Polite Request Among the Akyem Speech Community in Ghana

Esther Ofosua Totimeh; Lawrence Bosiwah

doi:doi:10.11648/j.ijll.20150302.16

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Polite Request Among the Akyem Speech Community in Ghana

Esther Ofosua Totimeh, Lawrence Bosiwah

Published in International Journal of Language and Linguistics (Volume 3, Issue 2)

Received: 6 March 2015 Accepted: 22 March 2015 Published: 26 March 2015

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Abstract

This paper investigates into various ways by which native speakers of the Akyem Twi dialect of the Akan Language of Ghana make polite request and how social variables such as age, gender and socio-economic status influence their request making. An ethnographic research approach to qualitative design was employed and the research participants of twenty were randomly selected using the purposive sampling technique of which their responses from the interview and the observation to the topic problem were submitted to content analysis. The findings indicate that the strategy for polite request is the indirect strategy. Comparatively, the Akyem speech community equally prefers the conventional indirect strategy as the most polite strategy of request speech act as the other speech communities in Ghana. Also, social variables such as age, gender and socio-economic status influence request making yet equal status contradicts some findings in relation to familiarity. Again, Ghanaians have one condition that warrants request which is not part of the existing one; they believe that the individual granting the request should be trustworthy. Moreover, there were new interesting findings in this study.It was foundout that non-conventional indirect strategy has some natural features which make it different from the conventional strategy and more like the direct strategy, even though they are all indirect strategies.

Published in	International Journal of Language and Linguistics (Volume 3, Issue 2)
DOI	10.11648/j.ijll.20150302.16
Page(s)	76-89
Creative Commons	This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright	Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Request, Politeness, on-Record Indirectness, Off-Record Indirectness

References

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Esther Ofosua Totimeh, Lawrence Bosiwah. (2015). Polite Request Among the Akyem Speech Community in Ghana. International Journal of Language and Linguistics, 3(2), 76-89. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20150302.16

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Esther Ofosua Totimeh; Lawrence Bosiwah. Polite Request Among the Akyem Speech Community in Ghana. Int. J. Lang. Linguist. 2015, 3(2), 76-89. doi: 10.11648/j.ijll.20150302.16

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AMA Style

Esther Ofosua Totimeh, Lawrence Bosiwah. Polite Request Among the Akyem Speech Community in Ghana. Int J Lang Linguist. 2015;3(2):76-89. doi: 10.11648/j.ijll.20150302.16

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@article{10.11648/j.ijll.20150302.16,
  author = {Esther Ofosua Totimeh and Lawrence Bosiwah},
  title = {Polite Request Among the Akyem Speech Community in Ghana},
  journal = {International Journal of Language and Linguistics},
  volume = {3},
  number = {2},
  pages = {76-89},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ijll.20150302.16},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20150302.16},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijll.20150302.16},
  abstract = {This paper investigates into various ways by which native speakers of the Akyem Twi dialect of the Akan Language of Ghana make polite request and how social variables such as age, gender and socio-economic status influence their request making. An ethnographic research approach to qualitative design was employed and the research participants of twenty were randomly selected using the purposive sampling technique of which their responses from the interview and the observation to the topic problem were submitted to content analysis. The findings indicate that the strategy for polite request is the indirect strategy. Comparatively, the Akyem speech community equally prefers the conventional indirect strategy as the most polite strategy of request speech act as the other speech communities in Ghana. Also, social variables such as age, gender and socio-economic status influence request making yet equal status contradicts some findings in relation to familiarity. Again, Ghanaians have one condition that warrants request which is not part of the existing one; they believe that the individual granting the request should be trustworthy. Moreover, there were new interesting findings in this study.It was foundout that non-conventional indirect strategy has some natural features which make it different from the conventional strategy and more like the direct strategy, even though they are all indirect strategies.},
 year = {2015}
}

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TY  - JOUR
T1  - Polite Request Among the Akyem Speech Community in Ghana
AU  - Esther Ofosua Totimeh
AU  - Lawrence Bosiwah
Y1  - 2015/03/26
PY  - 2015
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20150302.16
DO  - 10.11648/j.ijll.20150302.16
T2  - International Journal of Language and Linguistics
JF  - International Journal of Language and Linguistics
JO  - International Journal of Language and Linguistics
SP  - 76
EP  - 89
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2330-0221
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20150302.16
AB  - This paper investigates into various ways by which native speakers of the Akyem Twi dialect of the Akan Language of Ghana make polite request and how social variables such as age, gender and socio-economic status influence their request making. An ethnographic research approach to qualitative design was employed and the research participants of twenty were randomly selected using the purposive sampling technique of which their responses from the interview and the observation to the topic problem were submitted to content analysis. The findings indicate that the strategy for polite request is the indirect strategy. Comparatively, the Akyem speech community equally prefers the conventional indirect strategy as the most polite strategy of request speech act as the other speech communities in Ghana. Also, social variables such as age, gender and socio-economic status influence request making yet equal status contradicts some findings in relation to familiarity. Again, Ghanaians have one condition that warrants request which is not part of the existing one; they believe that the individual granting the request should be trustworthy. Moreover, there were new interesting findings in this study.It was foundout that non-conventional indirect strategy has some natural features which make it different from the conventional strategy and more like the direct strategy, even though they are all indirect strategies.
VL  - 3
IS  - 2
ER  -

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Author Information

Esther Ofosua Totimeh

Dept of Ghanaian Languages & Linguistics, College of Humanities & Legal Studies, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana
Lawrence Bosiwah

Dept of Ghanaian Languages & Linguistics, College of Humanities & Legal Studies, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana

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APA Style

Esther Ofosua Totimeh, Lawrence Bosiwah. (2015). Polite Request Among the Akyem Speech Community in Ghana. International Journal of Language and Linguistics, 3(2), 76-89. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20150302.16

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ACS Style

Esther Ofosua Totimeh; Lawrence Bosiwah. Polite Request Among the Akyem Speech Community in Ghana. Int. J. Lang. Linguist. 2015, 3(2), 76-89. doi: 10.11648/j.ijll.20150302.16

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AMA Style

Esther Ofosua Totimeh, Lawrence Bosiwah. Polite Request Among the Akyem Speech Community in Ghana. Int J Lang Linguist. 2015;3(2):76-89. doi: 10.11648/j.ijll.20150302.16

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@article{10.11648/j.ijll.20150302.16,
  author = {Esther Ofosua Totimeh and Lawrence Bosiwah},
  title = {Polite Request Among the Akyem Speech Community in Ghana},
  journal = {International Journal of Language and Linguistics},
  volume = {3},
  number = {2},
  pages = {76-89},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ijll.20150302.16},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20150302.16},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijll.20150302.16},
  abstract = {This paper investigates into various ways by which native speakers of the Akyem Twi dialect of the Akan Language of Ghana make polite request and how social variables such as age, gender and socio-economic status influence their request making. An ethnographic research approach to qualitative design was employed and the research participants of twenty were randomly selected using the purposive sampling technique of which their responses from the interview and the observation to the topic problem were submitted to content analysis. The findings indicate that the strategy for polite request is the indirect strategy. Comparatively, the Akyem speech community equally prefers the conventional indirect strategy as the most polite strategy of request speech act as the other speech communities in Ghana. Also, social variables such as age, gender and socio-economic status influence request making yet equal status contradicts some findings in relation to familiarity. Again, Ghanaians have one condition that warrants request which is not part of the existing one; they believe that the individual granting the request should be trustworthy. Moreover, there were new interesting findings in this study.It was foundout that non-conventional indirect strategy has some natural features which make it different from the conventional strategy and more like the direct strategy, even though they are all indirect strategies.},
 year = {2015}
}

Copy | Download

TY  - JOUR
T1  - Polite Request Among the Akyem Speech Community in Ghana
AU  - Esther Ofosua Totimeh
AU  - Lawrence Bosiwah
Y1  - 2015/03/26
PY  - 2015
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20150302.16
DO  - 10.11648/j.ijll.20150302.16
T2  - International Journal of Language and Linguistics
JF  - International Journal of Language and Linguistics
JO  - International Journal of Language and Linguistics
SP  - 76
EP  - 89
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2330-0221
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20150302.16
AB  - This paper investigates into various ways by which native speakers of the Akyem Twi dialect of the Akan Language of Ghana make polite request and how social variables such as age, gender and socio-economic status influence their request making. An ethnographic research approach to qualitative design was employed and the research participants of twenty were randomly selected using the purposive sampling technique of which their responses from the interview and the observation to the topic problem were submitted to content analysis. The findings indicate that the strategy for polite request is the indirect strategy. Comparatively, the Akyem speech community equally prefers the conventional indirect strategy as the most polite strategy of request speech act as the other speech communities in Ghana. Also, social variables such as age, gender and socio-economic status influence request making yet equal status contradicts some findings in relation to familiarity. Again, Ghanaians have one condition that warrants request which is not part of the existing one; they believe that the individual granting the request should be trustworthy. Moreover, there were new interesting findings in this study.It was foundout that non-conventional indirect strategy has some natural features which make it different from the conventional strategy and more like the direct strategy, even though they are all indirect strategies.
VL  - 3
IS  - 2
ER  -

Copy | Download