Politeness and Cross-linguistic Influence: The Speech Act of Request by Greek speakers of English

Tsimpiri, Maria (2019) Politeness and Cross-linguistic Influence: The Speech Act of Request by Greek speakers of English. Doctoral thesis, University of East Anglia.

Preview

PDF Download (5MB) | Preview

Abstract

The present research project examines whether Greek speakers of English (GRL1) as an L2 transfer their L1 Greek requestive pragmatic patterns in the target language. The underpinning notion of the study is politeness, with regard to (in)directness. The focal objective of the project is to determine if pragmatic competence in L2 is achieved, and if not, why. Length of residence in the target country is accounted for as an affecting factor of pragmatic competence. The informants of the study were 150, divided equally in three groups; the native English speakers (ENL1), the Greek speakers of English (GRL1-GR), who have never visited or lived in England, and the Greek speakers of English (GRL1-EN), who resided in England. The data collection process involved a Discourse Completion Test (DCT) and two judgements tests in the format of Likert scales. The DCT aimed to extract the requestive patterns of ENL1 and GRL1, in order to compare them. The Likert scale tests were designed to extract results on how ENL1 and GRL1 perceive politeness in requestive scenarios. The elicitation of the data was conducted with Cross-Cultural Speech Act Realisation Patterns project for the DCT and with statistical analysis for the Likert scale tests. The overall results demonstrate a preference of GRL1 for conventionally indirect request patterns in L2 English, a finding that can either be interpreted as positive transfer or adjustability. GRL1-GR favour directness in scenarios with high power of the speaker over the hearer. GRL1-EN mirror ENL1’s politeness considerations more than GRL1-GR, who seem to perceive politeness differently.

Item Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Arts and Humanities > School of Politics, Philosophy, Language and Communication Studies
Depositing User:	Nicola Veasy
Date Deposited:	01 Jun 2023 10:12
Last Modified:	01 Jun 2023 10:12
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/92240
DOI:

Downloads

Actions (login required)

View Item