| dc.description.abstract | The aim of this thesis is to examine personal pronominal
reference in two lang1;5ges, French and Spanish, from an
interactional perspective. Brown and Levinson's (1978,
1987) 'Politeness theory' seeks to provide an explanation
for much of the mismatch between what is 'said' and what
Is 'implicated' in spoken discourse. One area of speech
where this mismatch is particularly evident is that of
personal reference where extralinguistic information is
paramount in its use and interpretation. While previous
approaches to this area have sought to assign one
interpretation to a given pronominal use, this study seeks
to show how speakers and hearers can exploit a
multiplicity of potential values in the interest of faceprotection.
Based on 5 qualitative methodology derived
from the field of linguistic pragmatics applied to a
corpus of naturally-oc:urring data of speech situations
where there is threat to the face of speakers and hearers,
this study will argue that the contextual factors of power
and status as well as a knowledge of linguistic politeness
itself are of crucial :mportance in the use and
interpretation of persmal reference. | |
