(Im)politeness and mixed messages

This chapter maps out the space occupied by phenomena that do not belong to either politeness or impoliteness, but in some sense fit both. It focuses on mixed or mismatching interpersonal messages that are incongruous on at least one level of interpretation or generate a sense of interpretive or evaluative dissonance. They encompass phenomena that typically attract labels such as sarcasm, banter and teasing. The authors discuss the pragmatic background of such mixed messages, especially drawing on approaches to irony, how they figure in classic politeness theories, and, in particular, how they work. This part of the chapter considers their metapragmatics, the constituents of the ‘mix’ of messages, how particular ‘mixes’ become conventionalised, their functions and also how they are perceived