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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.
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