Politeness and power: linguistic markers of disagreement in thesis defense sessions

Power has been identified as an important variable in linguistic theories of politeness but the way it influences interaction is not always in line with the models’ predictions. In this research, linguistic markers of disagreement have been studied in eight master’s thesis defense sessions in four departments. Tokens of disagreement between participants with power differentials (professor-student, student-professor) and those with equal relative powers (professor-professor, student-student) were extracted and analyzed within the framework of Brown and Levinson’s (1987) theory of politeness. The results clearly point to the influence of relative power relations but not necessarily in the manner predicted by Brown and Levinson (1987) or Leech (1983). It is concluded that power is displayed and exerted in thesis defense sessions by interacting with other factors such as severity of the face-threat, status, specific requirements of the context and, probably, generational differences.