Face threatening and impoliteness strategies in postgraduate students and administrative staff’s interactions in Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka
Abstract
strategies employed by postgraduate students and administrative
staff at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka in interactions. The
rarity of work on impoliteness in postgraduate education in
Nigeria and the need to investigate whether the employment of
impoliteness strategies in interaction leads to communication
breakdown informed the choice of the topic. Data for the study
were collected using a discourse completion task questionnaire,
non-participant observation and a face-to-face unstructured
interview. Through a simple random technique, a total of 100
postgraduate students admitted to the university during the
2016/2017 academic session were purposively selected from six
faculties: Education, Arts, Social Sciences, Biosciences,
Engineering and Management Sciences. Fifty administrative
members of staff who interact with the postgraduate students
were randomly selected. Data for the study were analysed using
Culpeper’s (1996 and 2005) theory of impoliteness. Being a
qualitative and quantitative study in a mixed paradigm, an
interactional textual analysis was employed in the qualitative
analysis while a simple percentage was employed in the
quantitative data analysis. Findings show the extent of polite and
impolite language use by the postgraduate students and the
administrative staff. The study also reveals that the administrative staff studied employed bald on-record, ignoring, shouting,
indirectness, obscure and secretive language, interruption among
others while the postgraduate students under study employed
interruption, bald-on record, negative impoliteness strategy,
positive impoliteness strategy and shouting. The study concludes
that there is need for orientation on language use among
postgraduate students and the members of the administrative staff
in Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka.
Full Text:
PDFReferences
Adebisi, T.O. (2015). Investigating the perlocutionary thrust of
language of propaganda in the political writing on Nigeria’s
general election.(Unpublished Project Report) Federal
University, Oye-Ekiti.
Adedimeji M. A. (2005). The language of politics in Nigeria
conflicts and resolution. A Paper Presented at the National
Conference on Crises and Conflict Management in Nigeria
since 1980 at the Nigerian Defence Academy, Kaduna from
th – 17th June, 2005.
Akuezuilo, E.O. and Agu, N. ( 2007). Research and statistics in
education and social sciences. Awka: NuelCenti Publishers
and Academic Press Ltd.
Archer, E. D. (2008). Verbal aggression and impoliteness:
Related or synonymous? In D. Bousfield and M. A. Locher
(Eds), Impoliteness in language studies on its interplay with
power in theory and practice (pp 181–210).Berlin: Mouton
de Gruyter.
Arikewuyo, M.O. (2006). University management and staff
unions in Nigeria: Issues and challenges. SA–eDUC Journal
, (1): 15–22
Ajayi, T. M. (2018). Impoliteness strategies in the Facebook
posts of Nigerian electorates in 2019 presidential election in
Nigeria. Journal of Linguistics and Language in Education.
Vol. 12. (1) 72–91.
Oboko, U. & Ikechukwu, G. Preorcjah Vol. 5(1), May 2020 (Special Edition)
Aremu, M.A. (2016). Being politically impolite: A community of
practice (Cof P) Analysis of Invective songs of western
Nigerian politicians. International Journal of Society,
Culture and Language, 4(1): 103– 116
Bousfield, D. (2008). Impoliteness in interaction. Amsterdam:
John Benjamins Publishing Company
Brown, P. & Levinson, S. C. (1978). Politeness: Some universals
in language usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Culpeper, J. (1996). Towards an anatomy of impoliteness.
Journal of Pragmatics 25:349–367.
Culpeper, J., Derek, B., and Wichman, A. (2003). Impoliteness
revisited with special reference to dynamic and prosodic
aspects. Journal of Pragmatics 35 (10/11):1545–1579.
Culpeper, J. (2005).Impoliteness and entertainment in the
television quiz show: The weakest link. Journal of Politeness
Research. 1. (35-72).
Culpeper, J. (2008). Reflections on impoliteness, relational work
and power. In Bousfield, D. and Locher, M. A. (Eds),
Impoliteness in language studies on its interplay with power
in theory and practice(pp 17- 44).Berlin: Mouton de
Gruyter.
Culpeper, J. (2010). Conventionalised impoliteness formulae.
Journal of Pragmatics, (42) 3232-3245
Culpeper, J. (2011). Impoliteness: Using language to cause
offence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Crystal, D.(1987).The Cambridge encyclopedia of
language.(3rded). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Dambazau, A. B. (2015). Education, security and national
development: The case of Nigeria. In A. A. Adenrinto, O.
Adediran and A. I. Alarape (Eds), Higher education and
Oboko, U. & Ikechukwu, G. Preorcjah Vol. 5(1), May 2020 (Special Edition)
national development ( pp. 1–30). Ibadan: Ibadan
University Press.
Duze, C. (2010). An analysis of problems encountered by
postgraduate students in Nigerian Universities. Journal of
Social Sciences, 22(2), 129–137.
Ekundayo, H.T. and Ajayi, I. A. (2009). Towards effective
management of university education in Nigeria.
International Ngo Journal, 4(8): 342–347.
Gu, Y. (1990). Politeness phenomena in modern Chinese. Journal
of Pragmatics 14 (2), 237–257.
Grice, H. P. (1975). Logic and conversation. In Speech Acts
[Syntax and Semantics 3], P.
Cole and J. Morgan (Eds.), 41–58. New York: Academic Press.
Holmes, J. (1995). Women, men and politeness. London:
Longman
Igun, S.E. (2010). The difficulties and motivation of postgraduate
students in selected Nigerian Universities. Library
Philosophy and Practice, 1–6.
Jija, T. (2012).Language as a tool for conflict management and
resolution in Nigeria. Journal of Igbo Language and
Linguistics (5), 112-120. < http: // www. Linguistics
afrikana.com>
Leech, G. N. (1983). Principles of pragmatics. London:
Longman.
Leech, G.N. (2014). The pragmatics of politeness. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
Locher, Miriam.(2004).Power and Politeness in Action:
Disagreements in Oral Communication. NewYork: Mouton
de Gruyter.
Locher, M.A. and Bousfield D. (2008). Impoliteness and power
in language.In D. Bousfield and M. A. Locher (Eds).
Oboko, U. & Ikechukwu, G. Preorcjah Vol. 5(1), May 2020 (Special Edition)
Impoliteness in language studies on its interplay with power
in theory and practice(pp 1-16).Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Mills, S. (2003). Gender and Politeness. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Mills, S. (2007). Gender and Politeness. International Journal of
Human Communication 13(4): 607–688.
Mullay, L. (1999). Linguistic politeness and sex differences in
BBC Radio broadcast interview.
Leeds Working Papers in Linguistics and Phonetics. 7, 19–42
Nasir, F. I.(2015). ASSU struggles and the revitalization of
public university education in Nigeria. In A. A. Adenrinto,
O. Adediran and A. I. Alarape (Eds), Higher education and
national development (pp. 69–110). Ibadan: Ibadan
University Press.
Nnuta, M.C. and Ezeifeka, C. (2017). Verbal hygiene and ethnic
politics in Nigeria: A study of selected newspaper print and
online publications. Ogirisi: A New Journal of African
Studies(13) 46–69.
Osaheni, O., Onyenania, G.O. and Momoh A. ( 2017). Post
graduate studies in Nigerian Universities: Issues and
implications. Continental Journal of Arts and Humanities 9
(1) 32–35.
Sharafudeen, K. (2018). S Impoliteness in Muslim discourse: A
study of Nigerian Friday sermons. International Journal of
Linguistics and Communication. Vol. 6. (2) 20 –34.
Watts, R. J. (1991). Power in family discourse. Berlin: Mouton de
Gruyter
Watts, R. J. (2003). Politeness. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.