Publications

Publication details [#25451]

Boxer, Diana. 1993. Social distance and speech behaviour: The case of indirect complaints. Journal of Pragmatics 19 (2) : 103–125.

Publication type

Article in journal

Publication language

English

Keywords

commiserating | complaining | social distance | speech act

Person as a subject

Wolfson, N.

Place, Publisher

Elsevier

ISBN

0378-2166

Journal WWW

www.sciencedirect.com/web-editions

Annotation

This paper rejects Wolfson's 'Bulge' theory of social distance, demonstrating that some rapport-inspiring speech behaviors, as e.g. indirect complaining/commiserating, are almost as often met with among strangers as they do among friends.