A Pragmatic Analysis of Politeness Strategies in Requesting
200M046 K. K.
This thesis is a study of linguistic phenomena in requesting in English. To begin with, we will observe the communication process in requesting. This process is composed of, at least, three factors: the speaker, the hearer and their language. The speaker is directed to the final goal, when he/she has a request in his/her mind. As "the generator of meanings" (Leech, 1985, p. 54), the speaker makes some utterances in order to achieve the goals. On the other hand, the hearer, "the interpreter of meaning," is expected to reconstruct the communicative intention of the speaker. We must bear in mind that achieving the goal depends mainly on the hearer, not on the speaker. It is because if the hearer fails to interpret the communicative intention of the speaker, it cannot be regarded as requesting. The speaker's violation of the Conversational Maxims (Grice, 1975) will help the hearer's interpretation.
Next, we will focus on politeness in this process. It is caused by some social gaps between the speaker and the hearer. According to Brown and Levinson (1987), we should pay attention to "social distance," "power" and "imposition." The speaker is required to reduce such gaps. In other words, the speaker needs to achieve the social goals before achieving the final one.
Furthermore, in a metaphorical sense of a "war," we will examine the politeness strategies. The speaker needs the linguistic devices and the conversational strategies which will lead to achieving the social goals. The speaker is, so to speak, a strategist. The selection of them depends on the social gaps. Computing them correctly, the speaker selects the strategies appropriate to the situation. Indirectness is the helpful measure of the level of politeness.
Finally, we will notice that politeness is one of the important factors in one's socialization. In L1 situations, it is their parents' job to teach children repeatedly the importance of saying "please" and "thank you." Children start to develop their social competence with minding their p's and q's. Their common goal is to be socialized "in the types of behavior and language use sanctioned by and typifying his social group" (Byron, 1999). On the other hand, in L2 and FL situations, things seem different. We must keep in mind that learners' production of illocutionary acts is sometimes interfered by their L1 knowledge. The communication process in requesting and the classification of the politeness strategies proposed here would help learners and instructors to recognize the difference and enhance the development of sociolinguistic competence.