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OPPOSITIONAL STANCE AND FOOTING SHIFTS IN RESPONSES TO CUSTOMER COMPLAINTS ON TRIPADVISOR

Publication date: 22.03.2018

Studia Linguistica Universitatis Iagellonicae Cracoviensis, 2018, Volume 135, Issue 1, pp. 15 - 27

https://doi.org/10.4467/20834624SL.18.002.8162

Authors

Christopher Hopkinson
University of Ostrava
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Titles

OPPOSITIONAL STANCE AND FOOTING SHIFTS IN RESPONSES TO CUSTOMER COMPLAINTS ON TRIPADVISOR

Abstract

This paper reports on the results of a sociopragmatic study of restaurant-owners’ public responses to negative customer reviews posted on TripAdvisor. Responses to customer complaints are typically apologetic, taking a deferential stance towards the customer. This study focuses on responses which shift away from this default position and take an explicitly oppositional stance. Drawing on Goffman’s concept of footing and informed by sociopragmatic theories of facework and relational work, I explore the discursive mechanisms and linguistic resources by which restaurant-owners manipulate the footings which underlie their responses to complaints – with a particular focus on radical reframings of the participants’ status and roles (the customer may be publicly denigrated or mocked). Such practices reflect the dynamic, fluid nature of a genre that may at first sight appear to be highly conventional in nature.

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Information

Information: Studia Linguistica Universitatis Iagellonicae Cracoviensis, 2018, Volume 135, Issue 1, pp. 15 - 27

Article type: Original article

Titles:

Polish:

OPPOSITIONAL STANCE AND FOOTING SHIFTS IN RESPONSES TO CUSTOMER COMPLAINTS ON TRIPADVISOR

English:

OPPOSITIONAL STANCE AND FOOTING SHIFTS IN RESPONSES TO CUSTOMER COMPLAINTS ON TRIPADVISOR

Authors

University of Ostrava

Published at: 22.03.2018

Article status: Open

Licence: CC BY-NC-ND  licence icon

Percentage share of authors:

Christopher Hopkinson (Author) - 100%

Article corrections:

-

Publication languages:

English