Doctoral Degrees (African Languages)
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Browsing Doctoral Degrees (African Languages) by Author "Dlali, Mawande,1965-"
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- ItemPoliteness theory and requests in Xhosa(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2001-04) Dlali, Mawande,1965-; Du Plessis, J. A.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of African Languages.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study investigates how politeness may be employed in requests in Xhosa. While numerous studies on speech act have been conducted in different languages, the investigation of speech acts in African Languages, particularly Xhosa, shows no such progress. This study attempts to fill this gap by examining the notions of politeness in requests as perceived among the Xhosas. With the study of speech acts, two instances of meaning have been identified. In the first meaning a speaker utters a sentence and means exactly and literally what he says. In the second meaning the speaker utters a sentence with an additional illocution with a different prepositional content. It has been established that various meanings playa role in the understanding of indirect requests. This finding is based on the theory of Brown and Levinson's (1987) face work of politeness. Scholars like Clark and Schunk (1980) argue that the politeness of response is governed by the attentiveness hypothesis which states that the more attentive the hearer is to all aspects of the speaker's request, within reason, the more polite he is. One of the most common motivations for politeness is a request. Brown and Levinson (1987) define politeness as the manifestation of respect for and recognition of another's face. They delineate face into two components: negative face and positive face. Positive face is the way a person wants to be regarded, admired, or approved by others and to be treated as a friend. On the other hand, negative face is the person's desire not to be imposed on by other people. A request threatens face in the sense that it imposes on the hearer, that is why in some cases requests call for mitigation, so as to compensate for their impositive effect on the hearer. Various subcategories of requests within which negative politeness may appear have been established, as well as the various ways in which these subcategories of requests may be linguistically expressed in Xhosa. Three distribution types of request categories with negative politeness have been found: high frequency, No very regular and negligible. Requests with the highest frequency may be divided into three subcategories: compliance; information; and action. These subcategories demand non-threatening strategies: compliance demands obedience, action demand doing things with a desired result, and information demands knowledge from a person. These three are thus face-threatening acts, which demand respect for the hearer's antonomy. Such requests may seriously threaten the hearer's negative face. If no politeness strategy is attempted, these requests will be viewed as most threatening acts. The ten negative politeness strategies of Brown and Levinson did not apply to Xhosa because they have been developed for a Western language. In the place of these strategies, it has been found that negative politeness may be expressed in Xhosa through certain subcategories as above, but also through certain pragmatic functions by means of which negative politeness may be applied to avert a face-threatening act. Brown and Levinson (1987) list fifteen positive politeness strategies. In the case of the four Xhosa books, which were analyzed, only eight strategies for positive politeness were found. These strategies can be divided into two groups: high frequency and negligible. The most regular strategies are: seek agreement, give or ask for reasons, address forms, presupposition, and those, which include both speaker and hearer. An explanation for the high frequency of these strategies is to be found within positive politeness. Positive politeness forms emphasize closeness between speaker and hearer and it can be seen as a solidarity strategy. Thus, a face saving act, which is concerned with the person's positive face, will show solidarity.