Cover not available
Article published In:
Pragmatics
Vol. 22:3 (2012) ► pp.391–416

“You don’t seem to know how to work”

Malay and English spoken complaints in Brunei

This study aims firstly to compare the complaints of local native-Malay speakers and expatriate native-English speakers in Brunei in terms of move structure and levels of directness combined with the frequency of modality markers; and secondly, it attempts to address the relationship between polite behaviour and its effectiveness in eliciting the appropriate response from the hearer. Data from an oral discourse completion task show interesting similarities and differences in the complaint move structure between the two groups of speakers. Superficially, there appears to be no significant difference between the two sets of complaints in terms of levels of directness, but a detailed analysis shows each group employing different mitigating strategies to minimise the force of a complaint. Furthermore, responses from an acceptability judgement questionnaire indicate that being indirect, and therefore polite, may not be effective in eliciting the appropriate response to a request for action in a complaint speech act.
Keywords: Acceptability judgement questionnaire, Oral discourse completion task, Complaints, Modality markers, Move structure, Effectiveness
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) 4.0 license.
Published online: 1 September 2012
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/prag.22.3.03ho
References (46)
Beebe, L.M., and M.C. Cummings (1996) Natural speech act data versus written questionnaire data: How data collection method affects speech act performance. In S.M. Gass, and J. Neu (eds.), Speech acts across cultures. New York: Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 65–86.Google Scholar
Billmyer, K., and M. Varghese (2000) Investigating instrument-based pragmatic variability. Effects of enhancing discourse completion tests. Applied Linguistics 211: 517–552. DOI logo  BoPGoogle Scholar
Blum-Kulka, Shoshana (1989) Playing it safe: The role of conventionality in indirectness. In S. Blum-Kulka, J. House, and G. Kasper (eds.), Cross-cultural pragmatics: requests and apologies. New Jersey: Ablex, pp. 37–70.  BoPGoogle Scholar
Brown, P., and S.C. Levinson (1978) Universal in language usage: Politeness phenomenom. In E.N. Goody (ed.), Questions and politeness: Strategies in social interaction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 256–289.Google Scholar
Brown, P., and S. C. Levinson. (1987) Universals in language usage: Politeness phenomena. In E.N. Grundy (ed.), Questions of politeness. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 56–311.Google Scholar
Brown, P., and S.C. Levinson.(1989) Politeness. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Brown, P., and S.C Levinson. (1999) Politeness: Some universals in language usage. In A. Jaworski and N. Coupland (eds.), The discourse reader. London: Routledge, pp. 321–335.Google Scholar
Crookes, Graham (1986) Towards a validated analysis of scientific text structure. Applied Linguistics 71: 57–70. DOI logo  BoPGoogle Scholar
Edmonson, W., and J. House (1981) Let’s talk and talk about it. Munchen: Urban and Schwarzenberg.Google Scholar
Elias, Nobert (1977) Über den Prozß der. Zivilisation. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp.Google Scholar
Eslami-Rasekh, Zohreh (2004) Face-keeping strategies in reaction to complaints: English and Persian. Journal of Asia Pacific Communication 141: 181–197.  BoPGoogle Scholar
Gagne, N. Okura (2010) Reexamining the notion of negative face in the Japanese sociolinguistics politeness of request. Language and Communication 301: 123–138. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Goffman, Erving (1967) Interaction ritual: Essays on face to face behaviour. New York: Doubleday Anchor.  BoPGoogle Scholar
Golato, Andrea (2003) Studying complaint responses: A comparison of DCTs and recordings of naturally occurring talk. Applied Linguistics 24.1: 90–121. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gordon, D., and R. Lakoff (1975) Conversational postulates. In P. Cole, and J.L. Morgan (eds.), Syntax and semantics 3: Speech acts. New York: Academic Press.  BoPGoogle Scholar
Haji Hamdan Hassan, Haji Abdul Hakim bin Haji MohdYassin, Abdul Hamid bin Haji Jaluddin, Haji Harun Mat Piah, Hajah Isma NasrulKarim, Lufti Abas, A. Mani, And Palaniappan Periannan (eds.), (1991) Forms of Courtesy in BruneiDarussalam. Department of Malay Literature, University of Brunei Darussalam.Google Scholar
Haverkate, Henk (1984) Speech acts speakers and hearers. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.  BoP DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(1992) Deictic categories as mitigating devices. Pragmatics 21: 505–522.  BoP DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Henry, A., and D.G.E. Ho (2010) The act of complaining in Brunei – then and now. Journal of Pragmatics 42.3: 840–855. DOI logo  BoPGoogle Scholar
House, Julianne (1989) “On excuse me please…” apologising in a foreign language. In B. Kettleman, P. Bierbaumer, A. Fill, and A. Karpf (eds.), English a/s Zweitsprache. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag.Google Scholar
House, J., and G. Kasper (1981) Politeness markers in English and German. In F. Coulmas (ed.), Converstional routine: Explorations in standardised communication situations and pre-patterened speech. The Hague: Mouton, pp.159-185.Google Scholar
Kasper, Gabrielle (1989) Variation in interlanguage speech act realization. In S.M. Gass, C.G. Madden, D. Preston, and L. Selinker (eds.), Variation in second language acquisition: discourse and pragmatics. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Kasper, G., and M. Dahl (1991) Research methods in interlanguage pragmatics. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. DOI logo  BoPGoogle Scholar
Kong, C.C. Kenneth (1998) Politeness of service counters in Hong Kong. Pragmatics 8.4: 555–575. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Laforest, Marty (2002) Scenes of family life: complaining in everyday conversation. Journal of Pragmatics 341: 1595–1620. DOI logo  BoPGoogle Scholar
Leech, Geoffrey (1977) Language and tact. Trier: L.A.U.T. paper 46.Google Scholar
(1983) Principles of pragmatics. London: Longman.  BoPGoogle Scholar
Matsumoto, Yoshiko (1988) Reexamination of the universality of face: Politeness phenomena in Japanese. Journal of Pragmatics 121: 403–426. DOI logo  BoPGoogle Scholar
Nassaji, H., and A. Cumming (2000) What’s in a ZPD? A case study of a young ESL student and teacher interacting through dialogue journals. Language Teaching Research 4.2: 95–121. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Murphy, B., and J. Neu (1996) My grade’s too low: The speech act set of complaining. In S.M. Gass, and J. Neu (eds.), Speech acts across cultures. The Hague: Mouton de Gruyter, pp.191-216.  BoPGoogle Scholar
Olshtain, E., and L. Weinbach (1993) Interlangauge features of the speech act of complaining. In G. Kasper, and S. Blum-Kulka (eds.), Interlanguage pragmatics. New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 108–122.  BoPGoogle Scholar
Olshtain, E., and A.D. Cohen (1983) Apology: A speech act set. In N. Wolfson, and E. Judd (eds.), Sociolinguistics and Language Acquisition. Rowley, M.A.: Newbury House, pp. 103–115.  BoPGoogle Scholar
Parvaresh, V., and M. Tavakoli (2009) Discourse completion tasks as elicitation tools: How convergent are they? The Social Sciences 4.4: 366–373.Google Scholar
Pinto, D., and R. Raschio (2007) A comparative study of requests in heritage speaker Spanish, L1 Spanish and L1 English. International Journal of Bilingualism 11.2: 135–155. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rintell, E.M., and C.J. Mitchell (1989) Studying requests and apologies: an inquiry into method. In S. Blum-Kulka, J. House, and G. Kasper (eds.), Cross cultural pragmatics: Requests and apologies. New Jersey: Ablex, pp. 248–272.Google Scholar
Rose, R. Kenneth (1994) On the validity of discourse completion tests in non- western contexts. Applied Linguistics 151: 1–14. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Scollon, R., and S.W. Scollon (1995).Intercultural communication: A discourse approach. London: Blackwell.  BoPGoogle Scholar
Swales, John (1981) Aspects of article introductions. Aston ESP Research report No. 1, Language Studies Unit, University of Aston in Birmingham, Birmingham, UK.Google Scholar
(1990) Genre analysis: English in academic and research settings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Taguchi, Naoko (2006) Analysis of appropriateness in a speech act of request in English. Pragmatics 16.4: 513–533  BoP DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tatsuki, Donna Hurst (2000) If my complaints could passions move: An interlanguage study of aggression. Journal of Pragmatics 321: 1003–1017. DOI logo  BoPGoogle Scholar
Trosborg, Anna (1995) Interlanguage pragmatics. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter& Co. DOI logo  BoPGoogle Scholar
Turnbull, William (1997) An appraisal of pragmatic elicitation techniques for the study of talk. Unpublished manuscript. Department of psychology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C. Canada.
Yuan, Li (2001) An inquiry into empirical pragmatics data-gathering methods: Written DCTs, oral DCTs, field notes and natural conversations. Journal of Pragmatics 331: 271–292. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

MCLELLAN, JAMES & GRACE V. S. CHIN
2016. A research bibliography for Brunei English. World Englishes 35:4 ► pp. 612 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 15 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.