Metapragmatics of attentiveness: a study in interpersonal and cross-cultural pragmatics

Over the past two decades, Professor Saeko Fukushima has devoted herself to the rigorous investigation of attentiveness, seeking a more nuanced alternative to the conventional notion of politenessa concept that has become central to multiple academic disciplines.The monograph under review constitutes the culmination of Fukushima's extensive scholarship on attentiveness.It offers a metapragmatic account from both interpersonal and cross-cultural perspectives, advancing a persuasive argument for recognizing attentiveness as a distinct and indispensable dimension of interpersonal communication.Through its comprehensive analysis, the volume delivers thought-provoking insights into the nature of attentivenessand, by extension, what constitutes genuine politeness.This book is organized into five chapters.In the introductory chapter, Fukushima defines attentiveness as "the demonstrator's pre-emptive response to the recipient's verbal and non-verbal cues or situations surrounding the recipient and demonstrator, which takes the form of offering" (p.1), emphasizing that "one of the major characteristics of attentiveness is the nature of pre-empting" (p.5).This definition foregrounds the anticipatory, embodied, and relationally situated character of attentiveness, thereby distinguishing it from conventional speech acts and from the primarily reactive strategies that dominate existing politeness research.The introductory chapter also positions attentiveness within a broader theoretical landscape by comparing it to related constructs such as mindfulness and social support, underscoring its interdisciplinary relevance.Moreover, it offers a comprehensive overview of the data and methods employed in the study, including questionnaires, focus groups, metapragmatic interviews, and field notes, thus establishing a solid empirical foundation for the analysis.Through this theoretical and methodological framing, the chapter effectively advances attentiveness as a pivotal concept bridging linguistic pragmatics, intercultural communication studies,