A Socio-Pragmatic Analysis of Politeness Strategies Employed in Apology Used by Iraqi Male/Female EFL Learners

Abstract

Language users need pragmatic competence to communicate successfully. Pragmatic competence is the language knowledge of the speaker and the use of appropriateness and politeness rules. In everyday life, people often assume that the utterances used by women are different from those used by men, especially in terms of politeness. Women are often considered more polite than men because of the roles in their social life; in addition, they are often responsible for transmitting politeness and cultural value. Politeness is a culturally defined pattern of language use that enables the speaker to formulate appropriate speech acts. The speech act of apology is chosen to reflect politeness in the current study, as it is often used in everyday life. In addition, this speech act can be used to maintain the harmony of social relations between speakers and hearers. Therefore, it cannot be separated from sociolinguistics; because social factors such as social context, gender, and the participants' relationship can all have an impact on how apologizers convey their apologies.