Dialogue in and between Different Cultures - International ...

118 Gabriel Dorta
individual’s own cognitive schemata leads to an interpretation of that behaviour
as appropriate and as part of the ritual order needed in each communicative
exchange. If some linguistic elements used in the participants’ contributions
exceed what is expected in the respective communicative situation, i.e. if such
contributions represent a salient communicative behaviour, those utterances are
then discordant with the own cognitive schemata related with similar communicative
situations. They will be open to interpretations as (im)polite on the part of
some participants.
This perspective of analysis leaves no place for the classification of specific
linguistic structures as inherently (im)polite. Since the cognitive schemata may
vary from one participant to the other, the interpretation of an utterance as
(im)polite can also change. This raises the questions about what the ritual order of
chat communication is and which linguistic behaviour could be considered as
salient.
3.2 Ritual order in chat communication
The chats’ non-committal frame and the above described particularities of the
medium (the possibility of logging out of the chat-room without giving any reason
for not continuing the interaction, the participants’ relative anonymity, the speed
of the information exchange and the construction of constellations of chatters that
interact almost simultaneously) can be considered as part of this ritual order
characteristic for chats. These aspects are part of the chatters’ cognitive schemata
and play a fundamental role in managing each communicative situation and interpreting
participants’ utterances.
As it was mentioned before, the speed of the communicative exchange is one
of the reasons for chatters sending short and concise contributions. This could
imply that the use of linguistic elements considered in many approaches as
inherently polite would indicate more elaborated contributions in chats, which
should therefore be interpreted as polite. That could apply to some circumstances
in chat communication. The expression of politeness in the medium should
nevertheless not be reduced to that. The object of the study must rather be based
on what Eelen (2001:35) designates as classificatory politeness, which “covers
hearers’ judgements (in actual interaction) of other people’s interactional
behaviour as ‘polite’ or ‘impolite’”.
3.3 Salient communicative behaviour in chats
Within the non-committal frame and the unstable character of the participants’
social relationships, it is not expected that all chatters who interact nearly
simultaneously and in different constellations respond to all messages addressed
to them, irrespective of the fact that they were more or less elaborated. Specific
responses with a relative high degree of elaboration represent nevertheless salient
communicative behaviour which exceeds participants’ expectations in the actual
interaction. Through these responses, the non-committal frame of chats is