AN ANALYSIS OF POLITENESS IN HAUSA CONDOLENCE: A CASE STUDY OF TSAFE LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF ZAMFARA STATE

Abstract

The study aims at showing the importance of politeness in condolences in Hausa and how it promotes harmony and understanding among the people using Tsafe local government area as a case study. However, the three tape-recorded texts analyzed have been selected out of nine texts recorded using simple random sampling. The researcher uses Brown and Levinson’s (1987) Face Saving Theory of Politeness which was built around the notions of “face” and “face-threatening-acts” (FTAs). The data were obtained in a free and natural setting by the use of participant observation of real life situation and tape-recording of actual conversation in condolence sessions by the researcher and the data were subsequently transcribed, translated and analyzed. Consequently, the study reveals that politeness is a reciprocal venture. Death-talks particularly condolences are potentially face-threatening-acts and the level of politeness involved is informed by the relative gap in terms of power and social distance between the speaker and the addressee(s). There are substantial evidences from the data that show how interactants employed various politeness strategies, particularly the positive politeness and negative politeness strategies. There are also instances where various indirect and, euphemistic expressions were used politely to express condolences in a less offensive manner.