Politeness strategies in Dagbani a socio-pragmatic approach

Abstract

This study offers a systematic socio-pragmatic discussion of politeness strategies in Dagbani, a Gur (Mabia) language belonging to the Oti-Volta branch in the Niger-Congo family. The work focuses on both linguistic and non-linguistic strategies that are employed in the language for the coding of politeness. It employs Brown and Levinson’s notion of ‘face’ as the theoretical framework. The study explores some key thematic areas, which include the correlation between power and politeness, the possible relationship between gender and politeness as well as the correlation between age and politeness strategies in Dagbani under two broad categories-linguistic and nonlinguistic politeness strategies. It was found out that there exists a correlation between power, age, gender and politeness. Thus, politeness strategies are marked along the lines of these social determinants. The research also shows that honorifics are used extensively as politeness strategies among speakers of Dagbani. Another interesting finding, which requires additional research in future, is how women are required by societal expectations and cultural underpinnings to use more politeness strategies both verbal and non-verbal in their daily discourse as well as their general behaviour. The study concludes that politeness strategies among the Dagbamba manifest in various forms including sitting arrangement in palaces, dress codes, the use of proverbs and euphemisms as well as linguistic hedges. In all, the effective use of these politeness strategies shows one’s communicative competence in Dagbani.