Category of politeness in the aspect of intercultural communication and communicative and pragmatic features of speech etiquette

Abstract

The main subject of this research in the field of sociolinguistics can be consisted of linguistic phenomenon
and the interaction itself. Language of real communication is a source of data for linguistic
analysis. On the other hand, knowledge of linguistic phenomenon can be used for justification of processes
and results of interaction. This kind of research lies in the field of interactive sociolinguistics.
Interactive sociolinguistics primarily has respect to culturally identified interactive strategies. The aim of
this research is to discuss the speech acts of the request and apology in intercultural and inter-linguistic
aspect. More specifically, research explores relationship between politeness and indirectness. As far as
request should be formulated in accordance with the social and cultural norms, it is considered as “a
threat to negative public person of the addressee” (Brown and Levinson, 1987). In this research, multivariate
discursive tasks (MDT) were used for data collection. MDT is a method of data collection, with
the help of which comparable data in different languages can be gained. It allows us to draw conclusions
about norms of politeness, inherent in particular culture. Data is based on answers of students with
Bosnian and Turkish background, and students at the University of Burch, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Forty-three first and second year students of English language and literature faculty attended in
research. The research is based on qualitative analysis of data. Here with, quantitative analysis is used
for cross-cultural comparison. The description of data analysis contains variable as well, connected with
gender affiliation, which is necessary for further in-depth analysis. The results show that strategies of
expressing the request and apology vary depending on culture and gender affiliation.
Key words: politeness, request, apology, intercultural pragmatics, discourse strategy.