CONTEXT AND POLITENESS IN OLA ROTIMI’S THE GODS ARE NOT TO BLAME

Abstract

This paper is a critical examination of context and politeness discourse features used in the gods arenot to blame. The features isolated for discourse include variations in contextual discourse and their implication on politeness. Hence, the study identifies a number of excerpts based on Halliday’s three variables of situation in relation to other conversational maxims like face saving acts (FSAs) and face threatening acts (FTAs) as proposed by Yule, and are analysed on the bases of age, social status, individual role and personality . Findings reveal that even though the play is a reflection of a typical Yoruba community, the variation in context shows that it may be difficult to always be polite particularly in relation to the aforementioned factors. Also, the findings reveal that in the event that one’s face is threatened, the reaction often varies depending on the subject matter, the participants involved and where the conversation is taking place among other linguistic parameters. Therefore, this pragmatic approach is used to establish how different participants and particularly in different contexts negotiate and communicate meaning while trying to be polite (or impolite) within a given communicative sphere.