Journal Article

A Sociolinguistic Study of Power and Politeness in Customary-Law Court Sessions

عويس، سعاد بشير حسن

2021

Overview

This article examines the deep relation between linguistic politeness and social power in customary-law court sessions. The article is an attempt to exhibit the different realizations of linguistic politeness in relation to power in the language used by both judicator and litigants. The article also investigates the universality of politeness strategies proposed by Brown & Levinson (1987). They suggested that high power interact ants are always less polite than low power interact ants and vice versa. Contrarily, Cashion (1985) and Sanderson (1995) provided counter evidence to what Brown and Levinson suggest. In courtrooms, super ordinates did not use the least politeness, neither subordinates use the most politeness. Applying a qualitative type of analysis, the analyst reached a comprehensive understanding of linguistic politeness in relation to power. The study concludes that the judicator tends to show positive politeness to the face of those lower in power. Attendants, similarly, employed low rated positive strategies mixed with negative politeness strategy in their use of address terms. The analysis has also proven other social variables to affect the use of linguistic politeness, namely: formality of context, cultural background, and age.

• Publisher: جامعة قناة السويس - كلية الآداب والعلوم الإنسانية
• Subject: التأدب اللغوي / العوامل الاجتماعية / القضاء العرفي / محاكم القضاء العرفي