Face and (im)politeness in aviation English: The pragmatics of radiotelephony communications

Abstract

Aviation English (AE) used for radiotelephony (R/T) communications is a highly restricted English mandated to maximize accuracy, conciseness, and clarity, thus contributing to air safety. While specific phraseology is commonly used with prescribed syntax and discourse organization, in non-routine situations, clear and concise “plain aviation English” is also employed, allowing negotiation of (im)politeness to emerge. While R/T communications have recently been investigated empirically in relation to its instruction and testing, pragmatic concerns have been under-researched. This study explores how (im)politeness is negotiated in R/T communications and how aviation specialists jointly fulfill their transactional and interactional needs. Three excerpts were selected from different repositories of aviation English, and discursive construction of face and (im)politeness were analyzed within each aviation context. Additionally, four pilots with a range of experience were interviewed for expert interpretation of the excerpts with their interpretation informing the researchers’. The findings revealed complex ways in which the interactants discursively engaged in facework in an attempt to fulfill their transactional and relational needs. The effectiveness of the relational language was driven by affordances and constraints within each local aviation context.