Face-Threatening Acts and Face Management in MTN Cameroon Text Messages: A Sociolinguistic and Pragmatic Approach (Published)
Face-threatening act is ubiquitous in every single interaction. In conversations, speakers use linguistic strategies that may cause threats to their face or hearer’s face revealing the underlying nature of face-to-face interactions. This paper explores face threats in MTN Cameroon text messages from a sociolinguistic and pragmatic approach. It is a qualitative study that grounds on Lakoff (1973), Brown and Levinson (1987) politeness theories. The data collected are 21 text messages from MTN mobile phones to which the content analysis method was applied. The findings reveal that MTN text messages, at the sociolinguistic level, embody social variables such as power and status, honorifics, solidarity, and code-switching, which distance the speaker from the recipient or socially link them, thus influencing their face positively or negatively. At the pragmatic level, face-threatening acts attack the hearer’s negative face, the speaker’s negative face and the speaker’s positive face. Face threat acts range between orders, requests, advice, compliments, and flatteries. There is an overwhelming use of directives in text messages, advertisements in particular, implying that the marketing service of MTN influences customers’ face negatively saving the face of the company. Very few messages, advice or warnings, carry markers of politeness inducing that MTN prioritises the company’s profits over customers’ ethos. The study infers that the language of MTN text messages persistently puts pressure on subscribers, imposes their choices and shows low insights of friendliness when it comes to messages of advertisement. As a result of the shortcomings observed, the researcher recommends that the marketing service reconsiders the language of the text forwarded to MTN subscribers while adopting a soft language to mitigate conflicts with customers.
Keywords: MTN Cameroon, Management, Pragmatics, Sociolinguistics, face-threatening act
An Analysis of Jordanian Jokes: A Pragmatic Study of Humour (Published)
The present study is a pragmatic analysis of Jordanian jokes within the framework of Grice’s conversational implicature. The study aims at identifying the violation of Grice’s Maxims that occur in Jordanian jokes, knowing the implied meaning of the violated Gricean Maxims in these jokes, and recognising the factors that influence the interpretation of these jokes. The sample of the study consists of 6 jokes elicited from WhatsApp and Facebook. The researcher categorised the data based on their type of violation by applying Grice’s theory. Then, he analysed the implied meaning by using the theory of conversational implicature which was proposed by Grice. The findings of the study revealed that Jordanians violate the maxims to create laughter and to communicate social and economic meanings. Jordanians use humour created by the violation of the maxims to soften criticism or satire. In addition, the study showed that cultural and background knowledge plays a significant role in interpreting these jokes.
Keywords: Grice’s Maxims, Implicature, Pragmatics, humour, jokes
An Analysis of Jordanian Jokes (Published)
The present study is a pragmatic analysis of Jordanian jokes within the framework of Grice’s conversational implicature. The study aims at identifying the violation of Grice’s Maxims that occur in Jordanian jokes, knowing the implied meaning of the violated Gricean Maxims in these jokes, and recognising the factors that influence the interpretation of these jokes. The sample of the study consists of 6 jokes elicited from WhatsApp and Facebook. The researcher categorised the data based on their type of violation by applying Grice’s theory. Then, he analysed the implied meaning by using the theory of conversational implicature which was proposed by Grice. The findings of the study revealed that Jordanians violate the maxims to create laughter and to communicate social and economic meanings. Jordanians use humour created by the violation of the maxims to soften criticism or satire. In addition, the study showed that cultural and background knowledge plays a significant role in interpreting these jokes.
Keywords: Grice’s Maxims, Implicature, Pragmatics, humour, jokes