Fight for Individuality: A Comparative Analysis of Male and Female Language Politeness Strategies on Facebook
Abstract
It is commonly argued that women use polite language as compared to men. Robin Lakoff (1975) argued that women use polite strategies due to their weak position in society, so this study aims to investigate Lakoff’s argument in this age of digital media. By employing Brown and Levinson (1987) Politeness theory. The data was collected from the Facebook comments of male and female users. The nature of this study was Descriptive. Data was collected from Facebook users' (male and female) comments using a purposive sampling technique. A mixed-method research design has been employed. For Qualitative analysis, the framework of politeness theory (Brown & Levinson, 1987) has been applied and Quantitative analysis has been conducted to check the percentages of the use of politeness strategies by males and females. The findings of the study verified the argument of Robin Lakoff (1975), as findings revealed females employed a higher frequency of positive politeness strategies as compared to males. Female become more indulged in saving face to show their involvement and independence in society. The study recommends exploring cross-cultural contexts to verify the use of politeness strategies by males and females.
Keywords
Individuality, Strategies, Discourse, Employed, Politeness
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