The possibilities of pragmatic interpretation and recognition of the faux pas phenomenon depending on explicit linguistic formulation

Part 3

Authors

  • Regina Mezőlaki Szegedi Tudományegyetem, Magyar Nyelvi és Irodalmi Intézet, Általános Nyelvészeti Tanszék
  • Lívia Ivaskó Szegedi Tudományegyetem, Magyar Nyelvi és Irodalmi Intézet, Általános Nyelvészeti Tanszék

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18349/MagyarNyelv.2024.4.409

Keywords:

faux pas, intentions, mental attribution, explicitness, facework

Abstract

Faux pas (Stone et al. 1998; Varga et al. 2008; Gál 2016) is a conversational blunder with unpleasant consequences, committed by the communicator based on a false belief without offensive intent. Recognizing the commission of a blunder requires complex cognitive  processes, so both the linguistic phenomenon itself and its interpretation provide an exciting research area for the frontier areas of psychology and pragmatics. In this study, we present what the toolset of socio- and cognitive pragmatics can contribute to the investigation of this issue. During the analysis of the empirical data, we worked with the sets of concepts of face, facework (Goffman [1955] 2008), rationality and interpersonal principles (Nemesi 2016), and the relevance theoretical framework (Sperber–Wilson [1986] 1995; Ivaskó 2000; 2005). Based on the results of our research, it can be said that socio- and cognitive-pragmatic investigations help us differentiate among linguistic phenomena related to the umbrella term of faux pas and gain a more thorough understanding of the inferential and metapragmatic processes behind their recognition and interpretation.

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Published

2024-12-17