The Use of Pragmatic Politeness Theory in the Interpretation of Hemingway's "Hills like White Elephants"
In the interpretation of a literary text, specially if the information granted by the author is insufficient, reinterpretation by means of inferences is necessary. The reader's previous background knowledge will often position him/ her in his/ her interpretation and so the text is open to subj...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Universidad de Zaragoza
2000-12-01
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| Series: | Miscelánea: A Journal of English and American Studies |
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| Online Access: | https://papiro.unizar.es/ojs/index.php/misc/article/view/11005 |
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| author | Enrique Lafuente Millán |
| author_facet | Enrique Lafuente Millán |
| author_sort | Enrique Lafuente Millán |
| collection | DOAJ |
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In the interpretation of a literary text, specially if the information granted by the author is insufficient, reinterpretation by means of inferences is necessary. The reader's previous background knowledge will often position him/ her in his/ her interpretation and so the text is open to subjective rendering. I we accept that literary dialogue is another form of social communication, Pragmatic Theory can be of help when it comes to studying texts like “Hills like White Elephants”, where the words uttered by the characters hold the key to the meaning of the story. In this article, I will mainly use Brown and Levinson's politeness theory to analyze the strategies used by the two interactants in an attempt to-sketch a profile of the motivations underlying their linguistic behaviour and to provide a less arbitrary interpretation of the text.
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| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-1a4a982f53994a33876832b2bbcc8ac7 |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 1137-6368 2386-4834 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2000-12-01 |
| publisher | Universidad de Zaragoza |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Miscelánea: A Journal of English and American Studies |
| spelling | doaj-art-1a4a982f53994a33876832b2bbcc8ac72025-08-20T02:49:16ZengUniversidad de ZaragozaMiscelánea: A Journal of English and American Studies1137-63682386-48342000-12-012110.26754/ojs_misc/mj.200011005The Use of Pragmatic Politeness Theory in the Interpretation of Hemingway's "Hills like White Elephants"Enrique Lafuente Millán0Universidad de Zaragoza In the interpretation of a literary text, specially if the information granted by the author is insufficient, reinterpretation by means of inferences is necessary. The reader's previous background knowledge will often position him/ her in his/ her interpretation and so the text is open to subjective rendering. I we accept that literary dialogue is another form of social communication, Pragmatic Theory can be of help when it comes to studying texts like “Hills like White Elephants”, where the words uttered by the characters hold the key to the meaning of the story. In this article, I will mainly use Brown and Levinson's politeness theory to analyze the strategies used by the two interactants in an attempt to-sketch a profile of the motivations underlying their linguistic behaviour and to provide a less arbitrary interpretation of the text. https://papiro.unizar.es/ojs/index.php/misc/article/view/11005pragmatic politenessfictional dialogueinterpretationgendernegotiation |
| spellingShingle | Enrique Lafuente Millán The Use of Pragmatic Politeness Theory in the Interpretation of Hemingway's "Hills like White Elephants" Miscelánea: A Journal of English and American Studies pragmatic politeness fictional dialogue interpretation gender negotiation |
| title | The Use of Pragmatic Politeness Theory in the Interpretation of Hemingway's "Hills like White Elephants" |
| title_full | The Use of Pragmatic Politeness Theory in the Interpretation of Hemingway's "Hills like White Elephants" |
| title_fullStr | The Use of Pragmatic Politeness Theory in the Interpretation of Hemingway's "Hills like White Elephants" |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Use of Pragmatic Politeness Theory in the Interpretation of Hemingway's "Hills like White Elephants" |
| title_short | The Use of Pragmatic Politeness Theory in the Interpretation of Hemingway's "Hills like White Elephants" |
| title_sort | use of pragmatic politeness theory in the interpretation of hemingway s hills like white elephants |
| topic | pragmatic politeness fictional dialogue interpretation gender negotiation |
| url | https://papiro.unizar.es/ojs/index.php/misc/article/view/11005 |
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