Polite Requests in Non-native Varieties of English

Jemima Asabea Anderson

Although several studies have been carried out on the theory of politeness,the definition of this notion varies among linguists and according to languagesand cultures: what is polite and socially appropriate in one context or culturemay be considered impolite or excessively polite in another. Further, rules ofpoliteness may be transferred from a first language to a second language bylearners who maintain hybridized usage due to these transfers. In this articlewe demonstrate the maintenance of some of these transfers in politeness strate.gies in Ghanaian English. This variety is influenced by the cultural norms ofpoliteness of some Ghanaian languages whose speakers fuse native speakerconventions with English politeness conventions. We discuss herein some hybridizedforms that result from cultural transfers from one Ghanaian language,Akan.

oliteness; Ghanaian English; requests; hybridization; pragmatics; non. native .varieties of English