Formal and conceptual oxymoron: discursive mechanisms of passive-aggressive behaviour

Abstract

The paper investigates the nature of passive-aggressive behavior which has become ubiquitous in many domains of communication and yet lacks thorough linguistic elaboration. The study draws on the analysis of family discourse which, on the one hand, lends itself well to potential confrontation due to the inherent asymmetrical distribution of power between parents and children, and, on the other hand, is conducive to the emergence of specific communities of practice. Communities of practice are known to define a unique set of expectations for what constitutes polite and impolite behavior. The notion of a community of practice is key to researching first-order (im)politeness ((im)politeness 1). The study suggests that passive-aggressive illocutions arise when intrinsically polite linguistic forms are recontextualised into a socially opposite context. Like its oxymoronic name, the intent of the passive aggressive speaker is a contradiction in terms: his explicit face-saving strategies clash with a pronounced rapport-challenging orientation. In fact, the obtained evidence demonstrates that the relative power of the passive-aggressive speaker does not seem to account for the chosen communication style which comes down to a sophisticated form of manipulation. Passive-aggressive linguistic forms are arguably context-sensitive and can only be adequately interpreted in conjunction with the accompanying paralinguistic cues.