POLITENESS PRINCIPLES AND FACE ACTS AMONG ENGLISH AND YORUBA INTERACTANTS

Abstract

The contact of English with the multilingual Nigerian environment has led to different variations in the use and usage of the language in the Nigerian social context. In the same vein, the use of the language in the Nigerian socio-cultural context has resulted in a fillip, not only in the employment of the indigenized variety of the language, but also in the growth and the utilization of the face-acts and politeness principles among Nigerian interactants. It has been discovered through this research that the politeness and face-acts phenomena have become commonplace among participants of varied social, regional and occupational backgrounds. This paper has hence been used to analyze the politeness principles and face acts in the Nigerian English and Yoruba usages. Sampled data were gathered through the participant’s observation and oral interview. The sampled data were analysed ,using Brown and Levinson (1978, 1987) politeness principles expanded by Thomas (1995, 2000) and Bach and Harnih’s(1979)mutual contextual belief as theoretical framework .