A Pragmatic Analysis Of Politeness In Gichuka Request Expressions

ABSTRACT

Gichuka is a dialect of the Kimeru language - a Bantu language of the Niger Congo

family- spoken by the Chuka people of Tharaka-Nithi County, Chuka Igamba-

Ng’ombe Constituency. Chuka people reside in the Eastern slopes of Mount Kenya.

The aim of this study was to analyze the politeness strategies used in Gichuka

request expressions. Politeness is a social norm that is expected in any society and is

important in maintaining cordial relationships in everyday life, especially in an

aspect such as requests. Requests are imposive in nature and speakers attach much

importance in protecting face from such imposition but such importance varies from

culture to culture. The objectives of this study were: to describe the forms of Gichuka

request expressions; to analyze the politeness strategies used in Gichuka request

expressions and to discuss how the prevailing social and situational factors influence

the choice of the politeness strategies in Gichuka requests. The study was guided by

the Politeness Theory by Brown and Levinson; Relevance Theory by Sperber and

Wilson and Blum-Kulka classification of request strategies. It utilized the descriptive

research design to study social events conducted in Gichuka. Six Gichuka social

events, which were purposively sampled, were recorded using a voice recorder and

transcribed into guiding cards while contextual information was recorded using an

observation schedule. The communicative principle of relevance by Sperber and

Wilson guided the researcher in identifying one hundred and twenty eight request

expressions from the Gichuka communicative events. The study established three

things: that Gichuka request expressions mostly assume the mood derivable form;

that Gichuka request expressions conform to Brown and Levinson Theory of

Politeness and the most commonly employed strategies are the negative and positive

politeness strategies and that power and distance influence the choice of politeness

strategies in Gichuka requests. This study significantly enhances the analysis of the

Gichuka language variety and adds to the existing knowledge on pragmatic analysis

of politeness in requests in various languages of the world, and other Bantu

languages.