My Research

I currently hold positions as Professor of Spanish and Linguistics in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, and Adjunct Professor in the Departments of Linguistics and Second Language Studies, and in the Cognitive Science Program. My research areas are Pragmatics and Discourse Analysis, two disciplines of linguistics that examine pragmatic meaning at the utterance level and beyond the sentence. I teach undergraduate and graduate courses such as Introduction to Hispanic Linguistics, Pragmatics and Sociolinguistics, Discourse Analysis, Pragmatic Variation, Research Methods in Linguistics, Intercultural Pragmatics, and Second Language Pragmatics.

To date I have published nine books, two special issues, and I have one book under contract with Multilingual Matters Press. I have individually authored three books (Pragmática del español: contexto, uso y variación [Pragmatics of Spanish], Routledge Press, 2019; The Language of Service Encounters, Cambridge University Press, 2015; Politeness in Mexico and the United States,John Benjamins, 2008), each of which has received positive reviews. Additionally, I have edited six volumes, the most recent being Félix-Brasdefer & Shively, New Directions in Second Language Pragmatics, De Gruyter Mouton, 2021. Among other notable contributions is my co-edited volume The Routledge Handbook of Spanish Pragmatics (Routledge Press, 2021), which includes thirty-three chapters. In addition to my books, I have edited a collection of articles on pragmatic variation written by my undergraduate and graduate students in 2015 (Pragmatic Variation) and 2021 (Pragmatic and Intercultural Competence), published as part of the IULC Working Papers in Linguistics. My academic contributions outside these collections and books include numerous peer-reviewed articles published in journals, book chapters, handbook chapters, encyclopedic entries, and conference proceedings.

Professor Félix-Brasdefer's research has focused on the following areas:

Second Language Pragmatics and Instruction of Pragmatics

I have examined this topic in my publications, including chapters in journals, handbooks, and book chapters. This topic is covered in four of my edited volumes, including New Directions in Second Language Pragmatics (2021, De Gruyter Mouton), two volumes of Pragmatics and Language Learning (2006, 2016, University of Manoa Press), and Pragmatic Variation in Second Language Contexts (2012, John Benjamins). I created a companion website that offers theoretical and pedagogical resources to teachers who want to implement online materials in the classroom.

Politeness and Impoliteness

I have researched different aspects of polite and impolite behavior in first and second language contexts. My first publication, Politeness in Mexico and the United States (2008, John Benjamins) includes theoretical and empirical chapters in polite behavior in two sociocultural contexts, Mexico and the United States. I have also investigated polite behavior in the context of service encounter interactions in my book, The Language of Service Encounters (Cambridge University Press, 2015). I have also covered this topic in journal and handbook chapters. One of my chapters, "Politeness Research in the Spanish-Speaking World," is published in my edited volume, The Routledge Handbook of Spanish Pragmatics (Routledge Press, 2021).

Pragmatic Variation and Contrastive Pragmatics

I covered this topic in my book, The Language of Service Encounters (2015, Cambridge University Press) and in several articles in journals, handbooks, and edited volumes. I also edited a book on Pragmatic Variation in Second Encounter Interactions (2020, Routledge Press), including 14 chapters across varieties of Spanish. In addition, I edited a special issue that included 10 publications that my students wrote in my graduate courses in pragmatic variation (Working Papers in Linguistics, 2015). One of my chapters, "Pragmatic variation across varieties of Spanish," is published in my edited volume, The Routledge Handbook of Spanish Pragmatics (Routledge Press, 2021).

Intercultural and Interactional Competence

I have addressed this topic in a special volume that includes 9 publications that my students wrote in my graduate courses in second language pragmatics and intercultural competence (Working Papers in Linguistics, 2021). This topic is also covered in my edited volume New Directions in Second Language Pragmatics (De Gruyter Mouton, 2021). I have also written several journal and book chapters addressing different aspects of intercultural competence.

Research Methods in Linguistics and Pragmatics

I have written several articles in journals, edited books, and handbooks that address different aspects of methods in linguistics and pragmatics research. My 2018 article “Role plays” is included in the Handbook of Methods in Pragmatics (De Gruyter Mouton). In my 2019 book, The Pragmatics of Spanish (Pragmática del español), I included one chapter that describes issues related to the reliability and validity of different methods used to collect natural and elicited data for research purposes. I also address this topic in my 2015 book, The Language of Service Encounters (Cambridge University Press). This topic is also addressed in several chapters of my edited volume, New Directions in Second Language Pragmatics (Mouton de Gruyter, 2021).

Specializations