Pragmatic Approach: A Study of Politeness Strategies in Pakistani Morning Shows

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore the use of different politeness strategies in Pakistani Morning shows and to find out the highly frequently used politeness strategies. It further explored the factors affecting the use of different politeness strategies. The data was collected from two Pakistani morning shows “The Morning Show” and “Ek Nayee Subah with Farah”. Brown and Levinson’s (1987) politeness strategies were explored in the utterances of speakers. The frequency of using these strategies was counted and the factors influencing the speakers to choose these strategies were analysed. The findings revealed that the hosts and guests employed all of the fifteen sub-strategies of positive politeness frequently to maintain close relationship. However, the hosts, as the higher level power participants, also apply bald-on strategy to be authoritative with their assistants and the audience. Negative politeness and its ten sub-strategies were less frequently used by the speakers. Different power ranks also affected the choice of politeness strategies because participants having high power used bald-on record strategy but same power ranks showed the application of negative and positive politeness.