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Professor Rosina Marquez Reiter

Profile summary

  • Central Academic Staff
  • Professor of Pragmatics and Interaction
  • Faculty of Wellbeing, Education & Language Studies
  • School of Languages & Applied Linguistics
  • English Language & Applied Linguistics
  • rosina.marquez-reiter

Professional biography

I joined The Open University as Professor in Pragmatics and Interaction in 2019 and was Head of School of Languages and Applied Linguistics from 2019-2022. 

Before joining the OU, I worked at the School of Literature and Languages at the University of Surrey  in Communication and (Spanish) Linguistics (1999–2019). I have also worked at the Department of Applied Linguistics at St Mary’s University College, University of Surrey and as a teacher of English and Spanish as foreign languages at several institutions in the UK and abroad.

I have a PhD in Linguistics from the University of Sheffield (1999) and professional qualifications in Applied Linguistics and Language Teaching and Management and Leadership.

Research interests

My research interests are focused on interpersonal pragmatics and sociolinguistics. My research is primarily built around the analysis of how language is used in face to face and mediated social interactions, with a focus on topics that involve the examination of conversational interaction, (im)politeness, morality and the relationship between linguistic practices and (im)mobility in diverse communicative environments. As part of this, I am collaborator and consultant on a Spanish Research Council funded project examining historical, linguistic and discourse perspectives on face management processes and (im)politeness.

I have recently led projects on the unfolding of linguistic practices of Latin Americans in Madrid and ethnolinguistic minorities in the UK and on the discursive constructions of morality in public and private discourse. My current research focuses on understanding shifts in cultural values and the new communicative practices brought about by the increasing use of digital technologies, as well as the role of diverse communicative practices for sustainable livelihoods in the informal economies of the Global South and the Global North.

I am currently involved in a research project which examines the on-the-ground work activity of 'street vendors'  in the Global South based on a collaboration with vendors, their unionised cooperatives and syndicates. The project captures empirical evidence of their daily working practices, the collective regulation that underlies it and some of the macro forces their in situ work practices attend to. This includes video-recordings of vendors’ daily working practices in real-time in Buenos Aires, Medellín and Rio de Janerio.The video-recordings are used as a form of documentation and an analytic tool. They capture snapshots of these workers’ ‘worldings’ and help us unsettle the disciplinary power of speech over other communicative resources.This research is unearthing data which supports the legitimisation and celebration of these skilful yet precarious practices, which are part the cultural fabric of these cities (https://societal-challenges.open.ac.uk/blog/invisible-livelihoods-in-the-global-south/22)

I welcome prospective PhD projects in these areas, with a focus on topics that involve the examination of conversational interaction, (im)politeness and the relationship between linguistic practices and (im)mobility in diverse communicative environments. My recent doctoral research student (co) supervision includes:

Linda Bruce (current) New speakers of Scots and Scots English (AHRC Open-Oxford-Cambridge DTP)

Phoebe Lowry (current) Moroccans in Paris: linguistic practices and landscaping (AHRC Open-Oxford-Cambridge DTP)

Christian Schmitt (current) Leadership construction across media and time in a distributed team

Teaching interests

I have led and designed MA programmes in Intercultural Communication and International Business and Communication and International Marketing as well as evaluated MA programmes in other UK universities and abroad. I have also taught modules for MA programmes on a range of subjects pertinent to Applied Linguistics, including Interpersonal Communication, Organisational Communication and Applied Linguistic Principles.

I also led and developed a Doctoral Training Programme across Schools offering both generic and subject specific skills.

In addition to this, I have designed, taught, and evaluated courses delivered in English and Spanish for undergraduate degrees, including Introduction to spoken interaction, (Spanish) language in society, Advanced translation strategies and Interpreting (English to Spanish).

Impact and engagement

My research engages with transnational and migrant populations in globalised business settings and has supported change in the diverse workplaces in which it was conducted. This has included providing advice on intercultural communication to support working practices in outsourced call centres. Further to the impact of my research on business settings, I have provided expert input to a UK regulatory body on issues of language and racism in sports. Through the Centre for Open Languages and Cultures I have helped develop a series of short courses on languages to address disparities in access. I have also engaged a wide range of professional and community groups, including a recent knowledge exchange project (HEIF funded) with Deaf Action Scotland to develop a blended on-line British Sign Language curriculum. 

 

External collaborations

I am Associate Editor of the journal Pragmatics, was founding editor and Editor-in -Chief of Spanish in Context and Co-Editor since 2010. I am also an Advisory Board member of several journals, including Journal of Politeness Research: Language, Behaviour, Culture; Complutense Journal of English Studies, International Journal of Language Studies, Journal of Language, Linguistics and Translation, Contrastive Pragmatics, Trabalhos em Linguística Aplicada, and International Arab Journal of English For Specific Purposes. I am member of the AHRC Peer-Review College and have acted as reviewer for other Research Councils, such as the Economic Social Research Council, the European Science Foundation, the Spanish Research Council, the Swiss Research Council and the Polish Research Council. I am an academic reviewer for Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas CONICET, Argentina (2017-present) and the Spanish Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (Agencia Nacional de Evaluación y Prospectiva, Secretaría General de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación) (2015-present). In addition to these activities, I have been a member of the scientific committee of a number of international conferences, most recently the International Pragmatics Conference.

 

Publications

Keeping the pitch on track: spatiotemporal challenges in ambulant vending on a Buenos Aires trainline (2024)
Márquez Reiter, Rosina and Manrique, Elizabeth
Multilingua, 43(5) (pp. 601-636)

The establishment and breakdown of trust in human-bot marketing calls (2024)
Márquez Reiter, Rosina and Iveson, Mandie
Discourse & Communication ((Early access))

Toward a multimodal pragmatics analysis of ambulant vending on a Buenos Aires trainline (2023-04-17)
Márquez Reiter, Rosina; Cordeje-Manrique, Elizabeth and Cantarutti, Marina
Journal of Pragmatics, 210 (pp. 122-142)

Global Expectations, Local Realities: All-Inclusive Hotel Reviews and Responses on TripAdvisor (2023)
Márquez Reiter, Rosina; Hidalgo Downing, Raquel and Iveson, Mandie
Contrastive Pragmatics ([Early Access])

Descolonización y enseñanza del español (2023)
Fuertes Gutiérrez, Mara; Márquez Reiter, Rosina and Moreno Clemons, Aris
Journal of Spanish Language Teaching, 10(2) (pp. 79-91)

Offence and morality: Pragmatic perspectives (2022-11)
Haugh, Michael; Kádár, Dániel Z. and Márquez Reiter, Rosina
Language & Communication, 87 (pp. 117-122)

"What have you done?" Accounting for Covid-19 lockdown breaches on talk radio. (2022-10)
Cantarutti, Marina N. and Márquez Reiter, Rosina
Discourse, Context & Media, 49, Article 100639

Translocalisation of values, relationality and offence (2022-05)
Márquez Reiter, Rosina
Language & Communication, 84 (pp. 20-32)

Sociality and Moral Conflicts: Migrant stories of relational vulnerability (2022-03)
Márquez Reiter, Rosina and Kádár, Dániel Z.
Pragmatics and Society, 13(1) (pp. 1-21)

The Politics of Conviviality: on the ground experiences from Spanish-speaking Latin Americans in Elephant & Castle, London. (2021-11)
Márquez Reiter, Rosina
Journal of Sociolinguistics, 25(5) (pp. 662-681)

Confessions of lockdown breaches. Problematising morality during the Covid-19 pandemic (2021-07)
Márquez Reiter, Rosina
Journal of Pragmatics, 179 (pp. 61-69)

How can ethnography contribute to understanding (im)politeness? (2021-02-03)
Márquez Reiter, Rosina
Journal of Politeness Research: Language, Behavior, Culture, 17(1) (pp. 35-59)

Alternative Approaches to Politeness and Impoliteness: An Introduction (2021-02)
Kádár, Dániel Z.; Parvaresh, Vahid and Márquez Reiter, Rosina
Journal of Politeness Research: language, behavior, culture, 17(1) (pp. 1-7)

The value of vale: negotiating the progressivity of service in a market restaurant (2021)
Márquez Reiter, Rosina and Cantarutti, Marina
Contrastive Pragmatics, 3(1) (pp. 59-88)

A pragmatics of intimacy (2020-07-01)
Márquez Reiter, Rosina and Frohlich, David M.
Internet Pragmatics, 3(1) (pp. 1-33)

Denunciation, blame and the moral turn in public life (2019-04)
Márquez Reiter, Rosina and Haugh, Michael
Discourse, Context & Media, 28 (pp. 35-43)

Introduction: Language and speakerhood in migratory contexts (2019)
Márquez Reiter, R. and Martín Rojo, L.
International Journal of the Sociology of Language(257) (pp. 1-16)

Language surveillance: pressure to follow local models of speakerhood among Latinx students in Madrid (2019)
Martín Rojo, L. and Márquez Reiter, R.
International Journal of the Sociology of Language(257) (pp. 17-48)

Exploring the moral compass: denunciations in a Facebook carpool group (2018-12-31)
Márquez Reiter, R. and Orthaber, S.
Internet Pragmatics, 1(2) (pp. 241-270)

Banal interculturalism. Latin Americans in Elephant & Castle (2018)
Patiño-Santos, A. and Márquez Reiter, R.
Language and Intercultural Communication, 19(3) (pp. 227-241)

Interviews as sites of ideological work (2017-05-31)
Márquez Reiter, Rosina
Spanish in Context, 15(1) (pp. 54-76)

The discursive construction of moral agents among Spanish-speaking Latin American retailers in Elephant & Castle (2017)
Márquez Reiter, R. and Patiño-Santos, A.
Tilburg Papers in Cultural Studies(194)

When routine calls for information become interpersonally sensitive (2016-12-05)
Orthaber, Sara and Márquez Reiter, Rosina
Pragmatics and Society, 7(4) (pp. 638-663)

Requests and counters in Russian traffic police officer-citizen encounters: face and identity implications (2016-12-05)
Márquez Reiter, R.; Ganchenko, K. and Charalambidou, A.
Pragmatics and Society, 7(4) (pp. 512-539)

(Im)politeness and (im)morality: Insights from intervention (2015-07-01)
Kádár, Dániel Z. and Márquez Reiter, Rosina
Journal of Politeness Research: language, behavior, culture, 11(2) (pp. 239-260)

The dynamics of complaining in a Latin American for-profit commercial setting (2013-10)
Márquez Reiter, Rosina
Journal of Pragmatics, 57 (231 - 247)

Fabricated ignorance: The search for good value for money (2013-01)
Márquez Reiter, Rosina
Pragmatics, 23(4) (pp. 661-684)

‘‘Talk to the hand’’. Complaints to a public transport company (2011-12-01)
Orthaber, S. and Márquez Reiter, R.
Journal of Pragmatics, 43(15) (3860 - 3876)

Multilingual and transnational encounters in late modernity: linguistic practices and social processes (2010-02-13)
Martín Rojo, Luisa and Márquez Reiter, Rosina
Sociolinguistic Studies, 4(2) (443- 462)

Introduction: Service provision in a globalised world (2010)
Márquez Reiter, Rosina and Martín Rojo, Luisa
Sociolinguistic Studies, 4(2) (259 - 265)

A ella no le gusta que le digan María y a mí que me traten de tú. A window into Latin American diversity (2010)
Márquez Reiter, Rosina
Sociolinguistic Studies, 4(2) (371 - 412)

Intra-cultural variation: Explanations in service calls to two Montevidean service providers (2008-02-13)
Márquez Reiter, Rosina
Journal of Politeness Research: language, behavior, culture, 4(1) (1 - 29)

Interactional closeness in service calls to Montevidean carer service company (2006)
Márquez Reiter, Rosina
Research on Language and Social Interaction, 39(1) (7 - 39)

Complaint calls to a caregiver service company: The case of desahogo (2005)
Márquez Reiter, Rosina
Intercultural pragmatics, 2(4) (481 - 513)

A comparative study of certainty and conventional indirectness: evidence from British English and Peninsular Spanish (2005)
Márquez Reiter, Rosina; Rainey, Isobel and Fulcher, Glenn
Applied Linguistics, 26(1) (1 - 31)

[Book Review] Characteristics and functions of direct quotes in Hispanic fiction. A linguistic analysis (2003-04-01)
Márquez Reiter, Rosina
Bulletin of Hispanic Studies, 80(2) (261 - 262)

Task difficulty in speaking tests (2003)
Fulcher, G. and Márquez Reiter, R.
Language Testing, 20(3) (321 - 344)

A contrastive study of indirectness in Spanish: Evidence from Peninsular Uruguayan Spanish (2000)
Márquez Reiter, Rosina
Pragmatics, 12(2) (135 - 151)

Politeness phenomena in British English and Uruguayan Spanish: the case of requests (1997)
Márquez Reiter, Rosina
Miscelánea: A Journal of English and American Studies, 18 (159 - 168)

Leveraging Relations in Diaspora (2024-03-14)
Márquez Reiter, Rosina
Elements in Pragmatics
ISBN : 9781009206624 | Publisher : Cambridge University Press | Published : Cambridge, UK

A sociolinguistics of diaspora. Latino practices, identities and ideologies (2015-09-01)
Márquez Reiter, Rosina and Martín Rojo, Luisa
Publisher : Routledge | Published : New York

Meditated Business Interactions. Intercultural Communication between speakers of Spanish (2011-07)
Márquez Reiter, Rosina
ISBN : 9780748637201 | Publisher : Edinburgh University Press | Published : Edinburgh

Spanish Pragmatics (2005)
Márquez Reiter, Rosina and Placencia, María Elena
Publisher : Palgrave

Current trends in the pragmatics of Spanish (2004-07)
Márquez Reiter, R. and Placencia, M. E.
Pragmatics & Beyond New Series
ISBN : 1588115208 | Publisher : John Benjamins Publishing Co

Linguistic Politeness in Britain and Uruguay (2000)
Márquez Reiter, Rosina
Publisher : John Benjamins | Published : Amsterdam

Moralizing (un)civil behaviour. The case of interpellations on Facebook (2025)
Márquez Reiter, Rosina and Bou-Franch, Patricia
In: Haugh, Michael and Márquez Reiter, Rosina eds. Morality in Discourse. Oxford Studies in Sociolinguistics
ISBN : 9780197618066 | Publisher : Oxford University Press (In Press) | Published : Oxford

Mobility and Stasis: Migrant portraits from a Madrid Market (2023)
Márquez Reiter, Rosina
In: Márquez Reiter, Rosina and Patiño-Santos, Adriana eds. Language Practices and Processes among Latin Americans in Europe. Routledge Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics (pp. 25-49)
ISBN : 978-0-367-67300-0 | Publisher : Routledge | Published : Oxon and New York

“I’m your guy”: Self-promoting behaviour in a Slovenian translators’ forum (2022)
Orthaber, Sara and Márquez Reiter, Rosina
In: Xie, Chaoqun and Tong, Ying eds. Self-praise across cultures and contexts (pp. 17-40)
ISBN : 978-3-030-99217-0 | Publisher : Springer

Service Encounter Discourse (2021-04-22)
Márquez Reiter, Rosina and Felix-Brasdefer, J. Cesar
In: Haugh, M.; Kadar, D. and Terkourafi, M. eds. The Handbook of Sociopragmatics. Cambridge Handbooks in Language and Linguistics (pp. 496-519)
ISBN : 978-1-108-84496-3 | Publisher : Cambridge University Press | Published : Cambridge

Intercultural Communication in a globalised world: the case of Spanish (2021)
Márquez Reiter, Rosina and Hidalgo Dowing, Raquel
In: Koike, Dale A. and Félix-Brásdefer, J. Cesar eds. The Routledge Handbook of Spanish Pragmatics: Foundations and Interfaces. Routledge Spanish Language Handbooks
ISBN : 9781138316461 | Publisher : Routledge

La provisión de servicios (2020)
Márquez Reiter, Rosina
In: M. Victoria, Escandell-Vidal; Amenós Pons, José and Ahern, Aoife Kathleen eds. Pragmatica
ISBN : 978-84-460-4871-8 | Publisher : Alkal: Madrid

Navigating commercial constraints in a Spanish service call (2019)
Márquez Reiter, R.
In: Conejos Biltvich, Garcés and Hernández López, P. eds. Mediated Service Encounters
Publisher : John Benjamins Publishing Company | Published : Amsterdam

Navigating commercial constraints in a service call (2019)
Márquez Reiter, Rosina
In: Garcés-Conejos Blitvich, Pilar; Fernández-Amaya, Lucía and De la O Hernandez-Lopez, Maria eds. Technology mediated service encounters. Pragmatics & Beyond New Series (300)
Publisher : John Benjamins Publishing

(Im)politeness in Service Encounters (2017)
Márquez Reiter, Rosina and Bou-Franch, Patricia
In: Culpeper, Jonathan; Haugh, Michael and Kádár, Dániel Z. eds. The Palgrave Handbook of Linguistic (Im)politeness (pp. 661-687)
ISBN : 978-1-137-37507-0 | Publisher : Palgrave Macmillan UK

Cortesía y descortesía (2015-12-21)
Márquez Reiter, Rosina
In: Gutierrez-Rexach, Javier ed. Enciclopedia de Lingüística Hispánica
ISBN : 9781317498018 | Publisher : Routledge

'Thanks for nothing': Impoliteness in service calls (2015-02-01)
Orthaber, Sara and Márquez Reiter, Rosina
In: Ruhi, Şükriye and Aksan, Yeşim eds. Exploring (Im)politeness in Specialized and General Corpora: Converging Methodologies and Analytic Procedures
ISBN : 978-1-4438-7119-8 | Publisher : Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Disattending Customer Dissatisfaction on Facebook: A Case Study of a Slovenian Public Transport Company (2015)
Márquez-Reiter, Rosina; Orthaber, Sara and Kádár, Dániel Z.
In: Christopher, Elizabeth ed. International Management and Intercultural Communication (pp. 108-126)
Publisher : Palgrave Macmillan UK

The dynamics of (im)mobility: (in)transient capitals and linguistic ideologies among Latin American migrants in London and Madrid (2014-12-08)
Márquez Reiter, Rosina and Martín Rojo, Luisa
In: Márquez Reiter, Rosina and Martín Rojo, Luisa eds. A Sociolinguistics of Diaspora: Latino Practices, Identities and Ideologies (pp. 83-101)
ISBN : 9780415712996 | Publisher : Routledge

Telephone conversation openings across languages, cultures and settings (2010-08-17)
Márquez Reiter, Rosina and Luke, Kang-kwong
In: Trosborg, Anna ed. Pragmatics across languages and cultures. Handbooks of Pragmatics [HOPS] (7) (pp. 103-138)
ISBN : 978-3-11-021444-4 | Publisher : De Gruyter Mouton

How to get rid of a telemarking agent? Facework strategies in an intercultural service call (2009-05-25)
Márquez Reiter, R.
In: Bargiela-Chiappini, F. and Haugh, M. eds. Face, Communication and Social Interaction(3)
ISBN : 9781845539139 | Publisher : Equinox

Politeness studies (2009)
Márquez Reiter, Rosina
In: Bargiela-Chiappini, Francesca ed. The Handbook of Business Discourse(13) (166 - 179)
ISBN : 748628010 | Publisher : Edinburgh University Press | Published : Edinburgh

Les interactions en site commercial à Montevideo et Édimbourg : « engagement » et « considération envers autrui » (2008)
Márquez Reiter, Rosina and Stewart, Miranda
In: Kerbrat-Orecchioni, Catherine and Traverso, Véronique eds. Les Interactions en site Commercial. Invariants et variants(9) (277 - 302)
ISBN : 2847881344 | Publisher : ENS Editions | Published : Lyon

The pragmatics of Spanish beyond Spain (2004)
Márquez Reiter, R. and Placencia, M. E.
In: Márquez Reiter, R. and Placencia, M. E. eds. Current Trends in the Pragmatics of Spanish. Pragmatics & Beyond New Series (123) (15 - 30)
Publisher : John Benjamins | Published : Amsterdam

Displaying closeness and respectful distance in Montevidean and Quiteño service encounters (2004)
Márquez Reiter, R. and Placencia, M. E.
In: Márquez Reiter, R. and Placencia, M. E. eds. Current Trends in the Pragmatics of Spanish. Pragmatics & Beyond New Series (123) (121 - 155)
ISBN : 1588115208 | Publisher : John Benjamins | Published : Amsterdam/Philadelphia

Pragmatic variation in Spanish: external request modifications in Uruguayan and Peninsular Spanish (2003-10-16)
Márquez Reiter, Rosina
In: Núñez-Cedeño, Rafael; López, Luis and Cameron, Richard eds. A Romance Perspective on Language Knowledge and Use. (166 - 180)
Publisher : John Benjamins

Estrategias de cortesía en el español hablado en Montevideo. Lo cortés no quita lo valiente (2002)
Márquez Reiter, Rosina
In: Elena Placencia, Maria and Bravo, Diana eds. Actos de habla y cortesía en español (89 - 106)
ISBN : 3-89586-337-8 | Publisher : Lincom

The teaching of ‘politeness’ in the language classroom (1998)
Marquez Reiter, R
In: Vázquez Orta, I. and Guillén Galve, I. eds. Perspectivas Pragmáticas en Lingüística Aplicada (291- 298)
ISBN : 84-7013-265-22 | Publisher : Anubar | Published : Zaragoza

Sensitising Spanish learners of English to cultural differences: the case of politeness (1997)
Márquez Reiter, Rosina
In: Pütz, Martin ed. The Cultural Context in Foreign Language Teaching.. DASK – Duisburger Arbeiten zur Sprach- und Kulturwissenschaft / Duisburg Papers on Research in Language and Culture (32) (143 - 155)
ISBN : 9783653019254 | Publisher : Peter Lang | Published : Frankfurt

Morality in Discourse (2025)
Haugh, Michael and Márquez Reiter, Rosina
Haugh, Michael and Márquez Reiter, Rosina eds.
Oxford Studies in Sociolinguistics
ISBN : 9780197618066 | Publisher : Oxford University Press (In Press) | Published : Oxford

Language Practices and Processes among Latin Americans in Europe (2023-01)
Márquez Reiter, Rosina and Patiño-Santos, Adriana eds.
Routledge Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics
ISBN : 978-0-367-67300-0 | Publisher : Routledge | Published : Oxon and New York