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What's the Excuse?: Image Repair in Austrian German
Author(s) -
MEIER A.J.
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
the modern language journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.486
H-Index - 83
eISSN - 1540-4781
pISSN - 0026-7902
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-4781.1997.tb01175.x
Subject(s) - excuse , situational ethics , german , set (abstract data type) , focus (optics) , work (physics) , psychology , social psychology , situational leadership theory , sociology , public relations , linguistics , political science , law , computer science , engineering , philosophy , mechanical engineering , physics , transactional leadership , optics , servant leadership , programming language
This paper examines the patterns found in repair‐work behavior (e.g., apologies, excuses) in Austrian German as they relate to situational variables and cultural themes. Data for this study were collected from 100 Austrian university students using 12 closed role‐play situations. The results reveal a complex interplay of situational variables that inform the repair‐work behavior. This points to both research and teaching approaches that do not seek to determine a set of rules for repair work, but rather focus on the role that cultural attitudes and contextual factors play in making linguistic decisions.