The significance of selected forms of address in Toka-Leya: a socio-pragmatic perspective.
Date
2020
Authors
Siampwili, Royce S.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
The University of Zambia
Abstract
ABSTRACT
The study explored Address forms inform a socio-pragmatic perspective within the framework of sociolinguistics and pragmatics. This research was done in order to assess the socio-pragmatic significance of address forms as they are used in different social contexts. Primary data was collected using unstructured and semi-structured interviews from 40 participants. Simple non-participant observation and participant observations were also conducted to collect data as people were carrying out their daily activities in Mukuni village. Mukuni is a Toka-leya speech community located in Kazungula District, Southern province. The participants were selected in terms of five variables, namely age, gender, marital status, educational status and occupation. Three theories were tested in this study namely, Austin’s (1962) and Searle’s (1969) Speech act theory, which elaborates communicative acts performed by what has been said; Brown and Levinson’s (1987) Politeness theory (which emphasizes the idea of face) which in this study helped the researcher to study the behavior of interlocutors, and the Gricean theory of conversational implicature which guided the researcher in finding out the intention of the speaker in using a particular type of address form. As regards the data analysis and interpretation, the study adopted the qualitative approach. Findings were categorized according to the research objectives. The major findings indicated that forms of address in Toka-leya are culture specific and are not used hapharzadly. The study illustrates that forms of address in Toka-leya are systematically used in that they follow the culture and beliefs of a speech community; they reflect the social order in society. The study further reveals that Mukuni is an age-set society in that the age of a person is the primary determiner of address choice. The male gene also receives superior status in address behavior. It is also observed that women statuses reflect their graduation in terms of marriage and the production of children. It is recommended that more studies of similar kind should be undertaken based on a comparative basis of particularly African languages. Such studies will go a long way in describing similarities and differences in both linguistic and the social structures of different cultures.
KEYWORDS:
Address forms, power and solidarity, implicatures, politeness; positive and negative face; socio-pragmatics, names, titles, and teknonyms; kinship terms, pronominal and honorific systems.
Description
Degree of master of art in Linguistic Science
Keywords
Socio-pragmatics. , Sociolinguistics and pragmatics. , Kinship terms.