Speech Acts Bibliography:
Giving Embarrassing Information
Beebe, L. M. & Takahashi, T. (1989). Sociolinguistic variation in face-threatening speech acts: Chastisement and disagreement. In M. R. Eisenstein (Ed.), The dynamic interlanguage: Empirical studies in second language variation (pp. 199-218). NY: Plenum.
Studies data collected on disagreement and chastisement in American and Japanese performance -- both natural speech collected in notebooks and through a discourse completion test/written role-play questionnaire (15 Americans, 15 Japanese intermediate ESL students). The study arrived at seven conclusions, many of which are contrary to cross-cultural expectations: Americans are not always more direct or explicit than Japanese, Japanese are not always avoiding disagreement or critical remarks (especially to lower status person) or apologizing more. Both groups used questions to function as a warning, in order to correct, to indicate disagreement, to chastise, and to convey embarrassing information, but questions by Americans and Japanese were seen to be significantly different in tone and content. Americans used positive remarks more frequently and in more places than did the Japanese.