Negotiating Politeness In Intercultural Communication: A Study Of Pakistani And Polish Interaction

Abstract

The act of politeness (or impoliteness) being an important aspect in any kind of interaction, this study aims to explore how politeness is achieved in intercultural communication. This aim is achieved by analysing the naturally occurring conversation between Pakistani and Polish participants: the two very different cultures. Pakistani and Polish cultures, being Asian and European or Eastern and Western cultures respectively, with former representing collectivistic and the latter, individualistic society, are very different from one another and serves as an appropriate choice for this study. The data has been analysed using conversational analysis (CA) to study how turn-taking is organised in everyday interaction. However, Lakoff’s rules of politeness have been adapted as the basic framework for the analysis of politeness. Conclusions and implications have been drawn based on the study’s findings.