Politeness markers in French: post-posed quoi in the Tourist Office

Abstract

Post-posed quoi is traditionally stigmatized as a meaningless filler or "tic" and considered inappropriate in formal or polite speech. The usefulness of "small words" in smoothing social interaction has more recently been recognized, at least as far as English is concerned (see, for example, Hasselgren 2002), and this article aims to explore the extent to which "quoi" is employed in workplace contexts in France. Interviews in shops, Tourist Offices and professional contexts across France have been extracted for detailed study from the Bristol Corpus (1988Ϫ1990) and the Corpus de Référence du Français Parlé (2002). The data amount to a total of 524,334 words; 108,272 words and 52 speakers in the workplace context and 416,062 words and 147 speakers in the private context. Quantitative and qualitative analyses were conducted to explore the frequency and function of quoi in both contexts. Rates of usage of this stigmatized marker in workplace and professional contexts exceed rates in the "private" interviews in the corpora. The data appear to suggest that social and power differentials are bridged by the symbolic use of the markers of "camaraderie", the possessors of information downtoning their expertise in a bid to politely engage the interest and adherence of interlocutor(s).

The facework of unfinished turns in French conversation

“…Although I have translated the term 'quoi' as 'you see', this is an approximate translation, which captures only part of the work that this item accomplishes. Beeching (2006) proposes translations such as 'like', 'sort of/kind of ', 'as it were', which, to my mind, also fall short of capturing fully the work that 'quoi' does. 8.…”

Miten tutkia kohteliaisuutta? Käsityksiä suomalaisesta ja ranskalaisesta kohteliaisuudesta

“…Ranskaa koskevia toisen aallon kohteliaisuustutkimuksia on vähemmän kuin ensimmäisen aallon tutkimuksia. Beeching (2006) havaitsi, että lausuman loppuinen quoi toimii kohteliaisuuden osoituksena työpaikkakontekstissa. Claudel (2015; vertasi anteeksipyyntöjä sekä kiittämistä ranskan-ja japaninkielisissä sähköpostiviesteissä ja huomasi, että kielenkäyttöön liittyvät valinnat (esim.…”

Cultural outsiders’ evaluations of (im)politeness in Finland and in France

“…These critiques argue that the approach decontextualizes speech acts, overly focusing on the speaker's intention, creating a static view of interactions, and thus ignoring participants' interpretations and claims of universality (Grainger 2011: 169-170). One second-wave French study by Beeching (2006) argues that stigmatized, post-posed quoi functions as a politeness marker in workplace contexts. In her comparative study of French and Japanese apologies and thanks, Claudel (2015) relates personal choices (e. g., formal vs. informal language) to politeness and social obligations (e. g., rank, status) to civility.…”