A Pragmatic Investigation of Politeness Strategies in the Algerian Setting: Case of Tlemcen Speech Community

Abstract

This study is a sociolinguistic investigation into politeness strategies used in the performance of speech acts in Tlemcen speech community. The instruments used are participant observation through which the researcher recorded authentic conversations and the Discourse Completion Test (DCT) where 121 participants were asked to write what they say in each situation using their own dialect. The findings show that the use of strategies differs according to the power of interactants, the social distance, in addition to age and gender. Results also reveal that the there is a preference towards the use of positive politeness strategies.