Linguistic Politness

Ibno Zohr University
2015/2016
Supervisor: Dr. S.Jawhari
Topic:
Linguistic Politeness Among Young Moroccan.

(Request in Guelmim as a case study)
BY: ISMAIL ENZAHA

CNE: 1210039069
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Abstract:
The paper reports an ongoing project concerned with speech acts pattern, the goals of
this project are to study and investigate about similarities and differences in request use
among young female and male of Guelmim; Morocco.
The theoretical and methodological framework for this investigation has been
developed as a result of close collaboration among the participants analysis; the paper will
outline the theoretical framework for the project, present the methodology developed and
illustrates our proceeds from analysis by given examples from the data.
The first part is a theoretical part where we collect notions and terms of politeness in
addition to theories of politeness as a general term and request as a bass term.
The second part is the practical part where we are going to do our investigation and
analysis of the data we have; in this part we will see the differences and similarities among
young Moroccan people, considering the data we have, also this part will show the
questionnaires in the basic forma and after paraphrasing, this is going to help you as a readers
for this investigation to understand.
Acknowledgement:
Over months I have been working on this project, within this period I meet people
whom gave me hand of help and help me to be in the correct way. And I would love to
acknowledge here, Primary I would like to thank the following people:
My supervisor, Professor S.JAWHARI, for her constant and comprehensive

help and advice. Even under difficult circumstances, and for guiding me
when I was losing my way. I would like to thank her for being more then my
supervisor, for being a good friend.
MR Rachid, for his primary encouragement and help that I would never get
this far. Also thanks go to him for aiding in the development of ideas in my
project investigation
Imane, for her unwavering love, support; for motivating me when I get lazy,
and for companying me through the writing up process. And for numberless
of phone class and txt messages.
All my other friends for their understanding and care.
Finely, I would like to dedicate this work, with much love to my family; to my parent,
MAHJOUB AND HABIBA who give so much there I no way to thank them
adequately for all they have done for me over the year.
Table of content:
Abstract.3
Table of content5
Acknowledgement4
Theoretical frame work..7
Introduction...9
Theories.16
Politeness phenomena21
Conclusion.22
Practical part..24
Introduction...25
Methodology 25
Result.30
Discussion35
Conclusion37
Reference.37
Index..38
PART I:
THEORITICAL
FRAMEWOK
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1-Introduction:
1-1-Linguistic Politeness:
The phenomenon of linguistic politeness has been a part of the linguistic research in
western Europe and North America for more than thirty years and has usually been placed in
the area of pragmatics and sociolinguistics (Watts, 2003, p. 53). The fundamental
contribution to the theory was written by Brown and Levinson in 1978 and immediately
drew attention of the linguistic community to the problem of the linguistic politeness. Since
then, a large number of researchers have contributed to the topic.
The issue is somewhat complex as there is not yet a single theory on which all the
researchers would agree. There are more theories, all of which in some way rely on the
previous linguistic concepts (not necessarily those of politeness) and try to revise them, build
on them, or criticise them. There have been lots of attempts to provide a definition of
linguistic politeness and describe the process of its creation and perception. Some of these
attempts will be described in the present paper, following the research into linguistic
politeness from its beginnings to the latest concepts. Four major politeness theories have
been chosen in order to demonstrate the development in this area and provide the basis for
the thesis that is the depiction of indirect requests in politeness theories.
1-2- Requests:
In order to be able to carry out further this theoretical framework on the representation
of requests in politeness theories, it is essential to define what exactly is meant by the term
request. For this purpose, the theory of speech acts will be used. Although this theory did
not prove to be an ideal model of communication, it is still widely used in pragmatics
because, as Mey points out, it provides A kind of mini-scenario for what is happening in
language interaction and [speech acts] suggest a simple way of explaining the more or less
predictable sequences of conversation (as cited in Mrquez Reiter, 2000, p. 34). With the
case of indirect requests, the speech act theory forms a good basis for the description of
what they actually are. After explaining the function of requests among the linguists, it will
be clear why requests have usually been associated with politeness. This connection appears
to have been stronger in the past. Nevertheless, the more recent politeness theories deal
with this issue as well and thus acknowledge the fact that requesting is an important means
by which people can express linguistic politeness. There have also been studies analyzing
cases where in requests was used for another reasons than being polite.
2 Speech act:
2-1-Theories:
Politeness means having or showing good manners and respect for the feelings of others
(Wehmeier 2000, p. 976). Brown and Levinsons theory of linguistic politeness construes the
formulation of an individuals face as a public self-image. According to Brown and Levinson,
peoples faces are human properties that are broadly comparable to self-esteem (Grundy
2008, p. 195). According to Kitamura (2000, p. 1), Brown and Levinson classified two notion
of face: positive and negative face. Positive face indicates the similarities among
interactants and appreciates the interlocutors self image. On the other hand, negative face
can be expressed by preserving personals right of freedom of action and freedom from
imposition. Socially inappropriate behaviour is a potential threat to peoples faces as they
may be risk being humiliated or embarrassed. Holmes (2006, p. 685) argues that we can
never know what people are actually feeling or thinking in a conversational situation.
Consequently, all people can do is to attempt to interpret what speakers or listeners wish to
convey through verbal or non-verbal communication.
In order to avoid conflict and respect peoples freedom of thought, and thus maintain the
harmonious relations with others, politeness strategies can be implemented in conversation.
For example, people can soften a request by avoiding bare imperatives to maintain a
positive or negative face in a conversational situation. Therefore, it is suggested that
behaving appropriately, that is assuming to match the speakers and addressees need or
wish, can preserve either positive or negative self-image of the speaker or the hearer. This is
because, according to Bowe and Martin (2007, p. 28), face is something that can be lost,
maintained or enhanced in which it can be monitored during the interaction.
According to Brown and Levinson (in Bowe and Martin 2009, p. 28), the seriousness of facethreatening that is caused by an inappropriate behaviour can be assessed. The factors that
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influence to that face-threatening involve three fundamental sociocultural variables: the

social distance (D) between the participants, the power (P) that the addressee has over the
speaker, and the ranking of the imposition (R) expressed in the utterance in the relevant
culture (Holmes 2006, p. 687). Based on this standpoint, Brown and Levinson (1987, p. 74
cited in Bowe and Martin 2009, p. 28) firmly believe that through these variables, the
seriousness of a face-threatening act (FTA) within the speaker and listener can be assessed
or measured.
The so-called universality of Brown and Levinsons theory does not go without being
unchallenged. It has been the subject of much subsequent research and of some criticism.
One of the reasons is that the Brown and Levinsons theory is only based on three countries;
English, Tamil, and Tzeltal (Bowe and Martin 2009, p. 27 and Holmes 2006, p. 689).
Meanwhile, it is a fact that there are other cultures in the world, such Asian and Polynisian
cultures, among many others. To account for language and cultural diversities for instance,
Holmes (2006, p. 685) believes that different cultures have different ways of expressing
considerations for others.
Based on the wide range of cultural diversity in the world, the notion of individuals face as a
public self-image proposed by Brown and Levinson reflects the culturally biased conceptual
framework to evaluate the politeness more objectively and empirically (Mao 1993, p.452).
Matsumoto (1989, in Mao 1993, p.452) argues that the interactional focusing on nonwestern countries, for example the Japaneses concept of etiquette is oriented towards
group agreement, not towards individualism. In another word, the notion of the rules of
politeness is a collective knowledge that is shared by the members of society.
Much comment on the Brown and Levinsons theory suggests numbers of alternative
approaches to politeness. Some linguists such as Grice and Leech dedicated their research
on the complexity of politeness issues. Grice proposed the conversational maxim as
normative rules of interaction: quantity, quality, relevance and manner. Maxim means a
well-known phrase that expresses something that is usually true or that people think is a rule
for sensible behaviour (Wehmeier 2000, p. 791). Leech, after elaborating Grice`s maxims,
sets a politeness principle that offers the more general model than Grices maxims. Leech
identifies the maxims of tact, generosity, approbation, modesty, agreement and sympathy
11
(Bowe and Martin 2009, p. 33 & Holmes 2006, p. 690).

What makes Leechs principle of politeness somewhat different from Grice and Brown and
Levinson theories are that he more addressed the issue of why people are often so indirect
in conveying what they mean (Holmes, 2006, p. 690). For example, my niece asked me if I
like her new shoes bright pink plastic sandals, decorated with glitter. Even though they
were so ghastly, I would still reply, They look really cool rather than saying I think they`re
awful.
Another theory, aside from Leechs politeness principle that is used in some investigations, is
Kulkas framework. Kulka re-examined the notions of indirectness and politeness applied in
request. Accordingly, the two notions, indirectness and politeness, do not represent parallel
dimensions. Kulka (1987, p. 1) argues that indirectness does not necessarily imply politeness.
Indirect pattern in request that is assumed to entail the degree of politeness seems to be
associated with the former but not necessarily with the later. Kulka (1987, p. 1) firmly
believes that the essential part of politeness is the need of pragmatic clarity and noncoerciveness.
2-2Speech Acts:
The theory of speech acts was first proposed by Austin (1962) and later developed by
Searle (1979). The core of the theory lies in the observation that in producing an utterance
one also performs an action (Yule, 1996, p. 47). This speech act can be analysed on three
different levels: the locutionary act is performed by means of producing a meaningful
linguistic expression; the illocutionary act represents the function the speaker has in mind;
and the perlocutionary act is the effect the utterance is intended to have on the listener
(Yule, 1996, p. 48). The speech acts are in English *+
commonly given more specific labels, such as apology, complaint, compliment, invitation,
promise, or request (p. 47). They are produced within a wider context, which is called a
speech event and it is the nature of the speech event that determines the interpretation
of an utterance as performing a particular speech act (pp. 47-48). When a speech act is to
be successfully performed, certain felicity conditions have to be met. Cutting (2002) uses
Searles classification and describes them as follows: The hearer must hear and understand
the language, and that the speaker must not be pretending or play acting (general
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conditions); the speaker must believe that it is possible to carry out the action(preparatory
condition); they are sincere about wanting to do it (sincerity condition); the content of an
utterance is appropriate (propositional content condition); and the words count as the act
(essential condition) (p. 18).The illocutionary acts have attracted the largest amount of
attention among the linguists. The first classification of illocutionary speech acts was
proposed by Austin (1962), but later replaced by Searle (1979), whos criticism included
points such as a persistent confusion between verbs and acts and no consistent principle
of classification (p. 12). Searles taxonomy consists of representatives (commit the 18
speaker *+ to the truth of the expressed proposition), directives (attempts by the speaker
to get the hearer to do something), commissives (commit the speaker to some future
course of action), expressives (express the psychological state specified in the sincerity
condition) and declarations (one brings a state of affairs into existence by declaring it to
exist) (pp. 12-17). On the basis of the illocutionary acts it is also possible to distinguish
between direct and indirect speech acts. According to the speech act theory, Whenever
there is a direct relationship between a structure (declarative, interrogative, imperative) and
a function (statement, question, command/request), we have a direct speech act. Whenever
there is an indirect relationship *+
we have an indirect speech act (Yule, 1996, pp. 54-55). Searle (1979) says that:
In indirect speech acts the speaker communicates to the hearer more than he actually says
by way of relying on their mutually shared background information, both linguistic and nonlinguistic, together with the general powers of rationality and inference on the part of the
hearer. (pp. 31-32) Yule (1996) describes this additional conveyed meaning as an
implicature (p. 35) and stresses that the inferences selected to understand the implicature
are those which will preserve the assumption of cooperation (p. 40). In this way it is
probable that the hearer will recognize the speech act of request when intended, even if it is
expressed indirectly.
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2-3The Speech Act of Requesting:

The speech act of requesting belongs to the class of directives, which means that by
uttering a request the speaker attempts to get the hearer to do something (Searle, 1979,
p. 13). There are also certain felicity conditions, which must be fulfilled so as to produce a
successful request. Apart from the general condition, Searle (1979) sets forth 19
the preparatory condition (hearer is able to perform A), the sincerity condition (speaker
wants hearer to do A), the propositional content condition (speaker predicates a future
act of hearer) and the essential condition (counts as an attempt by speaker to get hearer
to do A) (p. 44). Mrquez Reiter (2000) defines requests as consisting of two parts: The core
request or head act and the peripheral elements. The former is the main utterance which
has the function of requesting and can stand by itself. *+ In most cases, however, core
requests are either followed and/or preceded by peripheral elements. (p. 36)
The structure of the English requests can be imperative, interrogative (including negative
interrogatives) and declarative (Mrquez Reiter, 2000, p. 36). As for imperatives, Searle
(1979) points out that ordinary conversational requirements of politeness normally make it
awkward to issue flat imperative sentences *+ and we therefore seek to find indirect means
to our illocutionary ends (p. 36). This assumption leads to the use of indirect requests.The
indirect requests usually have interrogative or declarative structures, which do not
correspond with the function of the request, and so more is communicated than is actually
said. According to Mrquez Reiter (2000), there are two ways of performing an indirect
request. One may use a conventionally indirect request (e.g. Would you mind giving me a
hand?) or a non-conventionally indirect request (e.g. This is so heavy!) (p.42).
This latter type is also called off-record (Brown & Levinson, 1987) and in this
case conversational implicatures are needed in order to understand the intended
meaning (Mrquez Reiter, 2000, p. 43). For subsequent analysis, a more detailed
specification and demonstration of indirect requests will be helpful. For this purpose, I
will use Searls (1979) list of sentences that are commonly used as indirect requests.
The list is by no means exhaustive, but it provides a clear and brief summary of the most
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typical indirect requests. Searl divided them into six categories. In the following
list the categories are named and one or two sentences are given as an example of
requests belonging to the category (H, S and A are abbreviations for hearer, speaker
and action):
Group 1: Sentences concerning Hs ability to perform A
Can you pass the salt?
Group 2: Sentences concerning Ss wish or want that H will do A
I would be most grateful if you could help us out.
Group 3: Sentences concerning H doing A
Officers will henceforth wear ties at dinner.
Arent you going to eat your cereal?
Group 4: Sentences concerning Hs desire or willingness to do A
Would you be willing to write a letter of recommendation for me?
Group 5: Sentences concerning reasons for doing A
Hadnt you better go now?
Youre standing on my foot.
Group 6: Sentences embedding one of these elements inside another; also,
sentences embedding an explicit directive illocutionary verb inside one of these
contexts
Would you mind it awfully if I asked you if you could write me a letter
of recommendation?
(pp. 36-39)
These sentences are to illustrate what exactly is the main interest of this paper. All these
requests are expressed indirectly and they represent the most common types of indirect
requests in English.
3-Politness phenomena:
3-1-Linguistic Politeness through Time:
As has been already stated, the concept of linguistic politeness has become the centre of
the linguistic research in western Europe and North America fairly recently.
As Watts (2003) points out, the major reason for the late appearance of politeness in
15
the west is [...] little or no theoretical basis to fall back on until speech act theory (p.53).
The beginnings of the research are thus connected mainly to the speech act theory
developed by Austin (1962) and Searle (1969), and the theory of conversational implicature
coined by Paul Grice in 1975 (Culpeper, 2011b, p. 397). Last but not least, the concepts of
face and facework developed by sociologist Ervin Goffman in the 1950s and 1960s also
provided essential background for the initial investigations of linguistic politeness. All these
theories inspired what Culpeper (2011b) calls the firstwave approaches to politeness (p.
397). The three most influential theories of this period were constructed by Lakoff (1973,
1989), Brown and Levinson (1978, 1987), and Leech (1983), all of whom recognise that
there is more to meaning of conversation than can be encapsulated by the four maxims of
Grices Cooperative Principle (Grainger, 2011, p. 169). Culpeper (2011b) describes the
theories of Lakoff and Leech as maxim-based (p. 397). Their contribution was to add a set
of politeness maxims to Grices Cooperative Principle (CP). On the other hand, the theory of
Brown and Levinson is described by Culpeper as face-based politeness (p. 399) because
theirnotion of politeness is built on facework. Both these types of politeness will be
discussed more extensively in the second part of this paper.
However, all of these theories have faced a severe criticism since they were
published, mostly the work by Brown and Levinson (Grainger, 2011, p. 169). Culpeper
(2011b) even says that By the 2000s, the tide of criticism had reached the point where
the very foundations of Brown and Levinsons model were being challenged (p. 409).
In this case, The landmark publication *+ is probably Gino Eelens A Critique of
Politeness Theories (2001) (p. 409). Culpeper then goes on to pinpoint the main
sources of criticism.
These are:
ignoring the lay persons conception of politeness claim for universality model biased
towards the speaker and the production of language failing to articulate an adequate
conception of context failure to adequately deal with impoliteness (p. 409)
Due to the still more obvious insufficiency of the classic theories the linguists were
forced to radically reassess their understanding of politeness. Mills (2011) explains,
There has been a discursive turn in politeness research (p. 26). Scholars started to be
16
more interested in the context of utterances and realized that politeness is not contained
in the speech acts themselves. Another step was made by Watts (2003), who distinguished
between first-order politeness (politeness1) and second-order politeness (politeness2) and
suggested that A theory of politeness should concern itself with the discursive struggle over
politeness1, i.e. over the ways in which (im)polite behaviour is evaluated and commented on
by lay members (p. 9).
Coming back to the reasons for the discursive shift, Culpeper (2011b) argues that A
particular characteristic of politeness1 approaches is that notions of politeness are not taken
as given, but areassumed to be subject to dispute, to be negotiated and indeed emerge
in interaction. In other words, politeness is discursive (p. 410).
These second-wave approaches to politeness, as Culpeper (2011b, p. 409)
called them, draw upon various linguistic concepts, for example Bourdieus notion of
habitus, Wengers community of practice, Relevance Theory, frame-based approaches
or conversation analysis (Mills, 2011, pp. 30-33). They generally share certain features,
which are described by Mills (2011) as follows: belief that politeness does not reside in
utterances discursive theorists *+ do not consider that identity is pre-formed, and they
argue that politeness is constructed jointly within groups *discursive theorists+ focus on
the analysis of context, analyse longer stretches of interaction and focus on issues of
judgement of politeness (p. 35).
The second wave is sometimes considered to be post-modern because of the seeming

lack of effort to create a brand-new theory in fact, as Mills (2011) says, it is in the very
nature of post-modern or discursive theory to explicitly not construct an overarching theory
(p. 20). Linguists belonging to this wave include Eelen, Watts, Locher, Mills, Terkourafi,
Haugh, Christie, Bousfield and others. Their work usually builds on one or more of the
linguistic concepts mentioned above, which is acknowledged by Mills (2011), saying
theorists are still trying to assemble theoretical models by juxtaposing elements from
different approaches and methodologies (p. 20).
The result is, of course, that drawing on different models the linguists can come to
different conclusions about the nature of linguistic politeness (as an example may serve
theories by Watts and Terkourafi, which will be discussed later in this paper).
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The research into politeness involves also a big number of cross-cultural studies.
Whether the linguists looked for similarities or for differences, they were aware of the
fact that the question of language and culture is a crucial one in the politeness research.
The classic work in this respect is Brown and Levinsons Politeness: Some Universals
in Language Usage (1987). Other significant studies are concerned with politeness in
cultures such as Japanese (Ide 1989) and Chinese (Lee-Wong 1999). But in fact, the
effort to investigate politeness has spread into many countries since its introduction and
these cross-cultural studies form now an important part of the research. The last thing that
should be mentioned here is the attitude towards linguistic impoliteness. Mills (2011) argues
that Analysing politeness in isolation from impoliteness is not justifiable, since politeness
takes its meaning from the potentiality of impoliteness (p. 40). Strange as it may appear,
researchers have started to pay serious attention to impoliteness only recently, the most
prominent contributions in the field being those of Bousfield (2008)3 and Culpeper (2011).4
In any case, there is still enough room for linguists to explore the area of impoliteness, as
well as that of the linguistic politeness.
3-2Definitions of Politeness:
The Oxford English Dictionary gives the following definitions of the word polite:
1. Of language, the arts, or other intellectual pursuits: refined, elegant, scholarly;
exhibiting good or restrained taste.
2. Of a person, social group, etc.: refined; cultured, cultivated; (also) wellregulated.
3. Courteous, behaving in a manner that is respectful or considerate of others;
well-mannered. (2013)
The notion of politeness may be derived from these definitions as an abstract word for
refined, elegant, cultured, cultivated, courteous, respectful or considerate behaviour.
However, it is important to recognise various ways of expressing politeness. A useful
classification is offered by Haverkate (as cited in Mrquez Reiter, 2000, p. 4). The
primary distinction is between communicative and non-communicative politeness,
where non-communicative politeness is based on social norms and their performance,such
as offering a seat to an elderly person.
The communicative politeness can be eitherlinguistic or non-linguistic. The non-linguistic
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politeness is expressed by means ofgestures, which may or may not be accompanied by a

verbal utterance. Nevertheless,researchers in the field of linguistics are not so much
concerned with this type. It is the linguistic politeness that people use so as to express
politeness through words and thathas been explored by linguists (e.g. Watts, 2003, p. 10).
Therefore, wherever the term politeness is used in this paper, it stands for linguistic
politeness, i.e. politeness expressed by means of using words.
The linguistic politeness has been defined in various ways. The definitions given by the
Oxford Dictionary suggest the idea that politeness has to be learned. Indeed, Mrquz Reiter
(2000) says that politeness is not something human beings are born with but something
which is acquired through a process of socialization (p. 1).
She adds that the act of behaving politely *...+ is intrinsically a social one since it is socially
determined in the first place and it is geared towards the structuring of socialinteraction
(p.2).
So far the theorists seem to agree. But the views on what exactly politeness is differ
significantly.
Early definitions from the period when linguists relied very much on Grices model of
communication include those given by Leech and Brown and Levinson. Leech defines
politeness as strategic conflict avoidance (as cited in Watts, 2003, p. 50).
Brown and Levinson (1987) see politeness as the minimization of face risk (p. 91), in
other words politeness is employed so as to soften a face-threatening act. Later definitions
are by no means so simple. As Mills (2011) points out, with the shift towards
discursive approaches politeness itself has become an intensely problematic term (p.
36). In general, researchers taking the discursive approach share the view that
politeness does not reside in utterances (Mills, 2011, p. 35). According to Watts
(2003), polite behaviour is linguistic behaviour which is perceived to be beyond what
is expectable, i.e. salient behaviour (p. 19). On the other hand, Marina Terkourafi
(2005) uses a frame-based approach and argues that particular linguistic
expressionsrepeatedly used in particular types of context are polite because they are
regular (p.11 248).
Taking all the previous definitions into account, it becomes clear that we cannot
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state what exactly linguistic politeness is. As Locher says, it lies in the nature of
politeness to be an elusive concept since it is inherently linked to judgements on norms
and those are constantly negotiated, are renegotiated and ultimately change over time in
every type of social interaction (as cited in Mills, 2011, p. 37).
3-3-Studies on Politeness:
Lakoff (1973: 296) was among the first to adopt Grice's construct of Conversational
Principles in an effort to account for politeness. She explicitly extends the notion of
grammatical rule to the domain of politeness and considers the form of sentences, i.e.
specific constructions to be polite or not. She suggests two rules of Pragmatic Competence:
(i) Be clear, and (ii) Be polite.
Leech's (1983: 82) model of politeness is founded on interpersonal rhetoric and views
politeness as conflict avoidance. He introduced the Politeness Principle whose function is:
To maintain the social equilibrium and the friendly relations which enable us to assume that
our interlocutors are being cooperative in the first place. He (ibid.: 132) provides a finer
differentiation within his PolitenessPrinciples.
He proposes six interpersonal maxims:
(Tact maxim, generosity maxim, approbation maxim, agreement maxim and sympathy
maxim) He (ibid.) distinguishes between what he calls 'Relative Politeness' which refers to
politeness in a specific situation and 'Absolute Politeness' which refers to the degree of
politeness inherently associated withspecific speaker actions. Thus, he takes some
illocutions (e.g. orders) to be inherently impolite, and others (e.g. offers) to be inherently
polite.
Watts (1989: 19) identifies politeness as linguistic behaviour which is perceived to be beyond
what is expectable. Politeness is viewed as: explicitly marked, conventionally interpretable
subset of 'politic' responsible for the smooth functioning of socio-communicative interaction
and the consequent production of well-formed discourse within open social group
characterized by elaborated speech codes.
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Lakoff (1990: 34) defines politeness as "a system of interpersonal relations designed to
facilitate interaction by minimizing the potential for conflict and confrontation inherent in all
human interchange.
Fraser (1990: 232) presents the notion of politeness as a
Conversational Contract. He states that: Upon entering into a given conversation, each party
brings an understanding of some initial set of rights and obligations that will determine, at
least for the preliminary stages, what the participants can expect from other(s).
Cruse (2000: 362) defines politeness as "a matter of what is said, and not a matter of what is
thought or believed."
He further specifies the purpose of politeness in saying:
The purpose of politeness is the maintenance of harmonious and smooth social relations in
the face of the necessity to convey belittling messages. Of course, the nature of reality,
social, psychological, and physical constraints the scope for politeness: if our world is to
'work', we must respect this reality. He defines positive politeness as "it emphasizes the
hearer's positive status: for example: Thank you, that was extremely helpful.
Scollon and Scollon (2001: 46) propose a model of social interaction to analyze the
negotiation of face relationships in intercultural communication. They adopt the term
involvement as a way of reminding us that the emphasis is on the common ground,
highlighting the "person's right and need to be considered a normal, contributing, or
supporting member of society."
By involvement, they mean paying attention to others, claiming ingroup
membership, using first names, or to show that the speaker is closely connected to hearer.
Eelen (2001: 240) argues for an alternative conceptualization of 'politeness' with the
characteristics of variability, evaluativity,argumentativity and discursiveness. This view of
politeness: takes full account of the hearer's position and the evaluative moment; is able to
capture both politeness and impoliteness; provides a more dynamic.
Bidirectional view of the social individual relationship; and thus acknowledges the individual
(in terms of both variability and creativity) as well as evolution and change as intrinsic to the
nature of politeness.
Watts (2003: 20) refers to 'Politic behaviour':
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that behaviour, linguistic and non-linguistic, which the participants construct as being
appropriate to the ongoing social interaction. The construction may have been made prior to
entering the interaction, but is always negotiable during the interaction, despite the
expectations that participants might bring to it.
He (ibid.: 143) tries to offer "ways of recognizing when a linguistic
utterance might be open to interpretation by interlocutors as '(im)polite'".
4-Conclusion:
As we seen before Politeness refers to the common notion of the term, which is the way
politeness manifests itself in communicative interaction: politeness as practice in everyday
interaction. Brown and Levinson initially proposed a universal model of linguistic politeness
and claimed that politeness is realized linguistically by means of various strategies (positive
and negative) across cultures. They use a Model Person in their examples, one whose
characteristics are face and rationality who will always select the politeness choice
according to a rational assessment of the situation.
The following chapter will be more practical, we will try to distribute Questionnaires and we
may use other techniques of data collection, also the following part we will examin each
answer and analyze it as well, in order to end up with a notion of request among
Guelmim,moroccan young male and female.
In addition to that, we will describe why and how the sampling is chosen. And also we will
introduce the final option of the technique that will be used in the methodological section
22
PART II:
PRACTICAL PART
23
********************************************************************************
24
Introduction
As we have seen in the sections of the theoretical part, it is divided to sub-sections that serve our aim
which is studying the request in Moroccan context. So we have seen an introduction on politeness
phenomena as general concept and request a specific one, Then we moved to talk about speech act
in this section we seen some theories of speech act and speech act of requesting; after that we have
included some definitions. And finely, before we end up with this part we discussed also the
politeness phenomena as a deep view (definitions and studies on politeness) then we ended with a
conclusion.
The paper in your hand is going to present the practical part unlike the previous one. In this part we
will discuss various things such methodology and data analysis. Therefore, we will explain to the
reader how did we choice then informant and the techniques of data collection and finely problems
that we faced while collecting data
After ending with that we will show some notions of vocabularery used by Guelmim Morocco young
people to request and also w will try our best to explain why and how this is constructed.
1-Methodology:
1-1sampling:
The sampling I chose was student from Guelmim, morocco aged between 20 and 28 year old. The
reason behind my choice was that this category of people is tending to be more concerned with
linguistic politeness especially young boys and girl. Also they tend to be more creative on the level of
speaking in fact of the affection of TV and the translated films. So thats why I have chosen this
sampling to put them under examination.
1-2-technique:
The instrument I chose for my study was questionnaire; in this case I decided to work within the
theme of semi-structured questionnaire. the reason I chose this theme was that it gain time and it is
more acceptable then recording and interviews, according to the community which put conditions on
25
girls to be afraid form that their picture or videos will be posted on social web sites and it will raise
problems in the context of the of family, so questionnaire was more acceptable and secure for both
girls and boys.
What make it relevant and practical is that it was easy to fill in and more enjoyable because
questions are constructed in Moroccan Arabic and they are situations and that make it more
enjoyable for the sampling, and here is an example of my questionnaire and another example after
paraphrasing it:
Questionnaire in Linguistic politeness (Request).

The paper in your hand is going to examine different situations in linguistic terms of requests:

....................................................................................................................................................
.
....................................................................................................................................................
.
....................................................................................................................................................

....................................................................................................................................................
,
....................................................................................................................................................

....................................................................................................................................................

....................................................................................................................................................

26
....................................................................................................................................................
,
....................................................................................................................................................

....................................................................................................................................................

....................................................................................................................................................

....................................................................................................................................................

....................................................................................................................................................

....................................................................................................................................................

....................................................................................................................................................

....................................................................................................................................................
27
Questionnaire in Linguistic politeness (Request).

The paper in your hand is going to examine different situations in linguistic terms of requests:
MALE /FEMALE
1-How old are you?
....................................................................................................................................................
2- If you were in a job, what kind of words you will use to ask your boss for vocation?
................................................................................................................................. ...................
3- if you had a problem concerning the mark exam. Who will you tell your teacher that in
hope he will reconsider your paper?
....................................................................................................................................................
4- How will you ask your class mate for the courses you missed?
....................................................................................................................................................
5-How you ask for money from someone you know?
....................................................................................................................................................
6-How will you request water from a friend of yours in the presence of other friends?
....................................................................................................................................................
7-How will you request water from your brother in the presence of your parents?
....................................................................................................................................................
8-If you were alone in the house with your brother then, what type of words you will use to
ask him for water?
....................................................................................................................................................
9-if you are late, how will you tell the teacher to let you in the calls?
....................................................................................................................................................
10-if you had a heavy bag in the station. How you will ask someones help?
....................................................................................................................................................
28
11-if you was in a higher quality restaurant, how will you ask water for food?
....................................................................................................................................................
12-How you ask for fast food?
....................................................................................................................................................
13-if was a heavy table how you will ask your mum for help?
....................................................................................................................................................
14- If was a heavy table how you will ask your father for help?
....................................................................................................................................................
15-how will you ask your brother to go out from the room where you sit with your friends?
....................................................................................................................................................
16- if you lost how you will ask a police officer for information ?
....................................................................................................................................................
1-3- Problem while collecting data:

A first problem I came across while handing out the data was that the first example of questionnaire
was kind unsuccessful because of that it was written in English and the informant were not able to
answer, so I was pushed to translate and paraphrase. Another problem raised when I collected some
of this data I find out that my tone answer was there because I was showing the informant how to
answer according to their own answers.
As a plain B in the same day I did record questionnaire, I was asking people randomly question and
picking up them randomly too. As consequences some people react positively while other react
violently and even sometimes I get insulted furthermore I was about to get in fight with others they
thought that I wasnt serous in doing my research.
My final option of data collection was that I rewrote the questionnaire in Moroccan Arabic, I and
constructed it in form of situations what makes it enjoyable for my informants. at that time it was
just one day left for the next seminar , so I gathered people I know in a room and I gave them the
questionnaire , they find it enjoyable even some of them called their fried to join us.
29
2-Results:
As a first surface analysis of the data we can compare between male and female politeness of
requests and we can say that female tend to be more polite then male and vise versa , depending on
situations ,regarding this here are some frequent terms used in both sex to request politely in the
table below:
Figure -1- frequent words used to express request politely:

May god keep you
Lah ixalik
please
?fakak
Is it possible
waS mumkin
Excuse me
Asstasmih
May god prize you
Allah ijazik
2-1- politeness requests regarding young female of Guelmim:

Girl meant to be more polite in situation and not in other situations, when it comes to
analyzing the data we figure out that female tend to give reasons before requesting I mean they tend
to explain why first and then request for the target aim. Here are some examples from the data:
-
Bring me water to drink (Im so tired I cant stand up)
Nod jib lya nSrob (ana 3yana Swya manqderS nud) ---See questionnaire 2 female Q-7
As we can see this person uses the reason why she is requesting as it is mentioned she
used the term Im so tired and I cant stand up as a stimulus to get her request, as a smart
move we this girl she was chosen the way she is going to request perfectly
When it come to zoom on what she said we find tired and cant stand up these terms are
psychologically triggering the hearer to respond what mean the hearer thinks that this girl is
in dead cant stand up in fact she just exaggerate.
Another example is illustrated in the question that talks about the teacher permission to
get in the classroom as further reading of the data we remark the majority of girls give the
30
reason why they were late, as an explanation the majority of them said that they was left
when they were in their way to the classroom the following sentences illustrate what we have
just said:
-1-the bass was late can I get in
-Rah t3atelt f Tobiss wach nqder ndxul
- 2-Can I get in I missed the bass
-Waxa ndxul mSa 3lia tobiss
-3- I am sorry teacher I missed the boss
-SmaH lya Ostad rah t3atelt 3la Tu:biss
-4- Im late because of the bass forgive me
-T3atelt m3a TTobiss smaH lya
From the data above we can say that girl meant to always give reason why they are doing
something as a preoperational process for their request, lets move further and see if this
interpretation is valid by bringing more examples from the data and examine them in this
paper.
Lets consider the question about water and bringing it when it.
In this case the story take another road which is different from the one above I mean girls
use explanations as preoperational process for requesting, this case now is a bit different
because it examine the same purpose in different situation and it is seen from different
perspectives, the situation we are going to examine is that one where my sampling request
for water from their brother in the presence of their parent (Question 7) and in the absence of
them (Question 8). Lets show what the majority of the sampling said then retreat it later:
In the presence of the parents:
-1- Please brother give me water to drink
3afaak Xoya jib lya nSru:b
-2- Bring me water to drink I cant stand up
Nod jib lya nSrob ana 3yana Swya manqderS nud
-3- Glass of water please
31
Kass dya llmae 3Afak

Kass dyal lmae 3afaak
-5- Pealse my brother bring me water
No;d 3afaa xuya jib lya nSroub
-6- Sister please give me water
3afaak xti 3tini lmae
-7- On your way brother bring me water
Xoya 3la wgftak jib lya nSrub
In the absence of the parents:
-1- Bring me water to dring my darling brother
Jib lyanchroub axoya lHbib
-2- Hey bring me water Im thirsty
Ahya nod tga3ad jib lya nSrub rani 3tSana
-4- bring me water or I will stop making favors for you
Nod jib lya nSrob ola manbqaS nQdihalik
-5- Go bring me water
No:d ya lbarho;S jib lya nSrub
-6- Hey bring water with you
Jibi atta lmae m3ak
-7- On your way brother bring me water
32
Xoya 3lawgftak jib lya nSrub

Now lets consider this data from the answers above we can remark that the politeness in
request vary from a person to another and from a situation to another one, for example the
way it is asked for water in the presence of the parents its not the same in the absence of
them.
As we can see the majority of the sampling uses the term (Please = 3afaak) as a soft term to
ask for water in the presence of their parent. what we can say here is that the sampling
convey respect regarding parents thats why the term we mentioned is frequently used.
But there was an exception that is illustrating the interpretation we said in the previous
paragraphs which that girls are meant to give explanation an argument before asking, this is
motioned in the example (2 and 7) in the paragraph. In the example (2) the sample gives the
argument of being tarried and cant stand up to ask for water , and in the example number (7)
she based her request on the position of her brother to ask him for water
2-2- politeness requests regarding young male of Guelmim:

Lets now consider how boys tend to request basing our focus on the same example we have
just worked on with girls. As everyone knows boys tend to be using slang terms in the street but onc
you put them on the spot you realize that they act like they never said a bad world we can feel that
in the way they ask for water in front o their parent and in the absence, now we will show examples
from the data then lets discuss it:
In the presence of the parents:
-1- Bring me a glass of water
Jiib lya wahad lkass dial lmaae
-2- Bring me please dirnk
Jib lia 3afaak Sriba
-3- Bring me with you drink please
Jib lya nSrb m3ak 3afaak
-4- Bring with you water
Jib m3aak lmae
33
-5- Brother a drink May god keeps you

Xoya Sriba allah iXalik
-6- Brother A Drink
Xwadri Si Sriba
-7- Stund up bring me water
Nu:d Jib lya nSrob
In the absence of the parents:
-1- Stund up and bring me a glass of water
No:d jiib liaa waHad lkass dial lmae
-2- Bring me please dirnk
-3- Bring me with you drink please
-4- You bring me a glass of water
Jib lya nta Si Kass dyal lmae
-5- Brother a drink
Xoya Sriba
-6- Bring me with you water
Ara m3ak Si Sriba Dyal lmae
-7-////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
What we notice from this data is that boys may use polite words in the presence of tier parent
but they are not frequent as girls use them so. Here are 3 boys whom uses polite words in
the example (2-3-5) two boys used the same term which is (3afaak=Please) and the other
uses a religious term oriented (allah iXalik= May god keep you), the rest of the other
sampling uses words like ( Xwadri = brother) which is a term driven from the street what
shows that boys are affected by the street.
34
Moving forward and considering now the degrees of politeness in the absence of
parents;
Its sound like if boys in this situation tend to give order to their brother to get what
they asked for we find the way of requesting convey a notion of order for example (You bring
me a glass of water -----Jib lya nta Si Kass dyal lmae), on the other ahnd politeness is exest
her also (3afaak=please) shows that politeness is regarded even in the privet cooversation
with brothers
3- Discussion:
After considering the data we had, and looking forward to analyze the notions of politeness of
requesting among female and male of morocco lets now group all that together and discuss
it:
The table below will show all the notions and terms used in both sex about politeness of
requesting:
Table2: the frequency of using polite words according to male and female:
Polite word
Frequency of
Male use of
Female use of
use
term
term
1-Si lmu:dir (MR .directeur)
X(6/20)
X(4/10)
X(2/10)
2-allah ixalik (May god keep you)
X(15/20)
X(7/10)
X(7/10)
3-3afaak (please)
X(15/20)
X(5/10)
X(10/10)
35
4-MumkiN(is it possible)
X(14/20)
X(7/10)
X(7/10)
5-SLTP ( French word it mean please)
X(4/20)
X(7/10)
X(0/10)
5-Saf ( chef)
X(5/20)
X(4/10)
X(1/10)
6-allah yster 3lik(May god protect you)
X(3/20)
X(1/10)
X(2/10)
As we can see from the table above: the frequency use of the words in the table varies from
one to another, and from word to word considering the context and the environment we can say
that:
Girls are more polite then boys in term of requesting , and also the opposite considering the table we
conclude that in the frame of work boys are more polite then girls ,but in the way asking for things
girls dominate the ground. And we dont forget that boys and girl are the same in religious
orientations for requests.
Away from the tables and the data lets now try to understand this structure of request
structure among young male and female of Guelmim; morocco.
Psychologically speaking there is some notions which is regulated for this purpose I mean to be
triggered and to be well responded without any type of rejection, going back to the data I the corner
where girls are requesting ; we can find some terms like (Si = some ; flisat = not a lot of money) .
The prefix morpheme (Si) is always used in Moroccan Arabic to break the value of the things
and make it smaller, you can find Moroccans says (Si flisat= some mony; Si Swya= little of little), this
notions has an effect on the psychology of the hearer, in other words when the aim is too big and the
person injected this morpheme it will sound for the receiver like a little thing which make no
difference if it is gone.
Now considering the religious; as we know the majority Moroccans are Muslims , that is to say
they follow Islamic religious and that explain why we find worlds like( allah ixalik=May god keep you;
36
lah iHfdak= May god protect you), this is normal because of the orientation of the sampling. But,
what we notice was that boys tend to used this type of requesting more than girls, maybe because of
the affection of the media I mean girls are affected by TV programs more than boys while boys are
not because they dont use to watch it frequently.
4-Conclusion:
The paper in our hand was the practical part after the theoretical part, In this part we have
seen and introduction where we were introduced to the sections of this part, we seen also the
methodological section within this section we talked about the sampling, the instrument and the
methodology. The next section was the result in this section we have tried our best to bring and
show to you how the politeness among young female and male of Guelmim morocco construct the
request in different situation, and lastly we discussed these construction.
The politeness phenomena is worldwide topic and requests are just a little part of it
considering this divers and openness of this topic we would love to make further studies in requests
but this time from different angle that is to say we wanted to study how Moroccans use politeness
against a non Moroccans and against foreigner Moroccan ?
5-references:
1- Brown, P. and Levinson, S. (1987) Politeness: some universals in
language usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
2- Cruse, Allan (2000) Meaning in Learning: An Introduction to
Semantics and Pragmatics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
3- Eelen, G (2001) A Critique of Politeness Theories. St. Jerome
Publishing
4-Brown, Penelope & Levinson, Stephen C. (1987). Politeness: Some universals
in language usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
5-Culpeper, Jonathan (2005). Impoliteness and The Weakest Link. Journal of
Politeness Research, 1(1), 35-72.
6- Lakoff, R. T. (1973) The Logic of Politeness; or minding your p's and q's. In
37
Papers from the ninth regional meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society, pp.
292-305. Chicago.
7- Lakoff, R. T. (1990) Talking power: The politics of language in our lives. New
York: Basic books.
8- Leech, G. N. (1983). Principle pf Pragmatics. London: Longman.
9- Sacks, H. (1973) Lecture notes. Summer Institute of Linguistics, Ann Arbor,
Michigan.
10- Scollon, Ron, and Suzanne Wong Scollon (2001) Intercultural
Communication: A Discourse Approach, 2nd ed., Blackwell Publishers.
11- Verschueren, J. (1999) Understanding Pragmatics. London: Arnold, a
member of the Hodder Headline Group.
12- Watts, R. (1989) 'Relevance and relational work: Linguistic Politeness as
linguistic behaviour'. Multilingua, 8/2-3:131-166.
13- Watts, R. (2003) Politeness. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
6-INDEX:
6-1- Data after paraphrasing:
MALE-1
1-How old are you?
23 years Old 23 sanna
Mr. Director May god keep you, I need some days for vocation.
Sii lmu:dir allah ixalik mHtaej Si yamaat konji
38
Teacher May god Keep you I need you to reconsider my exam if you like to
Oustaad lah ixalik bRit n3awed nsaHeh limtiHaan ila jat Aala Xatrek
Please can you give me courses brother
Xoya 3afaak momkiN t3tini doruss
Please I need some money can you brow me some
3affak ranii mHtaaj Swia dyal Flu:s momkiN tsallafni
May god keep you one glas of water please?
Llah ixalik wahad lkass dyal lmae 3affak
Bring me a glass of water
Jiib lya wahad lkass dial lmaae
ask him for water?
Stund up and bring me a glass of water
No:d jiib liaa waHad lkass dial lmae
Iam sorry teacher for being late
SmaH lya Osstad 3la had ta?xir
39
MALE-1
Please help me in the bag god save you
3afaak 3Awni Fhad sak lah iHfdak
Garson Sltp one minute please
GaRson siltoplywaHd dqiqa 3afaak
Make half witout hot please
sawb wahd nass 3afaak
No no just let is go mum ill pull it alone
La la Rir xalik alwalida Radi nhezha ana
No no just let it dud I will pull it alone
La la Rir xalik alwalid Radi nhezha ana
Go out change a hour with another one
Xraj badl sa3a b o:khra
40
May god keep you where is the road of university
Lah ixalik fin jaet triq dyal lafak
MALE-2
1-How old are you?
23 years old 23 sanna
Monsieur is it possible to go out I have something to do
Monso waS imkn tsmaH lya nxraj nqdi wahd lRarad
Teacher please can you reconsider my paper because iam sure that I worked hard
Ostad momkin t3awd nadir f lwarqa diali Hit mtakd bli xdmt mzian
Pealse can you give me your copy book I wanna copy it
3afaak momking txalilya dftar nqal wrdo lik
Can I find some until and I will bing it back to you
waS imkn nl9a waHd Hta wnrdhalik
Bring me with dirnk
Jibi lia m3ak Sriba
Bring me please dirnk
41

ask him for water?
Bring me please dirnk
Teacher can you allow me in iam lat because of the buss
Ostad 3afak waS mumkin tsmah lia ndxa t3atalt f tobiss
Brother can you help me May god put up mercy on your parents
MALE-2
Slite-plait bring me the menu
listopli jib lia lminyo
Make me a sandwich please
Sayb lia waHd caskrot 3afak
Mama please pull with me that
Mama hzi m3aya
Ma3mri tHtit fhad lmiqif
Ma3mri tHtit fhad lmiqif
42
16- If you lost how you will ask a police officer for information?
Please can you help me to find
3afak waS imken lik tsa3dni nlqa
MALE-3
1-How old are you?
27 years old - 27 sanna
Mr omar I have something to do can I go out
Si omar 3andi wahd lRarad waS imkn lya nxrj
Teacher I have a problem concerning the mark I wanted you to reconsider the correction
May god keep you
Ostad 3abndi muSkil Fnoqta bRitak T3awd m3aya tashih
Pealse can I have you copy book
3afaak waS imken txalilya dfhtar dialk
Is it possible to fine dirhams I will brong it back to you
WaS n9der nl9a 3andk . Drhm Hta nraj3ha lik
Bring me dink pelase
Jib lia nSrb 3afaak
43
Bring me with you drink please

ask him for water?
Bring me with you drink please
Teacher the bass was late can I come in
Ostad t3atl 3lia Tobiss waS nqder ndxal
MALE-3
Can you please help me in this bag
Mumkin t3awni 3afaak fhad sak
Slite-plait bring me the menu
listopli jib lia lminyo
please Make me a sandwich
3afak Sayb lia waHd caskrot
Help to pull thi tabl mum
3Awnini ga3 a mi nhz had tbla
44
Help to pull thi tabl

3Awni ga3 nhz had tbla
I have never been in this situation
Ma3mri tHatit fhad lmoQik
Please which way I will use to reach the place .
3afaak fin radi nDouz baS nwsl lblassa
MALE-4
1-How old are you?
23 - 23
Chef May god prize you , I need avocation I have something to do
Saf allah ijaziik bRit 3otla 3andi maydar
Teacher what is this mark ; do good with me May god Prize you
Ostad aS had noqta Dir m3aya mzyan allah ijazik
You give me that book
Ara nTa daak Dftar
Brother May god save you I need some money until Ill bring them back to you
45
Xoya lah iHfdak ranimhtaj Si flous Hta nrdhom lik

Glass of water May god save you
Sii kass Dyal lmae lah iHfdak
Bring with you water
Jib m3aak lmae
ask him for water?
You bring me a glass of water
Jib lya nta Si Kass dyal lmae
I slept
Danii n3ass
MALE-4
Brother May god save you give me your hand of help
Xoya lah i7fdak Dir m3aya iddik
Bring me please
Jib lia 3afaak
A sadwish ( alxawa_ Brother)
Si kaskrout alxawa
46
I Cant
ManqderS
I Cant
ManqderS
Go out dude let us alone
Xrj asaHbi xalina bohdna
Brother May god keep youhelp me please
Xoya allah iHfdak 3awni
MALE-5
1-How old are you?
24 YEAR 24 3amm
Please can I have a vocation
Min fadlik mumkiN Si 3otla
Is it possible teacher the revise the mark
momkiN ostaad moraja3at NoQta
47
Bother the courses if that possible

Xoya dorros ila kan MomkiN
(Irbi)Some mony please
Irbi Si Flissat ila kan momkiN
Sorry give me dring
SmaH li 3tini Sriba
Brother a drink May god keeps you
Xoya Sriba allah iXalik
ask him for water?
Brother a drink
Xoya Sriba
Teacher iam sorry iam late is it possible to get it
Brother help me thanks
Xoya 3awni Sukran
MALE-5
Thanks a food please
48
Sukran makla men fadlak

Sandwich May god save you
Kaskro:t lah iHfdak
Mum pull this with me May god longer you age
Lmima hzi m3aya lah iTTawel lya 3mrk
Dud may god put up mercy on your parents help me
Bal ah irHem lwalidin 3awni
Brother please we are sorry
Xoya 3afaak smah lina
Chef thank the way May god put up mercy up on your parents
Saf Sukran TTriq allah irham lwalidin
MALE-6
1-How old are you?
23 - 23
My director I need some days to rest
Mo:n dirictor mHtaj lSi ayaam dyal raHa
Teacher I have adopt in my mark can you re-correct it with me
49
Ostad 3andi Sak f Noqta MumkiN t3awd m3aya TasHiH

Brother can you give me the courses that I missed
Xoya MumkiN t3tini Doross li fatoni
Head oftanG I need some money May god save you
rass Tang xasni Si srayef lah iHfdak
May God Save you a drink
Alla iHfdak Si Sriba
Brother A Drink
Xwadri Si Sriba
ask him for water?
Bring me with you water
Ara m3ak Si Sriba Dyal lmae
Teacher (I was left by the bass)
Ostad darha bya Tobiss
MALE-6
Brother can you help me May god Prize you
Xoya momKiN t3Awni Lah ijaziik
50
Can I see the menu please?
Peux je vois le menu svp ?
One of 3 dhs
Si wahd Dyal 3 drahm
Mum a help
Lwalida Si musa3ada
Dud lets do body building
Lwalid zid tdir miskilasyon
I wont tell him its okay
Menkolihch nu:d Hit 3adi 3andi
Chef iam not from here is it possible to show me the way
Saf ana mani men hna MumkiN twarini triQ
MALE-7
1-How old are you?
21 YEAR 21 3am
Peace for you si lhaj please if its possible ineed two days off work
51
Sallamoalikom si lHaj ila kaen mumkiN brit wahed yuoumin ropo

Teacher please if that was possible reconsider my paper
Ostad 3afaak ila kan mumkiN t3awd m3ayawrqa dyali
Please; if that possible, please I need your courses
3afaak ila kan momkiN, please bRit 3andk doross
Look look give me 2oo dhs until tomorrow
Suf arra arra ga3 waHd 2oo dhs tal Rda
Please bring me water May god put mercy on your parents
3afaak Jib lya wahed Sriba dyal lmae allah irHam walidin
Stund p bring me water
Nu:d Jib lya nSrob
ask him for water?
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Im sorry teacher for being late can I get it
smaH lya ostad 3la had ta?xir mumkiN ndxol
MALE-7
52
May god keep you is it possible to help me in this bag
Lah ixalik waS mumkiN t3awni fhad sakk
Water 1 minut please
Garson svp 1 min
Make sandwich please
Sawb wahd kaskru:t 3afaak
Its okay mum Ill handle this
Xalik al walida ana radi n3awnk
Let it go dud
Xalik al walid
go out to play
sir tl3ab brra
Chef pleas where is the way to the faculty
Saf 3afak fin triq lafak
MALE-8
1-How old are you?
53
21 year 21 sanna
May god keep you; if that possible; if you dont mind?
Lah ixalik, ila kaen mumkiN, ila smaHti
Are you able; if that was possible teacher to re-correct with me the exam
waS tqdr ila kan mumkiN a ostad t3awd tsaHeH m3aya limtiHan
Please brothe/sister can you I copy your courses
3afaak xoya/xti nqdr nfuti dorross men 3andk
May god prize you with wath is good ineed some money can you brow me some
Lah ijazzik bixir mHtaj lSi flous waS tqder tslfni
With you glass of water please
M3ak kass dial lmae 3afaak
Bring us water to dring
Jiib lina nSrbu:
ask him for water?
Stand up Bring us water to dring
Nu:d Jiib lina nSrbu:
54
Iam sorry teacher for being ate

smaH lia Ostaad 3la ta?xir
MALE-8
Please May god make things easy for you is it possible to help me in thi bag
3afaak llah isahel 3lik mumkiN t3Awni fhad sak
Peace to you May god keep you bring me.. thanks
Salamo3alikom allah ixalik wajed li.. Sukran
One sandwich please make one for me
waHd kaskru:T 3afaak dir lya wahd
Please mum help me in this table its too heavy
3afaak mama aji 3awnini fhad tbla raha tqila
Dud can you help me in this heavy table
Baba weS mumkiN t3awni fhad Tbla tqila
Go to revise; go mum need you
Sir tHfad, tkelm lmama
May god keep you or sir or I it possible one minute ; tell me where is .
55
Allah ixalik aw sidi ; mumkiN wahed dqiqa ; qoli fin jat
MALE-9
1-How old are you?
20 year 20 3am
I have an official visit Mr. Director
3Andi ziyara rassmya assa3adat lmudir
Is it possible teacher there is a mistake
mumkiN a osrtad kyn Si xata?
Is it possible to take your copy book
mumkiN naxod dftark
I need help if that possible
mHtaj lmusa3ada ila kan mumkiN
If you dont mind can you bring me water?
Ila jaet 3laa xatrek mumkiN tjib lia lmae
Please brother iam thirsty
3afaak axoya fia l3taS
56
ask him for water?
If you dont mind bring me glass of water
Ila smaHti jib lia Si kass dial lmae nSrob
I apologiez I didnt mean to be late
Kan3tader makountS qased baS nt3atel
MALE-9
If you dont mind can you bring me the bag
Ila smahti mumkiN tjib lia sak
What you segges bring me the menu May god keeps you
Snu kat9tarH jiib lya lmenu lah ixalik
Make one brother
Qad si wahed axoya
Pealse mum can you help me
3afaak lwalida mumkin t3awnini
Is it possible dud to help me in this table
MumkIn al walid t3awni fhad Tabla
57
If you doont mind its privet conversation
Ia smahti xalina buHdna kanhdro f mawadi3 Saxsya
Can I hae a minute from your time
mumkiN naxud men waqtek wahed dqiqa
MALE-10
1-How old are you?
22 - 22
Is it possible MR director to take avocation iam tired
waS Ymken a sa3aadat lmu:dir naxud 3otla raani 3yaan
May God put up mercy on your parent teacher do me a favor?
Lah irHam lik lwalidina ostad dir m3aaya plizir
Please brother help I was bassy give me
Irbi axoya ilamat3awni rani makountch msali 3tini
May god keep you mum brother brow me some mony
Lah ister 3lik axoya w ixalilik mimtek ilama slfni Sifluss
May god recive you in paradires bring m wwater to drink
58
Allah istaqblak f jenna dyal lfirdawss ilamajib lya nSrub

Bring me water please
Jib lya Sriba 3afaak
ask him for water?
Please bring me water
3afaak ilamajib lya nSrub
Iam sorry teache this I the last time
MALE -10
Brother if you dont mind help me in this bag
Xoya ila jat 3laa xatrek 3awni fhad saak
Brother bring me a healthy food please
Xoya Simakla mezyana 3afaak
A sandwich please
Wahed lkaskru:T 3afaak
Mum help m in this bag please
Lwalida 3awnini fhad Tbla 3afaak
59
Help me dud in this table

3awni ga3 al walid fhad Tbla Tqila
Bring as a glass of tea please
Jib lina ga3 Si braad dyal attay 3afaa xoya
Where is the street . Chef
Fin ja Sari3 lflani a Saf
FEMAL-1
1-How old are you?
20 - 20
Please if that was possible I need a vocation I need to do some stuff
3afaak ila kan mumkiN waxa t3tini ijazzat rani mHtajaliha bzaaf
Teacher I have aproblem in the exam mark if you had time re-correct my paper
Ostad ana 3andi MuSkil f nqta dyal imtiHan ila kan 3andak Swya dyal lwaqt tsaHaH mAya
lwarQa
Pleas can I copy your courses
3afaak ila kan mumkiN; maRadich n3atek nfo;ti men 3andak doru;s
I need some money dear friend can you brow me 200 dhs until ill bring it back to you please
60
Xassni Siflus asaHbti waXa tslfini 2oo dhs ta nredha lik 3afaak
A galss of water may god make you successful and give you the opportunity to drink from
paradies
Wahed Siba dlmae alla hinajHak wi Sarbek men jenna
Please brother give me water to drink
3afaak Xoya jib lya nSru:b
ask him for water?
Bring me water to dring my darling brother
Jib lyanchroub axoya lHbib
Can I get in please
waS mumkiN ndXul 3afak
FEMAL-1
Pealse can you help me in this heavy bag May god keep your parent to you
3afaakwaS waxa t3awni fhad tqqel laah ixalilik alwalidin
What you got in the menu
Snu 3andu: k fl menu
A full half please
61
Si ness ikun 3amer 3afaak

I wont ask her for that Ill take care of it alone
maradiX ntlbha radi nkarkbha buhdi
I wont ask my father eather bu he will help me
Hta howa mradiS ntlbu huwa radi iji buhdo
Go out brother exachange this hour
sir drab Si dwira axuya wbadel sa3A buxra
Peace to you can you tell me where the faculty is
Salamo3alikom waxa tquli fin lafak
FEMAL-2
1-How old are you?
21 year 21 sanna
Please I need avocation to do something
3afaak ila kan mumkin t3tini 3otla mhtaja nqdi SiHajat
3- If you had a problem concerning the mark exam. Who will you tell your teacher that in
I worked hard in the exam you have to reconsider my mark
Ana xdemt mezyn fl limtihan darouri xasn njib noqta 3awd tsHiH
62
If you dont mind idont come can you give me your courses
Ila smahti 3tini duru:ss makuntch kanHder kanqra fblasa oxra
I need some mony brow me it I will give it to you later
Slfini Si flus radi nrdhum lik men ba3d
Bring me water I have just came and I wanted to sit
Jibi lya nsSrob asahbti ana Yallah jit w Brit njlss
Bring me water to drink I cant stand up
Nod jib lya nSrob ana 3yana Swya manqderS nud
ask him for water?
Hey bring me water Im thirsty
Ahya nod tga3ad jib lya nSrub rani 3tSana
the bass was late can I get in
Rah t3atelt f Tobiss wach nqder ndxul
FEMAL-2
Help me its too heavy on me may god put up mercy on our parents
3wni rah tqiil 3lia lah irham lik lwalidin
63
Pease to you if possible can you bring me the menu

Brother a good sandwich please
Xoya Si kaskrut ikun dayzo lklam
Mum help me this heavy abag will brak my back
Wa mama aji 3awnini rah had tbla rad itherss lia dhri
Dud pull up this talb with me its too heavy
Baba hez m3aya had tbla raha tqila
Go out if you wnet back Ill bet you
Sir xrj tl3ab w ila 3awd wsalti 3anqjk
Pealse iam lose can you show me the way
3afaak ana rah tleft ma3raft mein nduzz wakha twarini triq
FEMAL-3
1-How old are you?
24 year 24 sanna
It been a long time since Im working I need avocation
Hadi muda wana xdama brit 3otla
64
Teacher I worked heard in the exam you have to reconsider my mark

Ostad ana xdemt mezyan f limtihan allah ixalik ima3Awd saHaH wa9ti
If you dont mind my sister give me the courses
Ila jat 3la xatrek axti 3tini dorouss
In eed some money if its possible to brow me some
mHtaja Si flouss ila kan mumkiN tsalfini
My dear friend please in you way back bring me water wana drink
3afaak axti meli tkuni jaya jibi lia nSrub m3ak
Glass of water please
ask him for water?
9-if you are late, how will you tell the teacher to let you in the class?
Can I get in
MumkiN ndxol
FEMAL-3
65
Pealse can you help me in this bag thanks a lot

3Afak waxa t3awni fahd sak Sukran bzaaf
Please thanks
3afaak Sukran
Please thanks
3afaak Sukran
Mama may god keep you healthy can you help me
Mama lah ixalilik sHihtek 3awnini
Dud may god keep you healthy can you help me
Dud lah ixalilik sHihtek 3awnini
Can you go out and let me with my friend
Waxa tkhrej wtxalini m3a sahbti
If you like to show me the way
Ila jaat 3la xatrek werini Triq
FEMAL-4
1-How old are you?
21 year 21 sanna
66
I will ask him politely
Radi ntsa3mel kalimat labaqa
Please teacher may god keep you I have aproblem with the ark I need you reconsideration
the mark
3afaak Ostad lah ixalik 3andi muchkil fnoqta w bghtak t3Awd tshih m3aya
If it is possible.
Ila kan momkiN
I am in need for monny ma ygod protect you brow me some
Rani wasla 3la Si fluss allah yster 3liik selfini
Glass of water May god protect you
Jrima dlmae lah yster 3lik
Kass dyal lmae lah itser 3lik
Ask him for water?
bring me water or I will stop making favors for you
Nod jib lya nSrob ola manbqaS nQdihalik
67
Sorry can I get in

asstasmiH waS mumkiN ndxol
FEMAL-4
Can you pull up m with me my god put percy on your parent
momkiN thezz m3aya lah irham lik lwalidin
May god keep you?
Allah ixalik
Give me
3tini.
Please mum pull up this table with me its too heavy
Mama 3afak hzi m3ay had tbla raha tqila
Dad can you pull up this table with me
Baba mumkiN thezz m3aya had tbla tqila
Who let you in?
aS daxlak hna
May god keep you where is
68
Lah ixalik fin jat lblasa .
FEMAL-5
1-How old are you?
22 - 22
I want to go out give vocation
Brit nkhroj berra 3tini 3otla
Please teacher reconsider
3afaak ostad 3awd sahah m3ayaa
Would you like o give me your courses to copy?
Waxa t3tini doru:s nqlhum
I need 1000dhs can you brow me it
Mhtaja 1000 dhs wxa tslefha lya
Stuand up donky bring me water
No:d alHmaer jib lya nSrob
Pealse my brother bring me water
No;d 3afaa xuya jib lya nSroub
69
ask him for water?
Go bring me water
No:d ya lbarho;S jib lya nSrub
May god put up mercy on your parent let me in?
Lah irham lik lwalidi:n xalini ndxol
FEMAL-5
May god put up mercy on your parent let help me
Lah irham lik lwalidi:n 3awni
Please
3afaak
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Mum please help me
3afaak a mama 3awnini
Help me dud please
Lwalid 3anwi 3afaak
70
Go out
Xroj beraa
FEMAL-6
1-How old are you?
20 - 20
Can you signe me for a vocation please
3afaak waxa t3tini 3utla
If you are able to reconsider my exam paper teacher
Ila qderti t3awd tsaheh Lia lwrqa dial exam diali a ostad
Give me the course of syntax
3tini ga3 doruss dial syntax
I wana aske you something but pealse dont say no ineed some mony
Irbi brit ntlbak wahed tiba wmatrdhaS fwjhi slfni Si fluss xasini
Pass me that bote of water
Med lya ga3 qr3a dyal lmae
Sister please give me water
3adaak xti 3tini lmae
71
ask him for water?
Hey bring water with you
Jibi atta lmae m3ak
Can I get in I missed the bass
Waxa ndxul mSa 3lia tobiss
FEMAL-6
May God put up mercy on you parents help me in this bag
3awni fahd saek lah irHam lwalidin
SLTP bring me the minu
Siltopi jiib liya lmiyo
Give me a half
3tinii wahed nass
Mum help me in this table
Mama 3awnini fhad tbla
Pull up this table with me this table
Lwalid hezz m3aya had tbla
72
Go out
Xroj awa
May god keep you where is
Lah ixalik fin jat lblassa .
FEMAL-7
1-How old are you?
22 - 22
Please I want to talk about my vocation because Im tired and I need it3afak bghit nhder
m3ak 3la lku:nji dyali hit mhtajah w 3yana bzaaf
Please teacher if that was possible reconsider my mark
3afaak Ostad ila kaen momkiN 3awd naddar Fnoqta dyali
I need the courses I missed please
3afaak mhtaja ldurous li fatuni
May god protect you ineed some mony if you can help me
Lah ya3tiik ster rani mhtaja Swya dial flus ila kaen mumkiN t3awni
73
Please give me water

3afaak 3Tini nSrob
On your way brother bring me water
Xoya 3lawgftak jib lya nSrub
ask him for water?
My beauty brig me water
Zin dyali jib lya nSru;b
Allow me in please
tsmaH lya ndxol 3Afak
FEMAL-7
May gd protect you can you pull up this bag with me
Lah ya3tiik ster momkin thezz m3aya had saak
Monsieur please I need a
Monyo 3afak bghit wahed
A sandwich of. please
Wahed sandwich dyal 3afaak
Mum please come and help me
74
Mama 3Afak aji w 3awnini Swiya

dud please come and help me
baba 3Afak aji w 3awnini Swiya
I will ask him togo out with me then I will ask him to go out softly
Radi n3ayet lih iji m3aya waghadi ngoih ixraj bra bXater
Where is /// please?
3afak wrini fin ja
FEMAL-8
1-How old are you?
22 years old 22 sanna
Please if you dont mind I need a vocation
3afaak ila jaet 3laa xatrek mhtaja l3utla
I this there might be a miss take in the correction professor you have to reconsider my paper
Ostad kandon bebli kyn Si xata? ftasHiH Ila jat 3la xatrek t3Awd lya tashih
If its possible give me the courses may god prize you
Ila kan mumkiN t3tini doruss 3affak lah ijazzik
May god prize you ineed some money can you browm e it
75
Lah ijaziik rani mhHanssar 3la Si flouss momkiN tslfni

Please baby bng me water
3Afaak Hbiba jibi lya Sriba dial lmae
Bring me water in yor way back
Jibi lia llmae 3la wqftek
ask him for water?
adile please brother bring me wate I cant stand
adile 3afaak axoya jib lia nSrub rah man9derch nod
I am sorry teacher I missed the boss
SmaH lya Ostad rah t3atelt 3la Tu:biss
FEMAL-8
May god prize you brother help me in this bag its heavy
Lah ijazik axuya ila mahezz m3aya had saak
Please is it possible to bring me
3afak waS mumkiN tjib liya
Please aalf and make it hot
3Afak wahed ness w kater fih lHrur
76
Mum please come and help me in this table
Mama 3Afak aji w 3awnini fhad tbla
Dud please come and help me in this table
lwalid 3Afak aji w 3awnini fhad tbla
Go out or ullregret
Nodi xrji ola marad i3jbak Haal
Chef please can u show me the way
Saf 3afaak werini triq
FEMAL-9
1-How old are you?
21 -21
Can you give me a vocation ; I need a vocation
mumkiN t3tini 3otla mhtja 3otla
Reconsider my paper please
saHAH Lwrqa
I didnt attend the course I it possible to give me your course I will give it back to you as soon
as possible
77
maHdartS ldoru:s mumkiN tXali Dftark nql dru:s dryaa wnrdu: lik
I need some money save me
mHtaja Si flu:s 3taq
May god save you bring me a bottle of water
Lah iHfdak jiib lya qr3a dyal lmae
Bringe ma glass pf water please do this favor may god keep you
Nu:d 3afak jib lya kaess dyal lmae dir had lxir allah ixalik
ask him for water?
Bring me water to drink
Sir jib lya nSru:b
Im late because of the bass forgive me
T3atelt m3a TTobiss smaH lya
FEMAL-9
May god prize you with thegood help me in this heavy bag
Allah ijazik biXir 3awni fhad sak rah tqil
Please, merci
3afaak, merci
78

Please is it possible to serve me
3afaak ila kaen mumkiN trbini Swya
Mum May god save you for me would you mind to help me in this table
Lwalida lah ixalik lya 3awnini fhad tbla
Dud may god keep you hez m3Aya had tbla
Go out Im busy now
Xroj rah mamsaliS lik daba
Please I am lost would you help me to know where I am
3afaak rani tleft momkiN twrini fin ana
FEMAL-10
1-How old are you?
23 year - 23 sanna
May god keep you MR Director Im in hard situation I need a vocation
Allah ixalik asi lmu:dir 3andi Si dorof qahira mhtaka lwaHd l3otla
Teacher May god keep you I had problem concerning the mark of the exam would you
reconsider my mark
79
Ostad lah ixalik 3andi muSkil f limtihan f noqt diali mumkiN t3aw ntasHiH m3ayaa
Please I dont attend the courses I need to copy your courses Il give thm back to ou as soun
as possible
3afak maknHderS ldru:ro:s mHtaja txailya do:ru:ss dyalk radi nredhom lik f aqrab waqt
I need a couple dirhams of money iam in need of it
Ana waqfa 3lik mhtaja waHed lqdar dyal lfluss mumkiN tsalefni
May god keep you would you bring me water to drink
Lah ixalik mumkin tjib lya nSrub
No:d 3afaak Jib lya lmae
ask him for water?
No:d 3afaak Jib lya lmae
Can I get in the was was late
mumkiN ndxol t3aatel 3lya TTo:biss
FEMAL-10
80
Please can you help me in this heavy bag I cant move it alone
3afak mumkiN thezz m3aya had sak rah tqil 3lya maqditS nhzu bohdi
May god keep you give me
Lah ixalik 3tini
Give me please
3tini 3afaak
Mum lets co-operate to pull up this table
Lwalida aji 3afak nt3Awnu 3la had tbla tqila
dud lets co-operate to pull up this table
lwalid aji 3afak nt3Awnu 3la had tbla tqila
Go out this a privacy conversation
Xraj 3afak rah kanhdru Si HAja Xosusya
Please can you Show me thanks
3afaak mumkin twerini Fin jaet . Sukran
6-2 Data as it is:
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Linguistic Politness

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Linguistic Politness

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Ibno Zohr University

Supervisor: Dr. S.Jawhari

Linguistic Politeness Among Young Moroccan.

BY: ISMAIL ENZAHA

My supervisor, Professor S.JAWHARI, for her constant and comprehensive

All my other friends for their understanding and care.

influence to that face-threatening involve three fundamental sociocultural variables: the

(Bowe and Martin 2009, p. 33 & Holmes 2006, p. 690).

2-3The Speech Act of Requesting:

The second wave is sometimes considered to be post-modern because of the seeming

politeness is expressed by means ofgestures, which may or may not be accompanied by a

Watts (2003: 20) refers to 'Politic behaviour':

Questionnaire in Linguistic politeness (Request).

Questionnaire in Linguistic politeness (Request).

1-3- Problem while collecting data:

May god keep you

May god prize you

2-1- politeness requests regarding young female of Guelmim:

Bring me water to drink (Im so tired I cant stand up)

Kass dya llmae 3Afak

-4- Glass of water please

Xoya 3lawgftak jib lya nSrub

2-2- politeness requests regarding young male of Guelmim:

-5- Brother a drink May god keeps you

1-Si lmu:dir (MR .directeur)

2-allah ixalik (May god keep you)

5-SLTP ( French word it mean please)

6-allah yster 3lik(May god protect you)

Jib lia 3afaak Sriba

Bring me with you drink please

Help to pull thi tabl

Xoya lah iHfdak ranimhtaj Si flous Hta nrdhom lik

Bother the courses if that possible

Sukran makla men fadlak

Ostad 3andi Sak f Noqta MumkiN t3awd m3aya TasHiH

Sallamoalikom si lHaj ila kaen mumkiN brit wahed yuoumin ropo

Iam sorry teacher for being ate

Allah ixalik aw sidi ; mumkiN wahed dqiqa ; qoli fin jat

Allah istaqblak f jenna dyal lfirdawss ilamajib lya nSrub

Help me dud in this table

Si ness ikun 3amer 3afaak

Pease to you if possible can you bring me the menu

Teacher I worked heard in the exam you have to reconsider my mark

Pealse can you help me in this bag thanks a lot

Sorry can I get in

Lah ixalik fin jat lblasa .

Please give me water

Mama 3Afak aji w 3awnini Swiya

Lah ijaziik rani mhHanssar 3la Si flouss momkiN tslfni

12-How you ask for fast food?

6-2 Data as it is:

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