Cross-Cultural Politeness: A Comparative Analysis of Request and Apology Strategies in English and Pashto Languages

Abstract

Politeness is an essential component of intercultural communication as it shapes the manner in which speakers realize various speech acts such as making requests and offering apologies within diverse cultural settings. This research explores the realization of the strategies used in making requests and offering apologies in British English and Pashto languages, with the aim of analyzing the impact that culture has on politeness behaviors. Politeness Theory by Brown and Levinson (1987) serves as the theoretical foundation for this research. In addition, the framework utilized in the analysis of the data will be the Cross-Cultural Speech Act Realization Project by Blum-Kulka and Olshtain (1984; 1989). A qualitative comparative methodology was applied in collecting the data from native speakers of both languages through semi-structured interviews. The findings show that both English and Pashto speakers use three main types of request strategies such as direct, conventionally indirect, and non-conventionally indirect requests, as well as five types of apology strategies like expressing regret, accepting responsibility, explaining, offering repair, and promising forbearance. Nevertheless, cultural differences have been observed. In particular, English speakers preferred to use conventionally indirect requests and used many types of apology strategies in order to avoid face threats, while Pashto speakers tended to combine direct requests with expressions of respect and explanation of the context from the perspective of cultural values of respect, solidarity, and personal relations. Thus, it can be concluded that despite being a universal feature of communication, politeness is realized through culturally-specific patterns.