Politeness in Administrative Discourse: Some Perspectives from Two Institutions in Ghana

Abstract

Linguistic pragmatics studies have incorporated sociolinguistic perspectives of pragmatic variations in computer-mediated massages, and in spoken and written interactions. Rather than adhering to a strict first order participant constructed conceptions or a second order analyst constructed conceptions of politeness, this paper argues that each of them could be used to inform the other through variant methodological approaches. This paper interrogated the influence of organisational structure and cultural expectations in the contents of administrative discourses to signal (im)politeness from two institutions: University of Education, Winneba and the Ghana Police Service, Winneba. Situated in Ting-Toomey’s face negotiation theory and Fraser’s views on politeness strategies, this paper attempted to bridge the gaps between three pragmatic subfields: linguistic politeness research, organisational communication, and institutional communication pragmatics. Data was gathered through discourse completion tests, focus group discussions, observations, and a content analysis of selected written documents. One significant finding from the study was that differences exist in pragmatic variations: lexical, syntactic, and textual resources to mark (im)politeness in both institutions. The study recommends the choice of politeness strategies to be informed by the structure and cultural expectations of organisations to help reduce conflicts and confrontations inherent in human exchanges.