Rethinking linguistic interpretation

Abstract

Introduction This chapter is concerned with general problems with linguistic interpretation. This concern has arisen because of the problematic models often used by linguists implicitly when they discuss speakers and hearers nd their agency, and the problems associated with the way data are collected, analysed, and interpreted in linguistic research in general. Because of my interdisciplinary work in literary theory and post-colonial theory, where many Cultural Analysts scrutinise carefully the foundational elements in their research work, I have found difficulty with the common-sense models used in linguistics when approaching the analysis of data. Literary and cultural theory have, since the 1970s, questioned issues such as intentionality, interpretation, agency, and the role of the critic/analyst, and have become more cautious or sceptical than many linguists in making claims about the status of their analysis (Kendall and Wickham, 1999). Many linguists, however, have made problematic claims for the status of their own work and the generalisability of their findings. Many of the problems that I will be discussing in chapter 2, in analysing politeness, are problems encountered by linguistic research in general, and therefore I deal with these general problems in this chapter before going on to assess the more specific problems faced in linguistic models of politeness. Here, I examine the types of assumptions which are implicit in a range of different linguistic sub-disciplines (for example: Discourse Analysis, Critical Linguistics and Critical Discourse Analysis, sociolinguistics, Conversation Analysis, pragmatics, social psychology, and ethnography), in order critically to examine the models and methodologies which they use and the difficulties which I feel are entailed in their use.