Audience Demand in Father-Son Argumentation across Generations

Authors

  • Lina Laith Younus University of Baghdad/ College of Education for Women/ Department of English

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.31973/aj.v0i134.737

Keywords:

Argumentative discourse, audience demand, Politeness theory, and father-son argumentation

Abstract

     Language has a valuable role in shaping the type of relationships between arguers. The use of language is like double-edged sword in the hand of fathers to shape their type of relationship with their sons. Father-son argumentation could be the real source of increasing a social distance and building barriers between them. The current paper aims at answering the questions whether the social distance between fathers and sons have changed between the past and present? And have old fathers been changed to share their sons’ common ground and wants?

     The great difference between the old and present fathers is examined in the two novels characterized by a father-son relationship theme namely; “East of Eden” 1952 by John Stainbeck and “The Road” 2006 by Corman McCarthy. The researcher aims at shedding light on the type of relationship between old and present fathers with their sons reflected on their argumentation, how they care about each other face and how much they achieve the audience demand in their argumentation by applying Penelope Brown and Stephen C. Levinson (1978) theory of politeness.

    It is founded that present fathers have more positive choices in their argumentative politeness strategies whereas old fathers go bald on record by their use of continuous orders, criticism and sometimes insult. Finally, it is concluded that the more audience demand is fulfilled, the less father-son social distance will take place.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Brown, P. & Levinson, S. (1987). Politeness: Some universals in language usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Eelen, G. (2001). A Critique of Politeness Theories. London: St. Jerome Publishing.

Emeren F.H. van & Grootendorst, R. (2004). A Systematic Theory of Argumentation: The pragma-dialectical approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Emeren F.H. van (2010). Strategic Maneuvering in Argumentative Discourse: Extending the pragma-dialectical theory of argumentation. United States of America: John Benjamins Publishing Co.

Emeren, F.H. Van & Houtlosser P. (1999). Strategic maneuvering in argumentative discourse. Discourse Studies. Vol.1, no.4 p.p. 479-497

Emeren, F.H. Van & Houtlosser P. (2002). Strategic maneuvering in argumentative discourse: Maintaining a delicate balance. In Dialectic and Rhetoric. The warp and woof of argumentative analysis ed. F.H. van Emeren and P. Houtlosser 131-159. Dordrecht: Kluwer

Emeren, F.H. Van & Houtlosser P. (2006). Strategic Maneuvering: A Sythetic Recapitulation. Argumenation vol.20, no.4 P.p. 381-392

Goffmann, E. (1967). On face-work An analysis of ritual elements in social interaction. In Interactional ritual. Essays on face to face behavior, ed. E. Goffmann, 5-45. Nueva York: Anchor Books.

Grice, H. P. (1975). Logic and Conversation. In P. Cole, & J. L. Morgan. (Eds.), Syntax and Semantics, Vol. 3, Speech Acts (pp. 41-58). New York: Academic Press.

Lakoff, R (1990). Talking Power. New York: Basic Books

Lakoff, R. (1973). The logic of politeness: Or, minding your p’s and q’s. In C. Corum, T. Cedric Smith-Stark, & A. Weiser (Eds.), Papers from the 9th Regional Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society. Chicago Linguistic Society, 292-305.

McCarthy, C. (2006). The Road. Canada: Random House of Canada limited Toronto

Steinbeck, J. (1952). East of Eden. United States of America: The Viking Press

Downloads

Published

2020-09-15

Issue

Section

English linguistics and literature

How to Cite

Audience Demand in Father-Son Argumentation across Generations. (2020). Al-Adab Journal, 134, 13-40. https://doi.org/10.31973/aj.v0i134.737

Publication Dates

Similar Articles

1-10 of 311

You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.