Exponents of politeness in Brunei English

Bibliographic Data

ID2268949
AuthorsDebbie G E Ho (0000-0002-9673-2614, Universiti Brunei Darussalam, corresponding author)
Year2009
Volume28
Issue1
Pages35-51
Publication date2009-03-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueWorld Englishes (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0883-2919 • E-ISSN: 1467-971X
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1467-971x.2008.01568.x
OpenAlexW2078712165
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited17

This paper is based on the premise that not much is known about how English modal verbs are used to express politeness in Non-Native English speaking (NNEs) contexts. It explores the use of the past and non-past forms of the request modalswillandcanin Brunei, a NNEs country located in Southeast Asia. Specifically, it examines the use of these modals in the Request for Corrective Action (RCA) move in personal complaints written to the local English-language newspaper by local Bruneian speakers of English. In addition, reasons for a particular usage are extrapolated from those elicited from a questionnaire carried out among local university students. This paper provides an exploratory study of modal verb use from a pragmatics perspective, with the purpose of investigating the extent to which the request modal verbswill/wouldandcan/couldexpress the attitudes of the complainant when it comes to requesting corrective action in complaints of a personal nature. The findings yielded a number of surprising observations that highlight the different ways in which these English request modal verbs are perceived and used in a NNEs context

Action (physics · Context (archaeology · English as a lingua franca · Lingua franca · Linguistics · Media studies · Modal · Modal verb · Newspaper · Plaintiff · Politeness · Political science · Pragmatics · Premise · Sociology · Verb · Discourse Analysis in Language Studies · History · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies · Law · Multilingual Education and Policy · Psychology

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub