Politeness as Performance – The Functions of Mbôk andÁák in Ibibio

Abstract

Linguistic politeness as enunciated within the framework of Brown and Levinsonfs (1978, 1987) work proposes that utterances are either polite or impolite, and that linguistic resources serve to gencodeh politeness. This paper adopts the Rational Actor model of politeness which focuses on participantsf goals and motivation during interactions. It examines the functions of two Ibibio politeness forms, Mbôk and Áák in ten naturally occurring interactive sessions. This is with a view to demonstrating that in some social and cultural contexts politeness may encompass dimensions which extend beyond positive or negative face threats. The findings indicate that in Ibibio society the politeness form .bok tends to be employed in informal contexts, while the form Áák described by Essien (1990, p.174) as a form of polite request appears to be used strategically, deployed for the preferred outcome which it can secure. The paper  concludes that the choice of certain politeness forms in some socio-cultural
contexts may be strategically determined by the outcome which such  choice are anticipated to secure for the individual interactant.