techniques known from face-to-face communication will play a smaller role in the overall interaction and their violation will not be viewed so sternly. The question thus remains whether politeness/impoliteness strategies on IRC differ from those in a standard face-to-face conversation and what counts as polite/impolite in a chatroom. The politeness theory of Watts (2003) has been chosen for its novel approach. The article briefly outlines a body of research carried out in IRC openings and shows results of the analysis of various methods of openings found in the corpus.

  • Issue Year: 4/2011
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 5-21
  • Page Count: 17
  • Language: English