A fascinating account of how impolite behaviour works.

Introducing impoliteness; 1. Understanding impoliteness I: face and social norms; 2. Understanding impoliteness II: intentionality and emotions; 3. Impoliteness metadiscourse; 4. Conventionalised formulaic impoliteness and its intensification; 5. Non-conventionalised impoliteness: implicational impoliteness; 6. Impoliteness events: co-texts and contexts; 7. Impoliteness events: functions; 8. Conclusions.

Jonathan Culpeper is based in the Department of Linguistics and English Language at Lancaster University.