Please note: This is a new version of a previously announced book.

Insightful and cutting-edge, this research monograph examines Japanese institutional discourse and attempts to clarify the relationship between politeness, facework and speaker identity. It seeks to establish an empirically grounded analysis of facework as the basis for evaluating politeness, describing facework in delicate situations such as disagreement, teasing and talking about troubles, which have rarely been discussed in politeness studies.

Discourse and Politeness examines Japanese institutional discourse and attempts to clarify the relationship between politeness, facework and speaker identity. The book seeks to establish an empirically grounded analysis of facework as the basis for evaluating politeness, and describes facework in delicate situations such as disagreement, teasing and talking about troubles, which have rarely been discussed in politeness studies.

Insightful and cutting-edge, this research monograph will be of interest to researchers in discourse analysis, sociolinguistics and Japanese language.

'This book makes a valuable, explicit contribution to the discussion of this contentious issue. Consequently, it will be useful recommended reading in discourse analysis courses, and a valuable resource for researchers in this area, as well as for those interested in the socio-pragmatic aspects of interaction in Japanese.' Journal of Sociolinguistics, February 2009