In this paper, I seek to analyze linguistic impoliteness in ordinary conversation in French and, more specifically, in the exchange of face-to-face information. Thanks to its functional structure (i.e. question-response), the exchange of information is a privileged type of interaction, in which we can observe the relationship between language and culture. Throughout a study of interactional mechanisms involving the recurring negative sequence (a) Je ne sais pas moi (literally : I don’t know, me), I interrogate what distinguishes (a) to the sequence (b) Moi je ne sais pas(literally : Me, I don’t know). Why and in which situations, or at which point in an interaction, does the speaker employ (a) rather than (b) or vice versa? What are the socio-interactive effects? What emerges from these comparisons in relation to the speaker’s style? My suggestion is to bring out some response elements throughout a theoretical and methodological combinatory approach inputs from the linguistic polyphony, conversational analysis, the grammar of the emotions and the concept of [im]politeness.
French; Language-culture; Verbal interaction; Polyphony; Linguistic impoliteness