Abstract
Interest in non-academic ways of understanding of im/politeness has so far been evident primarily in analyses of the sequential development of real-life interactions. However, understandings of im/politeness can be found in other sources such as related articles in on-line newspapers and their ensuing comments. The main aim of this paper is to contribute to this rather neglected area in im/politeness research, thus placing emphasis on the underexplored societal rather than individual level of im/politeness. The data to be investigated comes from two on-line articles and the comments they received. The articles appeared in a popular Greek free press on-line newspaper, LIFO, in 2014 and 2017 and were written by the same journalist. Both articles and ensuing comments express lay understandings of impoliteness and are discussed in the paper in terms of van Dijk’s (1998, 2006a, b) ideological discourse analysis and ‘ideological square’ that revolves around positive self-presentation and negative other-presentation. In exploring understandings of impoliteness in this context, we identified two emerging social identities, those of ‘polite’ and ‘impolite citizen’, dynamically co-constructed as binary opposites by the journalist and posters involved. Despite the fact that on-line newspaper articles and their accompanying comments reflect stereotypical thinking, they also depict pervasive views and are worth exploring because they concern the societal level of im/politeness.
Highlights
Discursive approaches to im/politeness have suggested a distinction between lay understandings of politeness or ‘first order’ politeness and politeness as a theoretical construct or ‘second order’ politeness
The data that will serve as the source of our discussion comes from two on-line articles written by the same journalist and dealing with the issue of impoliteness, and the comments following these publications
In this paper, we will focus on lay understandings of impoliteness in Greek found in two on-line articles and ensuing comments referring to this topic and hope to show the significance of such understandings for the construction and maintenance of social group identities vis-à-vis im/politeness
Summary
Discursive approaches to im/politeness have suggested a distinction between lay understandings of politeness or ‘first order’ politeness and politeness as a theoretical construct or ‘second order’ politeness. Despite the fact that over the years it has become clear that such a straightforward dichotomy is difficult to maintain, it has triggered academic interest in non-academic understandings of politeness and impoliteness which, as has been argued, should receive more attention in im/politeness research Among various sources, such understandings can be found in articles and ensuing comments in on-line newspapers dealing explicitly with issues of im/politeness. Even though there is a plethora of publications on on-line reader comments and impoliteness, what, to the best of our knowledge, has not received much attention are metadiscourses that deal explicitly with the concept of im/politeness in both the articles and the comments and with the lack of politeness shown to (usually unknown) others in public encounters Such impoliteness metapragmatic comments are “articulations of prescriptive rules concerning behaviours in the light of particular social norms” (Culpeper 2011: 73) “or more broadly ideologies” (Haugh 2007: 307). In this paper, we will focus on lay understandings of impoliteness in Greek found in two on-line articles and ensuing comments referring to this topic and hope to show the significance of such understandings for the construction and maintenance of social group identities vis-à-vis im/politeness
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
