(Im)politeness and emotion

This chapter explores the interconnectedness of emotions with (im)politeness from a theoretical and methodological perspective. We argue that all interaction contain emotional, relational and socio-normative elements. We witness the negotiation of rights and obligations of interactants and how (not) complying with expectations about rights, or fulfilling rights will trigger negative and positive emotions that influence the continuation of the exchange. Knowledge of sociality and the connected socio-cultural norms shape interactions and relationships. We provide a schematic overview of systemic components involved in the study of emotion and outline the position of interpersonal pragmatics relative to it. On the basis of this general overview, we then review contributions within the (im)politeness literature that have worked on emotions. Since this discussion does not present a unified picture, we will use this literature review as a springboard to elaborate on three concerns that the research raises: Cognition and emotions, sociality and emotions and the communicative observables of emotions. How these fundamental links between emotion and interpersonal pragmatics pan out is illustrated by drawing on examples of interaction.