When Words Protect Face: A Pragmatic Study of Politeness Strategies in Gender-Related Conversations
Abstract
Language is a strong tool in social and communicative functions by which individuals express believes, negotiate identities and build social relations. The issue of feminism, gender equality, traditional gender roles, and gender discrimination are very sensitive topics that intersect with ethnic, cultural, and personal values, experiences and ideologies. Speakers are often using politeness strategies in these situations to express views and to avoid conflict and trouble in interpersonal relations. The current study examines the use of politeness strategies in the discussion of gender related issues by exploring the theory of politeness outlined by Brown and Levinson (1987).
The research is qualitative in nature as it seeks to examine the language used by the participants in their aversions toward debates on opinions on feminism, gender equality, gender roles and gender discrimination. Data collection included semi-structured informal interviews with 15university students. The questions were open-ended and included five questions for the interview schedule that aimed to get participants to voice their experiences and opinions on current issues affecting gender. An inductive coding process called thematic analysis was used to analyze the collected responses, and Brown and Levinson's politeness theory was used for identifying and interpreting uses of positive politeness, negative politeness, off-record and bald-on-record strategies.
The results show that the participants were generally inclined to adopt politeness strategies in responding to sensitive gender related issues. The most common strategy was negative politeness, an attempt by participants to keep their own opinions from being imposed upon others and to respect others' opinions. Positive politeness was also frequently evidenced when participants wanted to find relationships and to express solidarity with one another. Bald-on-record appeared to be used mainly when the participant was working for change in society, while off-record strategies were used in situations with potentially controversial or sensitive viewpoints. The study clearly illustrates the linkages between linguistic options and social responsiveness, cultural norms, and interpersonal interactional face management.
This research is what compares these three elements of language, politeness and gender discourse among the university students and how its relationship with each other. This research was carried out to examine the relation between these elements namely language, politeness and gender discourse among the university students and how their relationship is. It also fills a void that exists in the literature in the way that young adults manage to engage in delicate gender related topics in language in the classroom and social situation.
