(Im)politeness as intersubjective achievement: A comparative study of power interruptions in two radio phone-in programmes

One of the serious issues of theorizing about politeness that has recently been raised (Eelen 2001, Watts 2003) is whether the current politeness models devised by researchers adequately account for concepts and procedures to which social actors adhere when engaging themselves in real-life interactions. As an alternative to the core politeness theories of considerable tradition and volume of research that they have inspired and which conceive of politeness as a set of strategies designed to achieve harmony, avoid interpersonal confl ict, enhance mutual co-operation, attend to face-wants, stay within the terms of the current Conversational Contract etc., a newly emerging paradigm of politeness understood as “discursive struggle” approaches (im)politeness issues as being discursively struggled over by the interlocutors themselves in the course of ongoing interaction. Informed by the theoretical and methodological underpinnings of this novel model of politeness and using authentic data from two radio phone-in discussion programmes from two different socio-cultural settings the paper analyzes those instances of authentic interaction involving power interruptions in which interactants appear to be engaged in the struggle for the achievement of mutually shared understanding of what constitutes (im)polite behaviour