The Grammar of Impoliteness

This chapter introduces the grammar of impoliteness as a field (worthy) of study. It argues that more attention should be paid in the literature to linguistic forms that are specialized for expressing impoliteness, in particular to not purely lexical ones. To frame this type of research, we first discuss how the concept of impoliteness is understood in the field at large and how it is interpreted in the present volume and in its contributions. The chapter then moves on to the notion of grammar, examining how it is viewed in different theoretical frameworks and how those views relate to this volume and the studies that it brings together. We also consider challenges for research into the grammar of impoliteness and outline avenues for future inquiry. The focus here is on issues of a methodological, typological, diachronic and theoretical nature. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the contribution that this volume as a whole makes to the study of the grammar of impoliteness.