Abstract Postmodern accounts of politeness are founded on the idea that theoretical ‘second order’ conceptualizations (e.g., politeness2) must be grounded in ‘first order’ interlocutor interpretations (e.g., politeness1). One consequence of this assumption is that the generalizability of all theoretical conceptualizations has been called into question (e.g., Eelen 2001). Some even declare an end to “the age of grand theorizing” (Mills 2011: 34). The current analysis rejects this conclusion. Rather, it argues that a culture-general construct can be valid assuming it provides an account of underlying cognitive processing mechanisms. In line with this argument, a social cognitive account is presented which describes relational work in terms of the underlying cognitive processing mechanism ‘salience’. Specifically, behaviors which conform to norms and expectations are defined as salient in a ‘correlative’ fashion and behaviors which go against expectations as salient in a ‘contrastive’ fashion. By incorporating these two seemingly contradictory dimensions of salience, and the affective response associated with each, a culture-general account is achieved which is independent of and yet compatible with culture-specific analyses. This account, it is further demonstrated, overcomes a variety of limitations associated with previous accounts including their inability to provide a unified account of deference and volitional type linguistic phenomena.

中文翻译：

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关系工作的社会认知描述

摘要礼貌的后现代解释是基于这样的思想，即理论上的“二阶”概念化（例如，礼貌2）必须以“一阶”对话者的解释（例如，礼貌1）为基础。这种假设的一个结果是，所有理论概念的可概括性都受到了质疑（例如，Eelen 2001）。有些人甚至宣告“大理论化时代”的终结（Mills 2011：34）。当前的分析拒绝了这一结论。相反，它认为文化通用的构造可以有效地假设它提供了潜在的认知加工机制的说明。与此观点相一致，提出了一种社会认知帐户，该帐户根据潜在的认知处理机制“显着性”描述了关系工作。特别，符合规范和期望的行为被定义为“相关”方式的显着，而与期望相反的行为被定义为“对比”方式的显着。通过结合这两个看似矛盾的显着性维度以及与之相关的情感反应，可以实现一种文化通用的描述，该描述独立于文化特定的分析，但仍与特定文化的分析兼容。进一步证明，该说明克服了与先前说明相关的各种限制，包括它们无法提供对尊敬和自愿类型语言现象的统一说明。通过结合这两个看似矛盾的显着性维度以及与之相关的情感反应，可以实现一种文化通用的描述，该描述独立于文化特定的分析，但仍与特定文化的分析兼容。进一步证明，该说明克服了与先前说明相关的各种限制，包括它们无法提供对尊敬和自愿类型语言现象的统一说明。通过结合这两个看似矛盾的显着性维度以及与之相关的情感反应，可以实现一种文化通用的描述，该描述独立于文化特定的分析，但仍与特定文化的分析兼容。进一步证明，该说明克服了与先前说明相关的各种限制，包括它们无法提供对尊敬和自愿类型语言现象的统一说明。