Der „kommunikative Raum“ in der kulturologischen (Un)Höflichkeitsforschung

Abstract

The paper attempts to define the term "communicative space” for (im)politeness research. “Communicative space” is a crucial notion for the definition of concepts such as “ritual balance”, “discursive rule”, “discursive position”, “territoriality”, “field of action” and “co-construction of communicative interaction” (Jacoby, Ochs 1995). “Communicative space” cannot be reduced to the mere physical space in which an (im)polite communicative interaction takes place (“transactional space” according to Kendon 1990). It is a mental space, which is “co-constructed” in so far as it is the result of the convergence of the mental worlds of interactants mediated by utterences. In this sense it can be defined as a “phenomenal space” which is ruled by structuring principles and field laws. The capacity of creating convergent communicative spaces is a key competence which lays the foundations for dialogue capacity and permits successful communicative interactions; therefore it is defined as a very important educational goal in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (2001).