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The 'Research Problem'
Introduction
Comparative research of English and German discourse has
identified a number of salient ways in which German and English speakers
differ in their communicative style. Studies have focused on an array of
different data which includes both textual materials, (e. g. Snell-Hornby
1984; Evans 1998; Clyne 1987; Luchtenberg 1994; Krenn 1991;
Kienpointer and Kindt 1997; Pufahl 1992) and spoken interaction (e. g.
Blum-Kulka and House 1989; Byrnes 1986; Fetzer 1996,1997; Friday
1994; Hellweg, Samovar, and Skow 1994; House 1979,1982a, 1982b,
1982c, 1989; House and Kasper 1981; Kotthoff 1989,1991,1993,1994;
Straehle 1997; and Watts 1989). What these studies have shown is that
German and English speakers differ along a range of communicative
parameters, which include such things as levels of directness in realising
speech acts, varying focus on one's own or one's interlocutors' concerns
in communicative exchanges, interpersonal versus ideational concerns
emphasis in talk, and the avoidance or pursuit of conflictual conversation.
Fundamentally, what many of these studies suggest is that the
Germans and the English, across a range of discourse practices, engage
in differing levels of facework (Goffman 1967; Brown and Levinson 1987),
that is, the communicative practices engaged in to recognise and support
either one's own or one's interlocutor's face needs. However, although the
concept of face is often drawn upon in studies addressing German -
English differences in communicative style, it is very often employed only
cursorily. In fact, there exist to date no sustained systematic comparative
study of facework in the two cultures. This study seeks to do exactly that -
to address German and English differences in communicative style as
cultural variations
in facework.
Although the term face and facework have effectively nowadays
become incorporated into common parlance, within discourse studies the
terms refer to quite precise conceptual i sations and communicative
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