New Perspectives on (Im)Politeness and Interpersonal Communication gathers eleven studies by prominent scholars, which explore issues related to (im)politeness in human communication. The study of linguistic (im)politeness is undoubtedly one of the central concerns in the field of pragmatics, as attested to by the numerous conferences and journals currently dedicated to the topic, the various theoretical models and approaches developed or developing so far, and the seemingly endless list of insightful and inspiring empirical studies tackling the topic from a wide variety of angles. This volume contributes to the subfield of social pragmatics by putting together works that review the state of the art of (im)politeness studies, analysing (im)politeness in media contexts like the Internet or dubbed films and other contexts, looking into the effects and consequences of some speech acts for social interaction, drawing implications for language teaching, and approaching some of the linguistic mechanisms which help to communicate (im)politeness. Resulting from the efforts made by specialists in the field, the chapters in this volume offer additional evidence that examining the complexity of interpersonal communication from different standpoints can benefit a more complete understanding of social interaction in general. Their scope and practical applications demonstrate the transversality and versatility of interpersonal communication. The editors hope that these works will retain scholars' interest and attention for some time to come and spark off further research.
The editors are members of the research group, Intercultural Pragmatic Studies (English-Spanish): Pragmatic and Discourse Aspects (P. A. I. HUM 640). Among their publications are Current Trends in Intercultural, Cognitive and Social Pragmatics (Intercultural Pragmatic Studies, 2004), Studies in Intercultural, Cognitive and Social Pragmatics (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2007) and Pragmatics Applied to Language Teaching and Learning (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2009). They also are the organisers of the International Symposium on Intercultural, Cognitive and Social Pragmatics (E. P. I. C. S., after the Spanish acronym). Lucia Fernandez Amaya is a Lecturer in English at the Department of Philology and Translation, Pablo de Olavide University, Seville. She holds a PhD in English Linguistics from the University of Seville. She currently co-ordinates the research group SETIC (Service Encounters, Tourism and Intercultural Communication). Her research interests and publications focus on pragmatics and translation, sociopragmatics (politeness), interlanguage and cross-cultural pragmatics, discourse analysis, teaching pragmatics to ESL learners and intercultural communication in service encounters. Reyes Gomez Moron is a Lecturer at the Department of Philology and Translation, Pablo de Olavide University, Seville. She holds a PhD in English Linguistics from the University of Seville. She currently co-ordinates the research group Intercultural Pragmatic Studies (English-Spanish): Pragmatic and Discourse Aspects. Her research interests and publications focus on pragmatics and teaching English and Spanish as second language, sociopragmatics (politeness), cross-cultural pragmatics, and discourse analysis. Maria de la O Hernandez Lopez is a Lecturer at the Department of Philology and Translation, Pablo de Olavide University, Seville. She holds a PhD in English Linguistics (Cross-Cultural Pragmatics) from Pablo de Olavide University and an MA in Applied Linguistics from Birkbeck College, London. Her research interests focus on cross-cultural and intercultural communication, intercultural communication in service encounters and professional contexts, the relationship between language and power, the development of interpersonal skills, negotiation in international institutions and conflict management. Manuel Mejias Borrero is a Lecturer at the Department of Philology and Translation, Pablo de Olavide University, Seville; his PhD in English Linguistics is also from this institution. He teaches phonetics and pragmatics to international students at the International Center of this University as well. His research interests and publications focus on pragmatic markers, Spanish phonetics and political discourse analysis. Manuel Padilla Cruz is currently Associate Professor of English Linguistics at the Department of English Language, University of Seville. He holds a PhD in English Linguistics from the University of Seville. His research interests and publications deal mainly with cognitive and social pragmatics (relevance theory and politeness theory, respectively). He has also made research in historical, interlanguage, instructional and cross-cultural pragmatics. Mariana Relinque Barranca is a Lecturer at the Department of Philology and Translation, Pablo de Olavide University, Seville. She also teaches translation studies at the Council of International Education Exchange and works as a free-lance translator as well. Her research interests focus on intercultural communication and legal translation.
