Politeness and pragmatic competence in Thai speakers of English
This study examines the language use and specifically the level of politeness of Thai speakers of English when confronted with face threatening acts related to their daily life and workplace: requests, complaints and disagreements. Data were collected by role play and discourse completion test from people employed in hotels and travel agencies, and from Rajabhat university students. Brown and Levinsonâs politeness theory was used as a framework to analyse and interpret the data. The overall results showed that negative politeness is the most common strategy for all groups, followed by bald on record and positive politeness. Their participantsâ choice of politeness strategies in part reflected their occupational identities. For the hotel workers, negative politeness is the chosen strategy in most scenarios, and the focus is on showing deference to and maintaining distance from their interlocutors. For the other groups, although negative politeness is still the most common strategy, positive politeness and bald on record are found quite often. Use of both negative and positive politeness suggests that respondents attach importance to avoiding confrontation and showing solidarity as well as to direct expression.
Srisuruk, Patana
Politeness and pragmatic competence in Thai speakers of English. This study examines the language use and specifically the level of politeness of Thai speakers of English when confronted with face threatening acts related to their daily life and workplace: requests, complaints and disagreements. Data were collected by role play and discourse completion test from people employed in hotels and travel agencies, and from Rajabhat university students. Brown and Levinsonâs politeness theory was used as a framework to analyse and interpret the data. The overall results showed that negative politeness is the most common strategy for all groups, followed by bald on record and positive politeness. Their participantsâ choice of politeness strategies in part reflected their occupational identities. For the hotel workers, negative politeness is the chosen strategy in most scenarios, and the focus is on showing deference to and maintaining distance from their interlocutors. For the other groups, although negative politeness is still the most common strategy, positive politeness and bald on record are found quite often. Use of both negative and positive politeness suggests that respondents attach importance to avoiding confrontation and showing solidarity as well as to direct expression.
politeness pragmatic competence thai speaker_english study_examines language_use specifically level politeness thai speaker_english confront face threaten act relate daily_life workplace request complaint disagreement data_collect role_play discourse_completion test people employ travel agency university_student brown_levinson_politeness theory use framework_analyse interpret data overall show negative politeness common strategy group follow record positive politeness participant choice politeness_strategy part reflect occupational identity worker negative politeness choose strategy scenario focus show deference maintain distance interlocutor group although negative politeness still common strategy positive politeness record find quite often use negative_positive politeness suggest respondent attach importance avoid confrontation show solidarity well direct expression