1887
  1. Home
  2. e-Journals
  3. Pragmatics & Cognition
  4. Volume 32, Issue 2
  5. Article
Volume 32, Issue 2
  • ISSN 0929-0907
  • E-ISSN: 1569-9943
USD
Buy:$35.00 + Taxes

Abstract

Abstract

In everyday communication, criticisms are important and commonly occurring face-threatening acts. In this paper, we investigate the way people deal with criticisms by conducting two experiments in French involving the production of, and response to, criticisms using a written Discourse Completion Test. In each experiment, we presented participants with scenarios in which we manipulated power relations (equal vs. hierarchical) and horizontal social distance (close or distant). We also assessed the roles of age and gender of the participants. Results indicate that power and distance significantly impact the formulation of criticisms but not that of responses to criticisms. Similarly, age and gender significantly interacted in the formulation of criticisms, with younger women being less direct, but older women being more direct compared to men. No effect was found on responses to criticisms. Taken together, these findings provide a more comprehensive perspective of the factors affecting the production of, and response to, criticisms from an experimental perspective, thus contributing to our understanding of this pivotal but understudied speech act.

© 2025 John Benjamins Publishing Company
Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1075/pc.24004.ber
2025-11-13
2025-12-04

  • From This Site

    /content/journals/10.1075/pc.24004.ber
    dcterms_title,dcterms_subject,pub_keyword
    -contentType:Journal -contentType:Contributor -contentType:Concept -contentType:Institution
    10
    5
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Abels, Monika, Andrew Kilale & Paul Vogt
    2021 Speech acts addressed to Hadza infants in Tanzania: Cross-cultural comparison, speaker age, and camp livelihood. First Language41(3). 294–313. 10.1177/0142723720972000
     https://doi.org/10.1177/0142723720972000 [Google Scholar]
  2. Austin, John
    1962 How to do things with words. London: Oxford University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  3. Bates, Douglas, Martin Maechler, Ben Bolker & Steve Walker
    2015 Fitting linear mixed-effects models using lme4. Journal of Statistical Software67(1). 1–48. 10.18637/jss.v067.i01
     https://doi.org/10.18637/jss.v067.i01 [Google Scholar]
  4. Blum-Kulka, Shoshana
    1987 Indirectness and politeness in requests: Same or different?Journal of Pragmatics11(2). 131–146. 10.1016/0378‑2166(87)90192‑5
     https://doi.org/10.1016/0378-2166(87)90192-5 [Google Scholar]
  5. Brown, Penelope & Stephen Levinson
    1987 Politeness. Some universals in language usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/CBO9780511813085
     https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511813085 [Google Scholar]
  6. Chen, Yuan-shan, Chun-yin Doris Chen & Miao-Hsia Chang
    2011 American and Chinese complaints: Strategy use from a cross-cultural perspective. Intercultural Pragmatics8(2). 253–275. 10.1515/iprg.2011.012
     https://doi.org/10.1515/iprg.2011.012 [Google Scholar]
  7. Cohen, Andrew D. & Elite Olshtain
    1993 The production of speech acts by EFL learners. Tesol Quarterly27(1). 33–56. 10.2307/3586950
     https://doi.org/10.2307/3586950 [Google Scholar]
  8. Culpeper, Jonathan, Michael Haugh & Dániel Z. Kádár
    2017 The Palgrave handbook of linguistic (im)politeness. London: Palgrave Macmillan. 10.1057/978‑1‑137‑37508‑7
     https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-37508-7 [Google Scholar]
  9. Decock, Sofie & Anneleen Spiessens
    2017 Customer complaints and disagreements in a multilingual business environment: A discursive-pragmatic analysis. Intercultural Pragmatics14(1). 77–115. 10.1515/ip‑2017‑0004
     https://doi.org/10.1515/ip-2017-0004 [Google Scholar]
  10. Decock, Sofie & Ilse Depraetere
    2018 (In) directness and complaints: A reassessment. Journal of Pragmatics1321. 33–46. 10.1016/j.pragma.2018.04.010
     https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2018.04.010 [Google Scholar]
  11. Depraetere, Ilse, Sophie Decock & Nicolas Ruytenbeek
    2021 Linguistic (in)directness in Twitter complaints: A contrastive analysis of railway complaint interactions. Journal of Pragmatics1711. 215–233. 10.1016/j.pragma.2020.09.026
     https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2020.09.026 [Google Scholar]
  12. Diani, Giuliana
    2017 Criticism and politeness strategies in academic review discourse: A contrastive (English-Italian) corpus-based analysis. Kalbotyra701. 60–78. 10.15388/Klbt.2017.11188
     https://doi.org/10.15388/Klbt.2017.11188 [Google Scholar]
  13. El-Dakhs, Dina A. S., Fatima Ambreen, Maria Zaheer & Yulia Gusarova
    2019 A pragmatic analysis of the speech act of criticizing in university teacher-student talk: The case of English as a lingua franca. Pragmatics29(4). 493–520. 10.1075/prag.18028.eld
     https://doi.org/10.1075/prag.18028.eld [Google Scholar]
  14. Farnia, Maryam & Hiba Q. A. Sattar
    2015 A sociopragmatic analysis of the speech act of criticism by Persian native speakers. International Journal of Humanities and Cultural Studies2(3). 305–327.
     [Google Scholar]
  15. Félix-Brasdefer, Julio C.
    2002 Refusals in Spanish and English: A cross-cultural study of politeness strategies among speakers of Mexican Spanish, American English, and American learners of Spanish as a foreign language. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota PhD dissertation.
  16. Goffman, Erwing
    1967 Interaction ritual: Essays on face-to-face behavior. Garden City, NY: Anchor Books.
     [Google Scholar]
  17. Golato, Andrea
    2003 Studying compliment responses: A comparison of DCTs and recordings of naturally occurring talk. Applied linguistics24(1). 90–121. 10.1093/applin/24.1.90
     https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/24.1.90 [Google Scholar]
  18. Gotzner, Nicole & Diana Mazzarella
    2021 Face management and negative strengthening: The role of power relations, social distance, and gender. Frontiers in Psychology121. 602977. 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.602977
     https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.602977 [Google Scholar]
  19. Harkness, Sarah
    1977 Aspects of social environment and first language acquisition in rural Africa. InCatherine E. Snow & Charles A. Ferguson (eds.), Talking to children, 309–316. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  20. Hoang, T. X. Hoa
    2007 Criticizing behaviors by the Vietnamese and the American: Topics, social factors and frequency. VNU Journal of Foreign Studies23(3). 141–154.
     [Google Scholar]
  21. Holmes, Janet
    1990 Apologies in New Zealand English. Language in Society19(2). 155–199. 10.1017/S0047404500014366
     https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404500014366 [Google Scholar]
  22. 1995 Women, men and politeness. London: Longman.
     [Google Scholar]
  23. 2006 Gendered talk at work: Constructing gender identity through workplace discourse. Oxford: Blackwell. 10.1002/9780470754863
     https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470754863 [Google Scholar]
  24. Holmes, Janet & Maria Stubbe
    2003 “Feminine” workplaces: Stereotype and reality. InJanet Holmes & Miriam Meyerhoff (eds.), The handbook of language and gender, 573–599. Oxford: Blackwell. 10.1002/9780470756942.ch25
     https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470756942.ch25 [Google Scholar]
  25. Holtgraves, Thomas & Yang Joong-Nam
    1992 Interpersonal underpinnings of request strategies: General principles and differences due to culture and gender. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology62(2). 246–256. 10.1037/0022‑3514.62.2.246
     https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.62.2.246 [Google Scholar]
  26. House, Juliane & Gabriele Kasper
    1981 Politeness markers in English and German. InFlorian Coulmas (ed.), Conversational routine. Explorations in standardized communication situations and prepatterned Speech, 157–185. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. 10.1515/9783110809145.157
     https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110809145.157 [Google Scholar]
  27. Jauhari, Edy, Djatmika Djatmika & Riyadi Santosa
    2020 Criticism in the Javanese Arek cultural community: Its expression context and strategy use. Pragmatics & Society11(4). 524–544. 10.1075/ps.16032.jau
     https://doi.org/10.1075/ps.16032.jau [Google Scholar]
  28. Kerbrat-Orecchioni, Catherine
    2016 Les actes de langage dans le discours. Théorie et fonctionnement. Paris: Armand Colin.
     [Google Scholar]
  29. Ladegaard, Hans J.
    2004 Politeness in young children’s speech: Context, peer group influence and pragmatic competence. Journal of Pragmatics36(11). 2003–2022. 10.1016/j.pragma.2003.11.008
     https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2003.11.008 [Google Scholar]
  30. Laforest, Marty
    2002 Scenes of family life: Complaining in everyday conversation. Journal of Pragmatics34(10–11). 1595–1620. 10.1016/S0378‑2166(02)00077‑2
     https://doi.org/10.1016/S0378-2166(02)00077-2 [Google Scholar]
  31. Lakoff, Robin T.
    1975 Language and woman’s place. New York: Harper and Row.
     [Google Scholar]
  32. Márquez Reiter, Rosina
    2013 The dynamics of complaining in a Latin American for-profit commercial setting. Journal of Pragmatics571. 231–247. 10.1016/j.pragma.2013.08.024
     https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2013.08.024 [Google Scholar]
  33. Murphy, Beth & Joyce Neu
    1996 My grade’s too low: The speech act set of complaining. InSusan M. Gass & Joyce Neu (eds.), Speech acts across culture, 191–216. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
     [Google Scholar]
  34. Nguyen, Minh T. T.
    2005 Criticizing and responding to criticism in a foreign language: A study of Vietnamese learners of English. Auckland: The University of Auckland PhD dissertation.
  35. 2013 An exploratory study of criticism realization strategies used by NS and NNS of New Zealand English. Multilingua32(1). 103–130. 10.1515/multi‑2013‑0005
     https://doi.org/10.1515/multi-2013-0005 [Google Scholar]
  36. O’Connor, Alison M., Deston C. E. Kea, Qinggong Li, Xiao P. Ding & Angela D. Evans
    2022 Older adults are more approving of blunt honesty than younger adults: A cross-cultural study. Current Psychology42(30). 26758–26771. 10.1007/s12144‑022‑03785‑6
     https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-022-03785-6 [Google Scholar]
  37. R Core Team
    R Core Team (2015) R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria. https://www.R-project.org/
     [Google Scholar]
  38. Rodriguez, Andrea
    2022a Complaining. InFrank Brisard, Sigurd D’hondt, Pedro Gras & Mieke Vandenbroucke (eds.), Handbook of Pragmatics: 25th Annual Installment, 66–90. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 10.1075/hop.25.com1
     https://doi.org/10.1075/hop.25.com1 [Google Scholar]
  39. 2022b “Ay no I do feel exhausted”: Affiliative practices and interpersonal relationships in indirect complaints in Spanish. Journal of Pragmatics1941. 39–53. 10.1016/j.pragma.2022.04.008
     https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2022.04.008 [Google Scholar]
  40. Romaine, Suzanne
    1999 Communicating gender. London: Lawrence Erlbaum.
     [Google Scholar]
  41. Ruusuvuori, Johanna, Birte Asmuß, Pentti Henttonen & Niklas Ravaja
    2019 Complaining about others at work. Research on Language and Social Interaction52(1). 41–62. 10.1080/08351813.2019.1572379
     https://doi.org/10.1080/08351813.2019.1572379 [Google Scholar]
  42. Ruusuvuori, Johanna & Pirjo Lindfors
    2009 Complaining about previous treatment in health care settings. Journal of Pragmatics41(12). 2415–2434. 10.1016/j.pragma.2008.09.045
     https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2008.09.045 [Google Scholar]
  43. Ruytenbeek, Nicolas
    2020 Do indirect requests communicate politeness? An experimental study of conventionalized indirect requests in French email communication. Journal of Politeness Research16(1). 111–142. 10.1515/pr‑2017‑0026
     https://doi.org/10.1515/pr-2017-0026 [Google Scholar]
  44. Ruytenbeek, Nicolas, Sophie Decock & Ills Depraetere
    2023a Experiments into the influence of linguistic (in)directness on perceived face-threat in Twitter complaints. Journal of Politeness Research19(1). 59–86. 10.1515/pr‑2019‑0042
     https://doi.org/10.1515/pr-2019-0042 [Google Scholar]
  45. 2023b The influence of linguistic choices on perceived face-threat in Twitter complaints: An experimental approach. Journal of Politeness Research19(1). 87–122. 10.1515/pr‑2021‑0031
     https://doi.org/10.1515/pr-2021-0031 [Google Scholar]
  46. Schauer, Gila A.
    2010 Study abroad and its effect on speech act performance. InAlicia Martínez-Flor & Esther Usó-Juan (eds.), Speech act performance: Theoretical, empirical and methodological issues, 91–108. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 10.1075/lllt.26.06sch
     https://doi.org/10.1075/lllt.26.06sch [Google Scholar]
  47. Schnurr, Stephanie
    2009 Leadership discourse at work: Interactions of humour, gender and workplace culture. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. 10.1057/9780230594692
     https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230594692 [Google Scholar]
  48. Schnurr, Stephanie, Meredith Marra & Janet Holmes
    2008 Impoliteness as a means of contesting power relations in the workplace. Language Power and Social Process211. 211. 10.1515/9783110208344.4.211
     https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110208344.4.211 [Google Scholar]
  49. Schreiber-Gregory, Deanna N.
    2018 Ridge regression and multicollinearity: An in-depth review. Model Assisted Statistics and Applications13(4). 359–365. 10.3233/MAS‑180446
     https://doi.org/10.3233/MAS-180446 [Google Scholar]
  50. Searle, John R.
    1969 Speech acts. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/CBO9781139173438
     https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139173438 [Google Scholar]
  51. Sifianou, Maria
    2001 “Oh! How appropriate!” Compliments and politeness. InArin Bayraktaroglu & Maria Sifianou (eds.), Linguistic politeness across boundaries: The case of Greek and Turkish, 391–427. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 10.1075/pbns.88.14sif
     https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.88.14sif [Google Scholar]
  52. Spencer-Oatey, Helen
    2007 Theories of identity and the analysis of face. Journal of Pragmatics39(4). 639–656. 10.1016/j.pragma.2006.12.004
     https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2006.12.004 [Google Scholar]
  53. Taguchi, Naoko
    2015 Cross-cultural adaptability and development of speech act production in study abroad. International Journal of Applied Linguistics25(3). 343–365. 10.1111/ijal.12073
     https://doi.org/10.1111/ijal.12073 [Google Scholar]
  54. Tanck, Sharyl
    2002 Speech act sets of refusal and complaint: A comparison of native and non-native English-speakers’ production. Unpublished report. TESOL, College of Arts and Sciences, American University.
     [Google Scholar]
  55. Tracy, Karen, Donna V. Dusen & Susan Robinson
    1987 “Good” and “bad” criticism: A descriptive analysis. Journal of Communication371. 46–59. 10.1111/j.1460‑2466.1987.tb00982.x
     https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.1987.tb00982.x [Google Scholar]
  56. Tracy, Karen & Eric Eisenberg
    1990 Giving criticism: A multiple goals case study. Research on Language & Social Interaction24(1–4). 37–70. 10.1080/08351819009389332
     https://doi.org/10.1080/08351819009389332 [Google Scholar]
  57. Trosborg, Anna
    1995 Interlanguage pragmatics: Requests, complaints, and apologies. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. 10.1515/9783110885286
     https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110885286 [Google Scholar]
  58. Vásquez, Camilla
    2011 Complaints online: The case of TripAdvisor. Journal of Pragmatics43(6). 1707–1717. 10.1016/j.pragma.2010.11.007
     https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2010.11.007 [Google Scholar]
  59. Vöge, Monika
    2010 Local identity processes in business meetings displayed through laughter in complaint sequences. Journal of Pragmatics42(6). 1556–1576. 10.1016/j.pragma.2010.01.016
     https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2010.01.016 [Google Scholar]
  60. Wajnryb, Ruth
    1993 Strategies for the management and delivery of criticism. EA Journal11(2). 74–84.
     [Google Scholar]
  61. Wierzbicka, Anna
    1987 English speech act verbs. A semantic dictionary. Marrickville: Academic Press Australia.
     [Google Scholar]
  62. Wolfson, Nessa
    1988 The bulge: A theory of speech behavior and social distance. InJoseph Fine (ed.), Second language discourse: A textbook of current research, 21–38. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
     [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1075/pc.24004.ber
Loading
“Troubles-talk”
Pragmatics & Cognition 32, 382 (2025); https://doi.org/10.1075/pc.24004.ber
/content/journals/10.1075/pc.24004.ber
/content/journals/10.1075/pc.24004.ber
Loading

Data & Media loading...

  • Article Type: Research Article
Keyword(s): complaint; criticism; face-management; individual variations; speech acts; workplace communication

Most Cited

This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was successful
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error