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Abstract

This paper analyses postings made by student applicants on Korean online communities about how best to handle interactions with potential future PhD supervisors at UK universities. The questions they posed reveal the lack of relevant contextual information they experienced, especially around the rights and obligations of supervisors. This paper thus analyses students’ metapragmatic comments and argues for greater attention to be paid within interpersonal and intercultural pragmatics to interactional goals and conceptions of role relations, especially the rights and obligations associated with them. The analysis has revealed that background information on role relations is of great importance for relational management and communication planning in high stakes intercultural interaction. This suggests that potential cultural variation in the perceived rights and obligations associated with a given role (in this case, PhD supervisor) and their implications for assessments of role relations are of central concern.

ABSTRACTThis case study focuses on the processes of adaptation that an Erasmus student, Angela, experienced during her study abroad period. The longitudinal study explores how she coped over time with the various adaptation demands that she faced in the different aspects of her life: social–personal aspects (friends and social life, daily life, language for socialisation) and academic aspects (courses, administrative issues, language for academic purposes). The data gathered involved pre-departure and post return interviews, weekly ‘diary-tables’ and monthly interviews while abroad. The findings show that Angela's adaptive journey followed noticeably different trends in the personal and academic domains of her life, demonstrating clearly how adaptation can evolve at different speeds in these different domains, and can result in ups and downs throughout the sojourn. Even an aspect such as language was perceived differently in the two overarching domains. Further research is needed in order to identify whether there are more generalised patterns within these various domains, or whether the patterns are always subject to significant individual and contextual variation. Moreover, further qualitative research is needed in order to understand the reasons that lie behind the ups and downs, and the extent to which they seem to be idiosyncratic or predictable.Il presente articolo riporta un caso di studio e si concentra sui processi di adattamento di una studentessa Erasmus, Angela, durante il suo periodo di studio all'estero. Si tratta di uno studio longitudinale che esplora l'adattamento di Angela in base a diversi aspetti della sua vita: gli aspetti socio-personali (gli amici e la vita sociale, la vita quotidiana, il linguaggio della socializzazione) e gli aspetti accademici (i corsi, le questioni amministrative e quelle legate alla lingua per scopi accademici). I risultati mostrano che l'adattamento di Angela segue andamenti diversi nell'ambito personali e in quello accademico, e si evolve a velocità differenti in questi diversi ambiti, con ‘alti e bassi’ durante l'intero soggiorno. Anche un aspetto come la lingua è stato percepito in modo differente a seconda che l'ambito fosse personale o accademico. Ulteriori ricerche su un gruppo più ampio di partecipanti consentirebbero di verificare se ci sono andamenti più generalizzati all'interno di questi vari domini, o se gli andamenti sono comunque sempre soggetti a significative variazioni individuali e contestuali. Permetterebbero altresì di comprendere le ragioni che stanno dietro gli ‘alti e bassi’ all'interno degli ambiti considerati, e la misura in cui cambiamenti di umore e prospettiva siano idiosincratici o prevedibili.

Evaluation is an important aspect of (im)politeness, and this article explores it from an interdisciplinary perspective. It starts by considering the East–West debate in politeness theory and argues that both emic and etic approaches to research can contribute usefully to the deliberations. It then maintains that, if we are to understand the impact of culture on people’s (im)politeness evaluations, we need to unpack the concept more thoroughly. It proposes that useful insights can be obtained from Haidt’s (e.g. Haidt & Kesebir, 2010) work on moral foundations and Schwartz’s (e.g. Schwartz et al., 2012) work on basic values. The article ends by revisiting the East–West debate, discussing the potential impact of other factors such as beliefs and ideologies, and noting the ongoing uncertainties over levels and links between the various concepts explored. It urges pragmaticists and psychologists to engage more fully with each other to help address these challenges.

The concept of ‘mindfulness’ is increasingly used in the intercultural literature and yet so far it is largely just a heterogeneous construct with underspecified theoretical content. In this paper we draw on multidisciplinary perspectives to address this shortcoming and develop an integrated analysis of this important construct. We relate ‘mindfulness’ explicitly to the Relevance-theoretic concept of “manifestness”, and we incorporate insights from the psychology of motivation. We use extracts of authentic intercultural interactions to help explain and illustrate our arguments.