(Im)politeness and Multimodality

Character Interaction in Modern Family
1. Auflage 2026
ISBN: 978-1-032-93753-3
Verlag: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Buch, Englisch, 104 Seiten, Format (B × H): 138 mm x 216 mm, Gewicht: 453 g

Reihe: Routledge Focus on (Im)politeness

This book examines multimodal (im)politeness in telecinematic fiction and its humorous effects for viewers, offering new insights into the forms, meanings, and functions of (im)politeness in contemporary popular culture and audiovisual media.

The volume develops an integrated analytical framework that brings together models of (im)politeness, the pragmatics of fiction, and a social semiotic approach to multimodality to explore how (im)politeness unfolds in interaction within and across modes (e.g., gesture, touch, music, and speech). Drawing on data from character interactions in the American mockumentary sitcom Modern Family, the volume offers insights into multimodal impoliteness through a fine-grained qualitative analysis, supplemented where relevant by an overview of the dataset. It demonstrates (1) how situated (im)politeness-related meanings (e.g., face, sociality rights, identity, and emotion) are dynamically produced through the interplay of modes in interaction; and (2) how these multimodal ensembles create humour potential for viewers. This volume advances a perspective that moves beyond multimodal description to explain why (im)politeness is realised multimodally, while highlighting the distinct affordances of different modes in (im)politeness communication.

This book will appeal to scholars and students in pragmatics, (im)politeness studies, multimodal communication, and humour research, as well as those interested in fictional and media discourse.

Zielgruppe

Postgraduate

Autoren/Hrsg.

Liu, Chun

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Sprachwissenschaft Semantik & Pragmatik
• Geisteswissenschaften Sprachwissenschaft Sprachwissenschaften

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Chapter 1 Introduction, Chapter 2 (Im)politeness and the pragmatics of fiction, Chapter 3 A social semiotic approach to multimodal communication, Chapter 4 Data and methodology, Chapter 5 Situated multimodal (im)politeness in interaction, Chapter 6 Discussion, Chapter 7 Conclusions, Primary source, References, Index

Über Autor(innen)

Chun Liu is a visiting research associate in Linguistics at the School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics, SOAS, University of London. She is also a linguistics consultant and academic adviser.