This book examines attentiveness, which is briefly defined as a
demonstrator's pre-emptive responses to a recipient's verbal or
non-verbal cues or situations surrounding a recipient and a
demonstrator, which takes the form of offering. It elucidates what
attentiveness is, and addresses the importance of attentiveness in
im/politeness research. It also suggests the importance of taking an
interdisciplinary perspective in im/politeness research, the importance
of non-linguistically manifested politeness and the heart perspective.
Evaluation by a recipient of attentiveness is considered since recent
research suggests that im/politeness resides in evaluation. Thus, both
demonstration and evaluation of attentiveness are investigated in the
book. Attentiveness may be demonstrated or evaluated differently within
different cultures. Generation can be considered as one of the
sub-groups of culture. Therefore, cross-cultural and cross-generational
comparisons on demonstration and evaluation of attentiveness are
included.
Although some differences in demonstration or evaluation of
attentiveness are found cross-culturally, similarities outweigh
differences. This suggests that attentiveness, which is thought to be a
virtue in Japanese culture, is not unique to Japanese culture, and that
attentiveness is an important interpersonal notion elsewhere, too. It is
also shown that attentiveness is one of the constituents of politeness,
which indicates that attentiveness is closely related to politeness.
