Some problems for politeness theory: deference and directness in Xhosa performative requests

Gough, David

doi:10.1080/02572117.1995.10587067

Cited by 34 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…20: 147-161 149 African societies. The limited research into politeness in African languages (Adegbija, 1989;Nwoye, 1992;Wood, 1992;De Kadt, 1994;De Kadt, 1995;Gough, 1995;De Kadt, 1996;De Kadt, 1998) has demonstrated that 'face' in African contexts is a different construct to 'face' in western culture. 'Face' in African contexts is a public property that is shared and cared for by all.…”

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confidence: 97%

Gendering politeness: Zulu-speaker identities at the University of Natal, Durban

Ige

Kadt

2002

Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies

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confidence: 97%

Gendering politeness: Zulu-speaker identities at the University of Natal, Durban

Ige

Kadt

2002

Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies

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“…The phenomenal explosion of intercultural encounters has strengthened the position of English as the lingua franca par excellence, the language of choice to facilitate transglossic communication 3 . Similarly, the study of pragmatics of African languages has received little attention, a sampling of which is: de Kadt 1992de Kadt , 1994de Kadt , 1995de Kadt , 1998bGough 1995;Kasanga 2003. Similarly, the study of pragmatics of African languages has received little attention, a sampling of which is: de Kadt 1992de Kadt , 1994de Kadt , 1995de Kadt , 1998bGough 1995;Kasanga 2003.…”

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confidence: 99%

Cross-cultural linguistic realization of politeness: A study of apologies in English and Setswana

Kasanga¹,

Lwanga-Lumu²

2007

Journal of Politeness Research. Language, Behaviour, Culture

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The article reports on a contrastive study of apologies in native and "nativized" varieties of English and the South African variety of Setswana. Quantitative data were elicited by means of discourse completion tasks (DCT) along the lines of the Cross Cultural Speech Act Realization Patterns (CCSARP) project's framework. Qualitative data were elicited by means of video-taped role plays. A statistical analysis of the DCT supports the prediction of significant differences in the use of pragmalinguistic resources in apologizing between, on the one hand, Setswana and the nativized variety of English, and, on the other, the native variety of English. This is especially true of the use of the responsibility strategy. There, thus, seems to be a reasonable avenue for theorizing from the speakers' predominant politeness and apology realization on language-specific patterns. Apologizing is a prime case of face-work because it is a redressive speech act to repair an offensive or face-threatening act and, thus, restore harmonious, orderly, or friendly interaction. However, our findings call for an interpretation of group-or community-based face, not an individual one. For this purpose, we offer an ethnographic analysis inspired by the "cultural scripts" framework. Finally, these findings can be used to foster awareness about different sociopragmatic features and pragmalinguistic means and the potential for pragmatic failure in different-culture samelanguage interaction.

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“…I would have expected the explicit perfomatives to be rated the most polite because according to Gough ( 1995) perfomative requests are highly deferential in Zulu. Since Luganda and Zulu are Bantu languages I would expect them to have typologically similar perceptions, but instead in Luganda, the performatives are ranked fifth on the politeness scale ..…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Studies conducted within the CCSARP project (based on Brown and Levinson's politeness theory) suggest that both notions need to be re-exam-86 ined from culture to culture, (Janney and Arndt (1993), Werkhofer (1992) de Kadt (1992Kadt ( , 1994Kadt ( , 1995 and Gough ( 1995) ). Following this suggestion my main concern in this study is to examine both notions within the Kiganda culture.…”

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confidence: 99%

Politeness and indirectness revisited

Lwanga-Lumu¹

1999

South African Journal of African Languages

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This article describes a study undertaken to investigate whether the notions of politeness and indirectness are considered related in requests fonnulated by native and non-native speakers. The request data were collected from two groups of speakers, namely: 100 Luganda and 100 Luganda English university students. For data collection, a Discourse Completion Test (OCT) questionnaire was designed to elicit from the respondents a speech act response in the form of a request. Using the nine point directness and politeness scales adopted from Blum-Kulka's 1987 study, respondents were asked to rate the responses from the DCTs in terms of directness and politeness. Results indicated that indirectness does not necessarily communicate politeness in Luganda. These findings are in line with Blum-Kulka's ( 1987) claim that in contrast to the contemporary theories of politeness. indirectness as perceived by Hebrew speakers does not indicate politeness.

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Some problems for politeness theory: deference and directness in Xhosa performative requests

Cited by 34 publications

References 2 publications

Gendering politeness: Zulu-speaker identities at the University of Natal, Durban

Gendering politeness: Zulu-speaker identities at the University of Natal, Durban

Cross-cultural linguistic realization of politeness: A study of apologies in English and Setswana

Politeness and indirectness revisited

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