‘Please’ as an impoliteness marker in English discourse

This study explored how Iranian EFL learners and native English speakers conceptualized the impolite use of "please" in interaction. Moreover, attempts were made to examine whether Iranian EFL learners and native English speakers differ in using the impolite version of please in their comm...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Eurasian journal of applied linguistics (Online) 2020, Vol.6 (2), p.243-263
Main Authors: HEİDARİ DARANİ, Laya, MOGHADDAM, Mostafa Morady
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Computational Linguistics
Contrastive Linguistics
English (Second Language)
Foreign Countries
Indo European Languages
Interpersonal Communication
Language Usage
Native Speakers
Pragmatics
Second Language Instruction
Second Language Learning
Speech Acts
Undergraduate Students
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Summary:This study explored how Iranian EFL learners and native English speakers conceptualized the impolite use of "please" in interaction. Moreover, attempts were made to examine whether Iranian EFL learners and native English speakers differ in using the impolite version of please in their communications. To this end, informal conversations of 20 Iranian EFL learners in pairs and small groups were recorded and transcribed. The impolite version of "please" in these conversations was compared with similar data from the Bergen Corpus of London Teenage Language (COLT). According to results, several functions of the 'impolite' "please" were found among Iranian EFL learners and native English speakers. Firstly, "please" was used to establish or confirm harmonious relationships between the speakers; it was used as rapport-strengthening impoliteness marker. Secondly, 'mock impoliteness' was conceptualized to bear positive meaning since it was interpreted as an amusing or entertaining remark. In teenagers' circles, entertainment skills whereby impolite "please" was employed were highly valued. Thirdly, participants adhered to 'repetition', 'reformulation', and 'escalation' in their interactions to show their creative impoliteness. Finally, it was concluded that certain functions of the impolite "please" were shared between the Iranian EFL learners and native English speakers, while some functions were not shared between these two groups.
ISSN:2149-1135
DOI:10.32601/ejal.775805