GENDER AND POLITENESS STRATEGIES IN ALGERIANS’ LANGUAGE BEHAVIOUR

Abstract

The present work examines the impact of gender on politeness in the Algerian context more particularly in the speech community of Tlemcen. The basic idea of the study is that both female and male speakers use language in everyday interactions to express politeness towards their interlocutors and maintain interpersonal relationships. The aim of this research is to better understand and identify language behaviours patterns regarding gender and politeness in the speech community of Tlemcen. The methodology used consists of different types of data collection methods in politeness research, namely the DCT questionnaire, the interview, recordings and note-taking of naturally-occurring data. The results show that some emerging patterns concerning gender and linguistic politeness. Both female and male speakers use the same strategies for the different speech acts respectively. Negative and positive politeness are the most dominant strategies used to achieve politeness. The finding also reveal that choice of politeness strategies is governed by social factors such as the relationship, the social distance, the power and degree of imposition between interlocutors.