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Pragmatic and sociolinguistic analyses of im/politeness have usually been dependent on context and cultural frames of reference. This study approached the concept from an original perspective, namely situatedness.

The polycrystalline nickel-based superalloy ATI Allvac 718Plus™ (718Plus) has been identified as a potential aero-engine fastener material for use in intermediate temperature applications, circa 650°C. Cold working operations are used widely in the manufacturing of aerospace fasteners for lower temperature applications. However, the benefits of work hardening can disappear at high temperatures. This thesis investigates the effects of cold work on the mechanical properties of alloy 718Plus from 300 to 750°C. This includes: tensile; creep; stress rupture; stress relaxation; notched low cycle fatigue life; and, fatigue crack growth resistance. The stresses and temperatures considered in mechanical tests were dictated by engine service conditions. All material studied in this investigation had been cold drawn initially to 30% area reduction (HT1). Direct aged (HT2) and, annealed + direct aged (HT3) heat treatment conditions are compared to investigate the effects of this prior cold working. A comprehensive microstructural characterisation was conducted prior to testing. Hardness, optical microscopy (OM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive x-ray (EDX), electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) and scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) analysis techniques were used to examine the microstructure, deformation and (gamma-prime and eta) phases. The heat treatments affected the grain and phases differently. This was in addition to the amount of cold work retained. HT2 retained a worked microstructure; whereas HT3 was partially recrystallized. Grains in HT2 were relatively larger and also elongated in the drawing direction. HT3 produced a finer equiaxed grain structure. HT3 showed a significantly higher volume fraction of eta phase which precipitated both at grain boundaries and intragranularly. The amount of gamma-prime precipitation in HT2 was unchanged from the as-received cold worked microstructure and precipitation was limited to grain boundaries. HT2 showed a higher volume fraction of gamma-prime precipitates than HT3. HT3 showed greater ductility than HT2. It was observed that the HT2 treatment was superior to HT3 in terms of: tensile strength; creep resistance; notched fatigue crack initiation life; and, fatigue crack growth resistance, despite its tendency to fail intergranularly.

Pragmatic and sociolinguistic analyses of im/politeness have usually been dependent on context and cultural frames of reference. This new study approaches the concept from an original perspective, namely situatedness. Although politeness research often concentrates on examining how speeches or discourses themselves are situated with regards to different places and contexts, the focus on just one situation, and various text types within it, can also be of value. Situated Politeness is concerned with disentangling the factors which govern our behaviour within a given social context as well as across them. A range of expanding disciplines, including corpus linguistics, critical discourse analysis, and conversation analysis, are brought to bear on the topic, and this work will be of interest to a diverse global audience.

This paper examines the repair skills of three groups of 7 to 11-year old children: 1) children with Pragmatic Language Impairments (the PLIgroup); 2) children with Specific Language Impairments with no pragmatic difficulties (the SLI group); 3) children with normally developing communication skills (the mainstream group). The data comprise one-to-one interactions with a speech and language therapist, where the participants are engaged in a task devised to provide multiple opportunities for the initiation of repair The research also included a six-week period of therapy focusing on pragmatic skills for the children with PLI. Repair skills were compared pre-and post-intervention. Initially, both the mainstream and SLI groups achievedfar greater task success than the group with PLI, whose poor performance was largely attributable to their tendency not to initiate repair After the intervention period however, this group showed marked improvement (both in initiating repair and in task success). This reveals their potential to develop pragmatic skills that they have not spontaneously acquired if they are explicitly taught them.

Although this thesis is primarily about aphasia it is not about the linguistic abilities of aphasic individuals per se. Rather, its central topic is concerned with how people who do not have aphasia interact with people who do. Human communication is a process involving interactive and collaborative effort and its success in dependent on the joint responsibility of both partners. If aphasic participants can effectively draw on their non-impaired partner's abilities, then this strategy should not be ignored. The question we need to ask is How does it work? This dissertation attempts to provide a coherent answer to that question. The data comprises 16 dialogues: eight dyads of previously unacquainted aphasic and non-aphasic individuals (abbreviated as 'Aphasic Dialogues' or ADs), and eight dyads of previously unacquainted non-aphasic interactants (abbreviated as 'Control Dialogues' or CDs). The overall aim of this thesis is to show (i) how non-aphasic dialogue partners manage their interactions with aphasic individuals, and (ii) how their behaviour can be seen to be compensating for the apparent linguistic deficits of their aphasic interlocutor. More specifically, the thesis tests various hypotheses about the differences between AD and CD interactions. Compared to data from the CDs, results indicate that when engaged in talk with aphasic dialogue partners, non-impaired speakers (i) do more of the collaborative work; (ii) attempt to avoid highlighting any non-competence on the part of their interlocutor by employing strategies of explicitness and reductionist simplification; and (iii) in so doing enable their interactants to demonstrate their ability to communicate much better than their linguistic impairments might otherwise suggest. In short, when engaged in talk with aphasic dialogue partners, non-impaired speakers invest a great deal of effort into doing aphasia.

McAllister reviews Situated Politeness edited by Bethan L. Davies, Michael Haugh and Andrew John Merrison.