It's Not What You Sign, It's How You Sign It: Politeness in American Sign Language

Appendix II

Appendix II Discourse Completion Test 218 The discourse contexts used in the discourse completion test (DCT) completed by the English speakers are given below in their entirety. The same contexts appeared on videotape in ASL for the ASL signers. In all cases, the participants were told they were talking to someone whom they know well, like, and get along with. In addition, ASL signers were told that the signer and the addressee in these contexts were both fluent ASL signers and members of Deaf culture (i.e.,  # and  ). Part I. Requests AN EMPLOYEE MAKES AN EASY REQUEST OF THE SUPERVISOR As an employee, you are having a meeting with your supervisor when you notice your pen is sitting very near your supervisor; you ask the supervisor to pass it to you. AN EMPLOYEE MAKES A DIFFICULT REQUEST OF THE SUPERVISOR As an employee in a grocery store, you ask your supervisor for the day before Thanksgiving off, the busiest grocery shopping day of the year (you do this during a supervision meeting). A COWORKER MAKES A DIFFICULT REQUEST OF ANOTHER COWORKER As an employee, you ask a coworker to let you borrow $50 until payday— which is Friday of next week (you two are sitting together, alone, during a break). A COWORKER MAKES AN EASY REQUEST OF ANOTHER COWORKER As an employee, you just remember that you need to write down an address , so you ask a coworker to let you borrow a pen (you two are sitting together, alone, during a break). 219 Discourse Completion Test A SUPERVISOR MAKES AN EASY REQUEST OF AN EMPLOYEE As a supervisor, you ask an employee to make an initial call to a potential new consumer who was just referred to your agency. A SUPERVISOR MAKES A DIFFICULT REQUEST OF AN EMPLOYEE As a supervisor, you recently gave an employee a big project and said s/ he had one month to finish it. Now, you meet with the employee and ask him/her to complete it in 2 weeks instead of a month. Part II. Rejections AN EMPLOYEE ENGAGES IN AN EASY REJECTION OF A SUPERVISOR’S REQUEST As an employee, your supervisor has just asked you if you are interested in serving on the sunshine committee, which is not part of your regular work responsibilities. You turn down the request because you are overloaded with work that has deadlines that are coming up soon. AN EMPLOYEE ENGAGES IN A DIFFICULT REJECTION OF A SUPERVISOR’S REQUEST As an employee, your supervisor has just asked you to make an initial call to a potential new consumer who was referred to your agency. You feel your caseload is already too full because there isn’t enough staff, and you turn down the request. A COWORKER ENGAGES IN A DIFFICULT REJECTION OF ANOTHER COWORKER’S REQUEST As an employee, a coworker has just asked you for a ride to a garage to pick up his/her car this afternoon (after work); the garage is 5 miles away. You tell the coworker you can’t give him/her a ride (you two are sitting together, alone, during a break). A COWORKER ENGAGES IN AN EASY REJECTION OF ANOTHER COWORKER’S REQUEST As an employee, a coworker has just asked you out to lunch tomorrow, but you turn him/her down (you two are sitting together, alone, during a break). A SUPERVISOR ENGAGES IN AN EASY REJECTION OF AN EMPLOYEE’S REQUEST As a supervisor, an employee asks if you will attend a last-minute meeting tomorrow at 2:00 about some minor changes in the payroll schedule. You look at your appointment book and see that an important person from the state will be at your agency all afternoon, so you turn down this request because you need to meet with this person (all afternoon). A SUPERVISOR ENGAGES IN A DIFFICULT REJECTION OF AN EMPLOYEE’S REQUEST As a supervisor, you have just completed a meeting with an employee. It’s the end of the day, and the employee and you are alone in the office. The employee tells you s/he doesn’t have any money for the train and wants to borrow $1. All you have is a $20 bill and you need it to take a taxi to the airport, so you tell the employee you can’t. 220 Appendix II ...