Yet as a number of researchers have pointed out, the language in which the description, analysis, and theoriesation of pragmatic phenomena is undertaken can have an influence on how the research object in question are understood.
In this article, the role of English as our scientific metalanguage in research on ‘politeness’ in Japanese is considered
It is argued that in order to start managing such challenges for research in pragmatics we need to go beyond the study of abstract or decontextualised meanings of words and move towards the analysis of emic concepts and emic practices.