Abstract:
Gichuka is a dialect of the Kimeru language - a Bantu language of the Niger Congo
family- spoken by the Chuka people of Tharaka-Nithi County, Chuka Igamba-
Ng’ombe Constituency. Chuka people reside in the Eastern slopes of Mount Kenya.
The aim of this study was to analyze the politeness strategies used in Gichuka
request expressions. Politeness is a social norm that is expected in any society and is
important in maintaining cordial relationships in everyday life, especially in an
aspect such as requests. Requests are imposive in nature and speakers attach much
importance in protecting face from such imposition but such importance varies from
culture to culture. The objectives of this study were: to describe the forms of Gichuka
request expressions; to analyze the politeness strategies used in Gichuka request
expressions and to discuss how the prevailing social and situational factors influence
the choice of the politeness strategies in Gichuka requests. The study was guided by
the Politeness Theory by Brown and Levinson; Relevance Theory by Sperber and
Wilson and Blum-Kulka classification of request strategies. It utilized the descriptive
research design to study social events conducted in Gichuka. Six Gichuka social
events, which were purposively sampled, were recorded using a voice recorder and
transcribed into guiding cards while contextual information was recorded using an
observation schedule. The communicative principle of relevance by Sperber and
Wilson guided the researcher in identifying one hundred and twenty eight request
expressions from the Gichuka communicative events. The study established three
things: that Gichuka request expressions mostly assume the mood derivable form;
that Gichuka request expressions conform to Brown and Levinson Theory of
Politeness and the most commonly employed strategies are the negative and positive
politeness strategies and that power and distance influence the choice of politeness
strategies in Gichuka requests. This study significantly enhances the analysis of the
Gichuka language variety and adds to the existing knowledge on pragmatic analysis
of politeness in requests in various languages of the world, and other Bantu
languages.
