IMPOLITENESS STRATEGIES USED BY CHARACTERS IN J. P. CLARK’S THREE PLAYS (SONGS OF A GOAT, THE MASQUERADE AND THE RAFT)

Abstract

This paper examines impoliteness strategies used by characters in J. P. Clark’s three plays: Songs of a Goat, The Masquerade and The Raft. The plays focus on Ijaw cultural cosmic orders, marital discord and existential despair. Characters often violate customs and politeness norms to express anger, assert dominance or navigate tragic crises. Culpeper’s (2005) impoliteness model is adopted as theoretical framework, while qualitative descriptive approach is employed as method of data analyses. The result shows that the characters deployed impoliteness strategies such as bald-on-record impoliteness, positive impoliteness, negative impoliteness and withhold politeness to attack one another’s face needs. The dominant impoliteness strategy the characters used to attack one another’s face needs is bald-on-record and it was found 16 times with 35.56 per cent of the total use of impoliteness strategies in the plays. The second dominant impoliteness strategy the characters employed to attack one another’s face is positive impoliteness and it occurred 15 times with 33.33 per cent of the total use of impoliteness strategies in the plays.  The third predominant impoliteness strategy that some characters used to attack face needs of other characters is negative impoliteness; it occurred 13 times with 28.89 per cent of the total use of impoliteness strategies in the plays. The fourth predominant impoliteness strategy the characters used to attack the face wants of others is withhold politeness and it occurred 1 time with 2.22 per cent of the total use of impoliteness strategies in the plays.  The study concludes that knowledge of impoliteness strategies may provide valuable insights for improving social interaction protocols.