AN ANALYSIS OF THE IMPACT OF GENDER ON THE SELECTION OF POLITENESS STRATEGIES IN APOLOGY SPEECH ACTS AMONG UNIVERSITY STUDENTS IN PUNJAB, PAKISTAN

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to analyze the speech act of apology used by the Pakistani university students using the scheme of politeness proposed by Brown and Levinson (1987). Brown and Levinson gave four politeness strategies, namely bald on-record, bald off-record, positive politeness and negative politeness. The design of the study is quantitative in nature. Instrument used in research is MDCT (Multiple Choice Discourse Completion Task/Test) which consists of 5 situations followed by 4 options based on four strategies. Sample of 40 students was selected through convenient sampling technique to obtain data. Findings of the study indicated that females use more positive politeness than males. It is also observed that gender and level of formality (relationship between interlocutors) has great impact on the selection of politeness strategy.