Gritsenko E.S., Kamou O.M.T. Beyond Conventionalized Formulae: A Lexical Bundle Approach to Analyzing (Im)Politeness

DOI: https://doi.org/10.15688/jvolsu2.2025.4.4

Elena S. Gritsenko

Doctor of Sciences (Philology), Professor, Department of English no. 3, MGIMO University, Moscow, Russia

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8669-360X

Olivier Mozard T. Kamou

Postgraduate Student, Department of Foreign Languages, HSE University, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. , This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5291-3037

Abstract. The paper introduces a frequency-driven lexical bundle approach to enhance politeness research by addressing the limitations of traditional corpus pragmatics approaches, which assume pre-defined (im)politeness values for linguistic forms. While politeness is widely recognized as a dynamic context-dependent phenomenon, corpus pragmatics research risks overlooking its variability by focusing on pre-selected politeness formulae, such as thank you, please, sorry, etc. The lexical bundle approach builds on the concept of conventionalization, defined as the process by which linguistic expressions acquire politeness-related meaning through repeated use in a specific context. The proposed approach focuses on the identification of recurring multi-word sequences (lexical bundles), capturing how they index (im)politeness in discourse. We demonstrate the utility of this approach through a case-study of Wikipedia editors' communication, where politeness is strategically negotiated in collaborative, consensus-driven dialogue. By analyzing discussions from Wikipedia talk pages, we categorize the extracted bundles into two groups: conventionalized politeness formulae, which consistently index collaborative politeness across Wikipedia's editorial discourse (e.g., what do you think, is it possible to) and multifunctional expressions, that manifest variable politeness-related meanings (e.g., why don't you, am I missing something). This distinction reveals how politeness emerges through both stable norms and context-sensitive strategies. Our findings also highlight the capacity of the new approach to bridge Terkourafi's frame-based theory with empirical analysis, offering a replicable framework for studying (im)politeness as a co-constructed interactional practice.

Key words: lexical bundles, (im)politeness, corpus pragmatics, conventionalization, indexicality.

Citation. Gritsenko E.S., Kamou O.M.T. Beyond Conventionalized Formulae: A Lexical Bundle Approach to Analyzing (Im)Politeness. Vestnik Volgogradskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Seriya 2. Yazykoznanie [Science Journal of Volgograd State University. Linguistics], 2025, vol. 24, no. 4, pp. 41-52. DOI: https://doi.org/ 10.15688/jvolsu2.2025.4.4

Attachments:

4_Gritsenko_Kamou.pdf URL: https://l.jvolsu.com/index.php/en/component/attachments/download/3158

27 Downloads