Politeness Strategies in The Communicative Sequence of Characters in Toyin Abiodun’s The Trials Of Afonja

Abstract

Politeness is a universal concept aimed at mitigating the potential harm of face-threatening acts in human interactions. It serves as a tool to prevent conflict and facilitate seamless communication among interlocutors, even amidst societal complexities. Studies on drama texts have largely examined the use of lexical choices, implicature and discourse patterns neglecting the choice of politeness among the characters’ communicative sequence. This has however received little attention among linguists. This paper examined politeness strategies in Toyin Abiodun’s The trials of Afonja with a view of seeing how characters exchange different politeness strategies in their communicative sequence either directly or indirectly. The paper adopted a qualitative content analysis to select twelve extracts randomly in the text. Leech’s politeness principle was adopted as the theoretical framework. Findings revealed that agreement maxim is a politeness strategy used to minimise disagreement among the characters in the text. The study also revealed that praises or eulogies are politeness strategy used by characters in the text in order to abate anger. Study has also shown that not bragging or boasting about one’s achievements, titles or ability is polite as characters minimise praises to themselves in the studied text. The study concludes that to achieve a conflict free interaction among characters in the text, their public self image must be consciously put into consideration. This study recommends that dramatists intentionally integrate diverse politeness strategies into character interactions to mirror real-life communication, foster conflict resolution and inspire audiences to embrace empathy and respect in their everyday interaction.