University of Groningen. Blood, Shame and Fear Kansu-Yetkiner, Neslihan

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1 University of Groningen Blood, Shame and Fear Kansu-Yetkiner, Neslihan IMPORTANT NOTE: You are advised to consult the publisher's version (publisher's PDF) if you wish to cite from it. Please check the document version below. Document Version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Publication date: 2006 Link to publication in University of Groningen/UMCG research database Citation for published version (APA): Kansu-Yetkiner, N. (2006). Blood, Shame and Fear: Self-Presentation Strategies in Turkish Women's Talk about their Health and Sexuality s.n. Copyright Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). Take-down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Downloaded from the University of Groningen/UMCG research database (Pure): For technical reasons the number of authors shown on this cover page is limited to 10 maximum. Download date:

2 Blood, Shame and Fear Self-Presentation Strategies in Turkish Women s Talk about their Health and Sexuality Neslihan Kansu-Yetkiner

3 Copyright 2006 by Neslihan Kansu-Yetkiner Cover Design: Melike Demirbağ Kaplan Printed by Punto Press, Turkey The work in this thesis has been carried out under the auspices of the Behavioral and Cognitive Neural Sciences (BCN) research school, Groningen. Groningen Dissertations Linguistics 58 ISSN

4 Rijksuniversiteit Groningen Blood, Shame and Fear Self-Presentation Strategies in Turkish Women s Talk about their Health and Sexuality Proefschrift ter verkrijging van het doctoraat in de Letteren aan de Rijksuniversiteit Groningen op gezag van de Rector Magnificus, dr. F. Zwarts, in het openbaar te verdedigen op donderdag 9 februari 2006 om uur door Neslihan Kansu-Yetkiner geboren op 9 november 1967 te Yalova, Turkije

5 Promotor: Co-Promotor: Prof.dr. G. Redeker Dr. N. Büyükkantarcıoğlu Beoordelingscommissie: Prof.dr. C.L.J. de Bot Prof.dr. A. Kocaman Prof.dr. A. Schütz

6 Acknowledgements There is no etymological, but a metaphorical connection between thesis and Theseus, mythical hero of ancient Greece, who found his way through the Cretan Labyrinth by following a thread. Likewise, I found my way through a labyrinth of ideas by following a thread of thought during my Ph.D. research at University of Groningen. But although the title page of this thesis bears my name alone as Theseus who was able to find the end of the labyrinth, the writing process of this thesis is in fact the collective accomplishment of numerous brilliant, kind-hearted, hardworking people, many of whom must unfortunately remain anonymous. It all started when I knocked on the door of Professor Arthur van Essen six years ago. Having looked at my C.V., he introduced me to Gisela Redeker. In other words, his kind scholarly counseling helped me to find the entrance of the labyrinth. I owe a great debt not only to professor van Essen, but also to many other helpful people who provided me many kinds of support during my Groningen years. I am especially grateful to my promotor Gisela Redeker for her commitment to teaching and mentoring, her openness to discuss ideas and questions, her relentless pursuit of excellence in scholarship, her big heart for so selflessly spending many Sundays with me sharing her authentic tea blends in the form of mini tea parties in her small beautiful garden. Without her support, unique understanding and insightful guidance throughout these years, this thesis would never have been completed. Thank you, Gisela, for everything you have taught and shown me. I also would like to thank my co-promotor Nalan Büyükkantarcıoğlu, who gave me great support with her in-depth knowledge during the later stage of my work. Her comments are especially of the utmost importance in upgrading my research. I would like to thank the members of the thesis committee, Professor Kees de Bot, Professor Ahmet Kocaman, and Professor Astrid Schütz for reading the manuscript and agreeing to participate in my thesis defence. Special thanks also go out to the CLCG director, John Nerbonne for his constant scholarly support. Many other colleagues supported me in my research work. I am especially grateful to Minneke van Essen and all the ladies in the Promovendi en Postdoc Centrum of the University of Groningen in the first two years of my research as an external Ph.D. student. This dissertation could not have existed without their encouragement and support. Special thanks go to my colleagues at the department of Language and Communication, especially Jeanine Deen, Ali Oussaïd, Anke van Haastrecht, Kees de Glopper, and Mik van Es for discussions on subjects ranging from linguistic v

7 examples, statistical analyses to traveling, poetry and books and to John Hoeks for his help with the Dutch summary. I also would like to thank to Şükrüye Ruhi, Lütfiye Oktar, Ayşen Cem Değer, İsmail Boztaş, Emine Yarar, and Yasemin Yavuz Genç for letting me discuss my research results, all the questions in my mind with them and for giving immediate feedback to all my surveys and questionnaires requiring native speaker intuition. Especially I am obliged to Aymil Doğan whose wise advices and constant support have helped me to overcome translation difficulties that I encountered. Special thanks also go to my office mates in the Harmonie Gebouw Joanneke Prenger and Sible Andringa who were there to answer my limitless questions on computers and paperwork in Dutch. I also would like to thank Tuba Yarbay Duman who was a big help with her sense of humor in the gray winter days of Groningen. Some other people from the university also deserve thanks: Anna Hausdorf, Wyke van der Meer, and all the secretaries from the Cluster Nederlands, Diana Koopmans and Rob Visser from BCN. All their intellectual and administrative support was greatly appreciated. Another essential ingredient for the successful conclusion of this research was the material support I enjoyed from the Promovendi en Postdoc Centrum ( ), the Ubbo Emmius Scholarship ( ), the Graduate School BCN and the research institute CLCG. Apart from the academic ties, many other people in Groningen offered me personal companionship, thereby sustaining me through various aspects of Dutch culture. I must especially thank my dearest neighbors Wilma van Dijk and oma (grandma of my son), who both passed away without seeing the completion of this thesis, for helping me integrate into Dutch culture and for teaching me many interesting words of Groningen dialect. Among the people who made me feel at home in Groningen, I would like to mention a group of women. Fatma Albayrak, Gülafer Tunç, Gülsen Albayrak, Tazegül Öztürk, Nigar Çalışkan, Hacer Merdin, Hasret Merdin, Leyla Çekiç, Emine Şahin, Emine Yıldız, Waheeda Wagenleitner, and Tanja Krasnikova were the great relief committee, always ready to help unselfishly to take care of my son, to find participants for my interviews, to invite me for a coffee and to make me feel that I have friends in Groningen. Finally and most importantly, I would like to express my gratitude to my family for believing in me all along. I will be forever indebted to Hakan and Uygar, the men of my life, for their unconditional love, caring and support. Special thanks go to my son Uygar for putting up with a mum who had to read, write and study all the time. It is not surprising that he interprets the completion of this thesis as the beginning of an era where he will have a normal mum. The last, but certainly not least, I would like especially to thank my husband, Hakan, who has been sharing difficulties and happiness with me. I could not have come this far without his love, support and understanding. This study is over now, but the connection and relationship created in the process of the study will accompany the participants and me forever. Neslihan Kansu-Yetkiner vi

8 Contents Acknowledgements... v List of Tables...xi List of Figures...xii 1 Prologue Introduction Framework Back stage The Concept of Self Women in Turkish Society: Linking Gendered Social Norms with Discourse Turkish Women in an Immigrant Setting Reflection of Gender Construction in Turkish Language Front stage Overview of the Thesis Theoretical Background: Many Faces of Facework Introduction Theories of Politeness: An Overview Robin T. Lakoff Brown and Levinson s Politeness Theory Geoffrey Leech Sachiko Ide Yueguo Gu Bruce Fraser and William Nolen Richard Watts Sara Mills Some Observations Face and Facework in Turkish Culture An Alternative Analysis of Facework Facework in Self-presentation Theory Assertive Self-presentation Offensive Self-presentation Defensive Self-presentation Protective Self-presentation Conclusion vii

9 3 Methodology Design Procedure Participants Participant Selection Process Description of Participants Individual Descriptions of the Participants The TWIST (Turkish Women s Interviews on Sexual and Health Topics) Corpus Descriptions of the Sessions Quantitative Description of the TWIST Corpus Data Analysis Method Humor as Self-presentation Device Introduction Interactional Aspect of Humor Gender and Humor Humor and Politeness Humorous Self-Presentation Tactics in TWIST Assertive Self-presentation Contextual Self-promotion Noncontextual Self-promotion Offensive Self-Presentation Teasing Defensive Self-Presentation Reframing Protective Self-presentation Humor in the Form of Self-mockery Minimal Self-Disclosure: Humor as a Device of Equivocal Communication Conclusion Evasiveness and Depersonalization Introduction Evasive Communication Evasive Strategies in TWIST Covert Practices Manipulation of Discourse Focus Indirectness Ostensible Compliance Overt Practices Justifying Uncooperativeness Resistance Depersonalization through Pronominal Shift Pronominal System in Turkish Shifted References viii

10 Biz (we) Sen (You) Impersonal nominal references (insan/adam) A Scale of Shifted References Distributional Analysis Discussion Indirectness and Euphemism Introduction Euphemistic Indirectness Word Formation Devices Compounding Derivation Onomatopoeia Phonemic Modification Phonemic Replacement Loan Words Semantic Innovations Particularization Metaphors Metonyms Implications Other Categories that were Added to Warren s Model Elliptical Structures Circumlocution Deictic Expressions Euphemistic Reduplications Euphemistic Use of Vague Reduplication Structures in Turkish Uses of Reduplication Constructions Reduplication with m-sound Şu bu Böyle böyle Şöyle böyle Şöyle şöyle Falan filan Distributional Analyses Amount of Talk on Sensitive and Innocuous Topics Reliability of Our Classification of Reduplications as Euphemistic and Time Saving Sensitive Topics astriggers of Euphemistic Reduplication Reduplications in Quoted Speech Conclusion Assertiveness and Sincerity Introduction Assertiveness and Assertive Speech Act Valla and gerçekten as Socio-Cultural Index ix

11 7.3 Qualitative Analysis Syntactic Categorization Semantic and Pragmatic Characterization Assertion of Sincerity Defense against a Face-threat Mitigation of a Face-threatening Act Response Particle Solidarity Device Delay Device Distributional Analysis Distribution of the Functions Use in Sensitive and Innocuous Topics Conclusions Epilogue Introduction A Summary of Findings Comparison of the Two Groups Limitations of the Present Study Future Research Bibliography Samenvatting x

12 List of Tables 3.2 Sensitive and innocuous topics in the interviews Demographics of the Groningen group Demographics of the Ankara group Twist structure Number of words articulated per person with respect to innocuous and sensitive topics in the Groningen group Number of words articulated per person with respect to innocuous and sensitive topics in the Ankara group Pronominal system in Turkish Self-referencing shifted references in conversational Turkish Overall use of self-referencing pronouns Compounding as euphemism Phonemic replacement in the form of euphemism Particularization in NP form Particularization in Adj. form Particularization in VP form Metaphoric expressions used to replace taboo words Metonymic expressions Analysis of implications with respect to established sense and euphemistic sense Circumlocutions in the form of euphemistic constructions Reduplication constructions in Turkish and conversational English equivalents xi

13 List of Figures Linguistic super strategies for performing FTAs Schütz s taxonomy of self-presentation Continuum from active to passive style of self-presentation Taxonomy of humor with reference to styles of self-presentation Distribution of covert and overt practices in TWIST Extent of shift (Hypothetical scale) Percent shifted references with respect to sensitive and innocuous topics Shifted references with respect to sensitive and innocuous topics Classification of devices for construction of euphemism in TWIST Use of the five types of reduplications in sensitive and innocuous topics in the Ankara and the Groningen groups Euphemistic and time/effort-saving reduplications in sensitive and innocuous topics in the Ankara and in the Groningen group Frequencies of reduplications in speaker s text and in quoted speech in the Ankara and the Groningen groups Functions of valla and gerçekten in the Ankara and Groningen groups (frequencies per 1000 words) Distribution of valla and gerçekten usage with respect to face concerns Distribution of valla per 1000 words Distribution of gerçekten per 1000 words xii